Terry Wogan

Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish-British radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe. Wogan was a leading media personality in Ireland and Britain from the late 1960s, and was often referred to as a "national treasure". In addition to his weekday radio show, he was known for his work on television, including the BBC One chat show Wogan, presenting Children in Need, the game show Blankety Blank and Come Dancing. He was the BBC's commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest from 1971 to 2008 (radio: 1971, 1974–1977; television: 1973, 1978, 1980–2008) and the Contest's host in . From 2010 to 2015 he presented Weekend Wogan, a two-hour Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 2. In 2005, Wogan acquired British citizenship in addition to his Irish nationality and was awarded a knighthood in the same year and was therefore entitled to use the title "Sir" in front of his name. He died on 31 January 2016, aged 77. Early life Michael Terence Wogan was born on 3 August 1938 at Cleary's Nursing Home, Elm Park, Limerick, Ireland, the elder of two children. He was the son of the manager of Leverett & Frye, a high-class grocery store in Limerick, and was educated at Crescent College, a Jesuit school, from the age of eight. He experienced a strongly religious upbringing, later commenting that he had been brainwashed into believing by the threat of going to hell. Despite this, he often expressed his fondness for the city of his birth, commenting on one occasion that "Limerick never left me, whatever it is, my identity is Limerick."