Terry Wogan

Which has been your most awkward moment while interviewing? Have you had any?

I think the most difficult was, Jerry Lee Lewis … I had the greatest of difficulty in understanding his replies. Now he obviously thought that he was reposting like a gooden … But between his brain process and what was coming out the other end … something is getting lost.

Are you set for another thirty years [in radio and television]?

No, no, not at all. … the popularity level that I have reached is such that it cannot be sustained … I would have to diversify from what I'm doing because I can't continue doing it indefinitely.

If someone had told you at eighteen that you would win all those awards and be Britain's top media personality, what would you have said?

If I had any intimations then of what was going to happen to me now, I probably wouldn't have done it. Um because I'm not tremendously extrovert by nature. And if somebody had said to me, You're going to be so well known that you really can't walk down the street without somebody saying something to you… you certainly can't go into a supermarket, you can't go into a pub. Um people's eyes bore holes in the back of your head when you go into a restaurant. I think I might have thought twice about doing it at all. I'm not saying that it's unacceptable. I'm not saying I'm not enjoying it. But at that stage in my life I might have thought that was too high a price to pay.

What were you like when you met your wife? Were you ambitious, pushy, or were you self-effacing?

Nobody ever admits to being ambitious or pushy, and nobody ever thinks they are. Even the pushiest people in the world will say they're tremendously shy and introverted. I've never been the kind of person that can go and knock on people's doors and ask for work and all that kind of thing. No, I mean I worked in a bank for five years because I couldn't think of anything else to do. And I didn't want to go to university because I felt my parents had spent enough on my education. So after I'd done philosophy for about a year, I then went and joined a bank. And I just saw an ad in an Irish newspaper for an Iran Newsreader… I applied… they asked me to go on audition… offered me a permanent pensionable post at 17 pounds 4 and thrupence a week… So I went off like a rat up a drainpipe and joined the radio.

Does that mean that you're quite strict with your children? Are you morally upright and stern with them?

Well, I don't see myself as being no. I mean, I'm perhaps I should have been. I always say it's a benign dictatorship, our house.

When did you first realize that you could actually control an audience, that you enjoyed walking out in front of them and performing?

Never. I've never been able to do that. It terrifies me. I I I you evolve a technique over the years for trying to be pleasant with people, and you hope that people will respond to you, but I could never have been… I could have been an actor and hid behind a part. I could have been a singer and hid behind a song if I could have sung. But I could never have been a comedian because if I'd walked out and they hadn't laughed, I would have run off the stage. I'm I don't have that fibre to want to make the audience, to will the audience to my side. … I think what happens is when you're a shy child, as I was, and not very outgoing, your parents are always saying to you, You ought to push yourself forward a bit more. Go on, go out and do that. Go into so… What you're doing is as you grow up, you're trying to push yourself forward a bit more so you find yourself sitting on a stage in the Earl's Court talking about the most intimate details of your life.

How practical are you on the island? Can you build a shelter? Can you look after yourself?

I'd be dead within about two weeks. I'd be dead of either starvation, privation or exposure. There is apse inanimate objects do not respond to me. In fact, they fight, mate. I can't do anything. The present Mrs. Worgan has to change the plugs in our house.

Is weight a constant fight?

It is, but like everything else. One thing I'm well known for is my lack of persistence. I'm quite healthy, really. I'm about 15 stone now, and most of that, I'm afraid, is flab. So, I mean, it was a good idea to start the fight the flab. But you know, my doctor now says, ah Exercise is a thing of the past, he says. Just take a little life exercise… If you start running round the place, you'll fall down dead. He's quite right. So what do you do? I play the odd game of tennis and I play the occasional game of golf. But I as I said, I'm lazy by nature and I don't mind that.