It was announced on Hogmanay that DJ Johnnie Walker has died. He was one of the original pirate DJs and eventually joined the BBC when the pirate radio became untenable.
I remember listening to his lunchtime show on Radio 1 back in the day, indeed it was on that show I first heard Barclay James Harvest’s I’m Over You, one of my favourites of that band’s songs.
He was too much of a rebel to last at the BBC and moved to the US for a few years.
When he eventually came back to the UK he finally settled in at Radio 2 with the show Sounds of the Seventies, taking over as presenter from Steve Harley and also took the helm of The Rock Show. He had a short stint presenting Sounds of the Sixties in the aftermath of Brian Mathhew’s departure from that show before Tony Blackburn took over the slot. His increasing health problems saw him give up broadcasting only a few months ago.
His voice is missed.
This Duane Eddy track was so beloved by Walker that it became his signature tune. No excuses for featuring it again:-
Duane Eddy: Because They’re Young
Peter Waters Dingley (Johnnie Walker;) 30/3/1945 – 31/12/2024. So it goes.
I was shocked yesterday to hear of the death of radio DJ Steve Wright. It was only on Sunday he presented, as usual, Sunday Love Songs on BBC’s Radio 2 and he sounded in fine fettle (though the show was probably recorded earlier.) But he was only 69.
We have Radio 2 as our radio alarm station and so we listened to him every Sunday.
His DJing style wasn’t always to my taste (in particular I couldn’t stand his Serious Jockin’ segment) and he had a habit of talking over the ends of songs or even adding his own idiosyncratic vocals but he had a legion of fans and will be a miss on Sunday mornings from now on.
Stephen Richard Wright: 26/8/1954 – 12/2/2024. So it goes.
Welsh rugby legend -and one of the best rugby players I have ever seen – Barry John, died last week. Despite only winning twenty-five caps (and five more test appearances as a British and Irish Lion) his status as one of the best rugby players of all time is secure. He seemed to be able to glide past opponents as if they weren’t there and was also able to kick accurately from either foot.
Sadly the attention he gained from his fame laid on his mind and he retired from rugby aged only 27.
This film clip contains footage of John in action:-
Barry John: 6/1/1945 – 4/2/2024. So it goes.
Hard on the heels of the news of John’s death came the announcement that the last surviving major cast member of the incomparable BBC comedy series Dad’s Army, Ian Lavender, had also passed away.
Though he made many other film and TV appearances he will be mainly remembered for playing the “stupid boy,” Private Pike, a role which probably overshadowed the rest of his acting career. This sequence contains probably the best joke in the whole run of Dad’s Army. It captured superbly both Pike’s naive exuberance and Captain Mainwaring’s unthinking bumptiousness.
Lavender also had a part in the 2016 film of Dad’s Army as Brigadier Pritchard, a very different character to Private Pike.
Arthur Ian Lavender: 16/2/1946 – 2/2/2024. So it goes
If the UK Government had set out to underline Gary Lineker’s comparison with Germany in the 1930s it could hardly have done so any better than by leaning on the BBC – albeit indirectly – to remove him (even if that is only temporary) from his position as host of Match of the Day.
It is one of the signatures of an authoritarian government that it tolerates no dissent, no criticism.
Linkeker is not a political journalist, does not appear on political programmes and is, moreover, not a direct employee of the BBC. He appears on other TV channels and his social media posts are quite obviously his own personal opinions and not to be taken as reflective of a BBC stance on anything. Other such BBC presenters have in the past been defended by the corporation on precisely those grounds.
The media frenzy that has been whipped up has been deliberately misconstrued to make it seem as if Lineker has said something objectionable. He has not.
It is a deflection of attention typical of right wing politicians to seize on something a critic has said as being unnaccceptable in order to move the focus of any debate away from the point at issue.
As a matter of fact Lineker did not compare the Government to Nazi Germany. He said the language the Government was employing was similar to that of Germany in the 1930s. And in that he is correct. The government has undoubtedly been using language which demonises people. We know where that leads. There are too many historical instances (not just those in 1930s Germany) of derogatory language acting as a precursor to something much worse.
