The 50 best BBC radio broadcasters of all time

He called himself a jobbing broadcaster, and that complete lack of pretension — along with the charm, the ease, the one-tooneness, the gentle humour, the lightness of touch, the sanctuary he offered day in day out for so many years — makes Terry Wogan the ultimate BBC radio broadcaster of the past 50 years. It’s hard to conceive of how millions of listeners could regard themselves as a community, but that’s what happened with Wogan.

Everyone was, in a sense, family. He belonged to us, and we belonged to him. We were all together, enjoying the same everyday things in life, the same silly jokes. Radio knighthoods are very rare, BBC buildings named after radio presenters rarer still. Sir Terry Wogan can claim both — and the love of multitudes.