Terry Wogan Tribute Shows Confirmed By BBC, Including Westminster Abbey Memorial

Fans will be able to enter a ticket ballot to attend the thanksgiving service.

The BBC has announced further plans for a series of special tributes to commemorate the life and career of Sir Terry Wogan.

The broadcasting legend passed away in January, following a private battle with cancer, with his former employers planning a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey later this month.

The memorial will be broadcast on broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 between 12-1pm on 27 September - a date which marks the 50th anniversary of Sir Terry’s first radio broadcast for the BBC.

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The BBC will honour Sir Terry Wogan
Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

It will be prefaced and followed by a special edition of ‘The Jeremy Vine Show’, where he will celebrate the life and times of Terry, speaking to listeners and hearing their memories of him.

Ken Bruce will also host ‘Thank You For Being My Friend - A Tribute to Terry Wogan’ on 26 and 27 September on Radio 2 at 10pm, tracing Terry’s professional life, from Limerick to London via Eurovision, BBC Children in Need and his own TV chat show.

The shows will feature contributions from those including Chris Evans, Sue Lawley, Sue Cook, Claudia Winkleman, Esther Rantzen, Cheryl Baker, Nicky Byrne and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.

There will also be music from the artists he championed, including Eva Cassidy, Katie Melua and Foster and Allen and the music he loved, from Nat King Cole to Peggy Lee.

BBC One will also air ‘Sir Terry Wogan Remembered: Fifty Years At The BBC’, which is billed as a celebration full of classic moments, including much loved shows from ‘Blankety Blank’ to the Eurovision Song Contest.

“It will explore the three facets of Terry: on television, on radio and as the charity figurehead for BBC Children in Need, and will also reveal the private side of a man whose values and beliefs laid the foundations for his extraordinary success,” a press release reads.

The tribute will feature contributions from the likes of Jeremy Vine, Ken Bruce, Alesha Dixon, Michael Grade, Eamonn Holmes, Katie Melua, Dermot O’Leary, Len Goodman, Graham Norton, Fearne Cotton and Rob Brydon.

Registration to attend the thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey is currently open, with 250 pairs of tickets available to fans. 

You can register to enter the ticket ballot at bbc.co.uk/radio2 before 7pm on Thursday 8 September.

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