Terry Wogan’s Hair Weave and other stories by Graeme Keal
This was Graeme’s second visit and, as with his first, his talk was based on interviews he had held with celebrities whilst he was a show biz reporter. His amusing encounters included those with Eric Morecombe, Frank Muir and Terry Wogan; this was followed by some anecdotes about soap stars from well-known programmes such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Eastenders and the one that flopped, namely Eldorado. He owned up to being totally unfamiliar with all of the ‘soaps’ however, their main characters fared better as he was conversant with the likes of Pat Phoenix, Jeff Hordley, Beverley Callard and Wendy Richards and was able to relay one or two yarns about them.
Graeme is an amiable raconteur but his talk lacked lustre and vigour; he even lost his trail of thought at one point and had to check his notes however, he did manage to raise the odd smile and giggle once in a while. Cynics would say his links were somewhat tenuous and, it’s pretty obvious he’s been giving this talk for a few years now so it’s a bit stale nevertheless, he managed to fill the hour revealing much niff-naff and trivia about a few of his 4000 famous interviewees which might be of interest to some.
Terry Wogan’s Hair Weave
Comments
5 responses to “Terry Wogan’s Hair Weave”
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I am saddened to read Ms. Dawson’s comments. Whilst I respect, and would encourage, freedom of expression and subjective thought, I feel it is a shame that such negative feelings about a specific speaker should be so publicly portrayed. However, having read other comments made by Ms. Dawson I wonder why a significant number are quite so negative. It should be made very clear on our site, I feel, that these comments represent the opinions of one person only. Some speakers will appeal more to some members than others and we need to embrace this diversity. The U3A is a hugely valuable resource within the area, and also nationally, and whilst I am certainly not suggesting being disingenuous in a review, I think it would be of benefit to the organization as a whole if our public image could be as positive as possible. We need to encourage new members to join us and I am absolutely sure that if comments cannot all be robustly positive, there is no need for them to be so tersely negative. Sarcasm is a regrettable choice for a style of comment and I feel sympathy for the speaker and our speaker-finder.
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You are right that this is the opinion of one person however we all have the right to comment on the review and redress the balance as you have done here. It is a pity that more people don’t comment on our speakers so that we get a better understanding of what people think. Any review posted on the website doesn’t reflect on the speaker-finder at all. Many thanks for making the comment and I would encourage you to continue to do so.
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It just goes to show that everyone has different views and expectations! I’m one of the 100 plus audience who thoroughly enjoyed Graeme’s recollections of his encounters with TV celebs. He told us some great stories in an amusing and well-paced talk. He painted some vivid pictures for us; the image of him running alongside Pat Phoenix’s car in his short trousers will stay with me some time. Thank you Graeme!
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Thank you Shelley! Belatedly thanks that is – I’ve only just seen the comments two years on! I hope and trust you were not alone in enjoying my talk.
Re Nadia’s comments – I must of course accept that she did not enjoy the talk and I’m sorry she was not more amused. It’s true that you can’t please all of the people all of the time…
I can’t however accept that the talk was “stale” or “lacked vigour”. I give every performance all I’ve got and the Terry talk has garnered favourable reviews at other U3As and WIs etc. It is a much more recent talk than the ‘Oprah Winfrey’ talk which I gave here in 2015 and which went down so well I was asked back to do ‘Terry and Co’, despite me having performed the Oprah talk well over 200 times since 2006.
My latest talk, ’50 Shades of Graham’ has also gone down extremely well with U3As and other groups. Here’s one response from earlier this year: “Thank you for a fascinating talk which went down a storm – perfectly targeted at our audience and much appreciated. I shall promote your talks whenever possible, and we’ll look to invite you again next year for sure. Many thanks and best regards.” Nigel Cobbold (speaker finder for Heath U3A, Lincoln).
There are many other favourable reviews quoted on my website here: http://www.kealmedia.uk/after-dinner-speaking-testimonials/
Finally, I see you are a retired head teacher Nadia but I have to mark you down on your spelling of ‘Graeme’ (sic) Keal’ and Eric ‘Morecombe'(sic). Light entertainment clearly isn’t your thing Nadia. I hope my ’50 Shades talk’ – on the perpetual battle of the sexes – will amuse you more if I’m ever asked to return.
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Well said Nadia. A lot of talk for a relatively few anecdotes. Your review was better than the presentation.
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