And how can the BBC be considered impartial anyway when its chairman has donated money to the party in government, facilitated the provision of a loan to a former Conservative Prime Minister and only gained his position precisely because of those links?
It has in any case been obvious for a long while from its political coverage that the letters BBC in fact stand for Bending over Backwards to the Conservatives.
There has been a large outpouring of appreciation for former football commentator John Motson, who died last week.
Noted for his meticulous preparation, with a multitude of facts and statistics to hand, he was a mainstay of BBC TV’s Match of the Day for decades. His retirement was much regretted by viewers.
I remember reading about one player for a lower league team whose match Motson was covering relating his pre-match experience with the man. Motson had asked the team to line up for him and went along the line scrutinising each one. This particular player, it seemed, received a more intense scrutiny than the others. In the aftermath he said wonderingly to his teammates, “I’ve just been eyeballed by Motty!”
John Walker Motson: 10/7/1945 – 23/2/2023. So it goes.
The position in history of Betty Boothroyd, whose death was announced today, as first woman Speaker of the House of Commons, cannot be surpassed. Her career trajectory was unusual. There aren’t many former Tiller girls who became MPs, let alone Speaker. And unlike most politicians she presented a human face to the world.
Betty Boothroyd: 8/10/1929 – 26/2/2023. So it goes.
I saw in the Guardian yesterday that guitarist Wilko Johnson has died.
I do remember reading during the 1970s about the most famous band he was in, Dr Feelgood. This was in music papers that had a London bias.
In many ways the band’s sound was against the times – of the early to mid-70s at any rate, being guitar and drum based and eschewing any Prog Rock or Glam Rock tendencies. They did, however, point to the revolution that was punk.
They did manage to have a top ten hit in 1978 with Milk and Alcohol but the first time I saw them (on television) was, I think, many years later (though it is possible I witnessed the original Old Grey Whistle Test appearance) in one of those retrospective shows the BBC is so fond of performing this song.
Wilko certainly had a stage presence.
Dr Feelgood: Roxette
John Peter Wilkinson (Wilko Johnson:) 12/7/1947-21/11/22. So it goes.
As an actor he usually filled the screen – and not because of his physical stature.
I suppose he is best known for his role as Hagrid in the Harry Potter films but I remember him from way back in sketch comedy shows such as A Kick Up the Eighties and Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee. He really came to prominence in the BBC Scotland series Tutti Frutti. His delivery of the line, “Don’t get the stripy stuff. It stings my gums,” was masterly.
Then there was his performance as the forensic psychologist Fitz in Cracker, which earned him three BAFTA Awards for best actor.
All in all he has a long, distinguished CV.
Robbie Coltrane (Anthony Robert McMillan,) 30/3/1950 – 14/10/2022. So it goes.
This ‘word’ – it’s actually more of an interjection – was used by Kirsty Wark on Wednesday night’s Newsnight programme on BBC in response to Jacob Rees-Mogg‘s assertion that Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross is a lightweight.
It was a wonderfully Scottish response as this is the preferred – instinctive – Scottish equivalent to saying “Ouch!” when someone has said something particularly harsh.
Not that Rees-Mogg is in any position to talk. He wouldn’t recognise a lightweight when he saw one in his bathroom mirror.
Sons game against Aberdeen in the next round of the Scottish Cup has been chosen to be broadcast live by BBC Scotland.
It’s scheduled for Saturday April 3rd, kick-off 12.15 pm.
That’s less than 39 hours after our game against Airdrie (on April 1st, next Thursday,) will finish. And we’ve got two more games before that between then and now. Ouch!
I’ve just seen on the news that Murray Walker for so long the voice of motor sport on British television has died.
I remember his distinctive voice commentating on Motocross (formerly known as motorcycle scrambling) in the 1960s on the BBC’s Grandstand; itself sadly long gone.
It was as a commentator on Formula 1, though, for which he was best known, for both the BBC and ITV in a stint lasting over twenty years. After his retirement the sport somehow never felt the same. Shockingly, that commentating retirement was itself twenty years ago.
He was one of those few characters associated with a particular sport whose fame and personality allowed them to transcend it.
Graeme Murray Walker: 10/10/1923 – 13/3/2021. So it goes.
