Yes at last we have the Video Blog of my interview with Sir Terry Wogan, but I’ll come to that in a moment. As Queen Victoria returns from a wonderful voyage to the Canary Islands, Queen Mary 2 has been making history on her Around The British Isles Voyage with her first visit to  Glasgow, and of course the home of Cunard for so many years; Liverpool. As you know from the last posting on Tuesday, Peter Shanks (President and Managing Director of Cunard Line) is on board and hopes to post more news soon along with some pictures and maybe even video.

On Queen Victoria we are nearing the end of a great voyage to the Canaries and our guests were delighted to find the warmth of the islands. After a short voyage to Cherbourg, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam we’ll be heading back to the Mediterranean. Now before the interview here’s this week in Cunard’s history for the week 23^rd to the 30^th October.

October 27 1986

QE2 arrives in Bremerhaven for a six-month £110 million re-engining and refurbishment programme, the largest such refit in the history of the merchant marine, undertaken and successfully completed in 1987. Steam turbines replaced by diesel electric power plant and the funnel is widened to accommodate the new engine. HRH the Princess of Wales boards on the ship’s return to Southampton.

October 29 1970

QE2 offers medical assistance to the ‘Cerinthus’ in the Atlantic

October 30 1947

Cunard’s first cruise ship, the Caronia II, is launched at John Brown Shipyard, Clydebank. She becomes known as the ‘Green Goddess’ because of the colour of her hull.

Hopefully most readers of this Blog will be familiar with Sir Terry Wogan and his TOGs, but in case you don’t, he currently has the most popular breakfast radio show in the UK with over eight million listeners every morning. He has also become quite a British institution in his own right over the years, hosting numerous TV shows and of course the remarkable annual BBC “Children In Need” event. Although he announced his retirement from the breakfast show recently he will still be heard on the Radio 2 airwaves at weekends and yes, he will still be joining guests and TOGs on board Queen Victoria for the voyage departing on 14 May 2010.

Following the great success of the TOGs voyage last year, (you can read all about it in the Blogs posted between the 20^th November and 11^th December 2008), we decided to do it all again! Next May we’ll be visiting exciting cities such as Barcelona and Cannes as well as the port of Livorno where guests can visit Pisa and Florence. With Rome and Gibraltar also on the itinerary it’ll be a fantastic voyage.

We are looking forward to welcoming back the TOGmeister himself, Sir Terry Wogan, along with his intrepid team who’ll be getting involved with all sorts of fun and games including the Deadly Quiz and Loose Cannon Karaoke as well as a brand new Janet and John.

As you may know I went to meet Sir Terry again, when I was last at home (see Blog from 6 August 2009), and our friends Helen and Norman (at http://togscalendar.org/) filmed the interview in London at BBC Radio 2’s studio. And if you are still wondering what a ‘TOG’ is, don’t worry Sir Terry explains it all. So here’s the interview:

We hope you’ll join us and remember it’s all about fun and raising money for Children in Need. You don’t need to be a TOG to join in the fun so to find out how you can be a part of this exciting voyage and how you can support BBC’s “Children in Need” click http://www.cunard.co.uk/togs/

In the meantime we wish everyone taking part in this year’s events, all the best with their fundraising activities. Of course the crescendo of the occasion will be the night of Friday 20 November on BBC 1 hosted by a galaxy of stars including Sir Terry himself.

Thanks for logging on again, we’ll have more news from the fleet soon including more posts from Queen Mary 2’s Around The British Isles Voyage. Cheers for now - Alastair

Thank you for your comments as usual and it’s great to hear all your thoughts and sentiments as QE2 arrived in Dubai. I will do my best to keep you informed with her progress as she is transformed in to her new life.

Meanwhile welcome to the final part of the TOGS voyage story. Although the voyage ended a week ago it has left all those who took part with some amazing memories, and hopefully, has set the tone for an annual event.

Straight after Sir Terry’s first broadcast of BBC Radio 2’s “Wake Up To Wogan”, with stunning views of the Straits of Messina, from the Commodore Club on board Queen Victoria, he spent some time chatting to TOGS before he had an opportunity to discover Messina for himself, including what I heard was an extremely good lunch!

That evening he hosted the Captain’s table with Captain Christopher Rynd, the Captain’s wife Julie Rynd, Alan, “Barrowlands” Boyd, Janet and John “Boggy” Marsh, as well as four winners of the “Children In Need Auction” from the previous night. It’s a great tradition on formal nights and was made extra special by Sir Terry’s attendance.

The following morning started with Sir Terry entering the Commodore Club to a huge cheer from the TOGS, clad in dressing gowns (and thankfully clothes underneath!) As he prepared for his second broadcast he was fortified by the proud presentation of a curry, (freshly made buy the on board chefs who we met later), by Edina Cloud.

For those of you unfamiliar with the “Wake up to Wogan Show”, this was continuing the tradition of sending food in to the show on a daily basis. And yes he did eat it and seemed to genuinely enjoy curry at 8am! During the broadcast he interviewed the Executive Chef Nicholas Ollroyd, and his twin brother Executive Sous Chef, Mark Ollroyd. He had met them at the traditional Chef’s Parade in the Britannia Restaurant the night before, and loved the idea of twin brothers from Yorkshire working on the same ship. He had a lot of fun interviewing them but wasn’t sure if he was seeing double or not.

Since I have been home one of the questions I have been asked most about the voyage apart from; “What was Sir Terry really like” and to that I answer – exactly as he seems; he is very much his charming self. The other question was; “Were the chefs really twins and are they identical?” Well I’ll let you judge that for yourselves:-

Sir Terry’s programme always ends with a “Pause for Thought” and as we overlooked the bay of Naples, Canon Roger Royle used the historic city of Pompeii as his inspiration. It was great to see the team working together and the real fun they seem to have as well as genuine friendship. Somehow having seen the broadcast live, you listen to them at home with a stronger understanding of what is involved, and of course a greater respect for the craft, which they all make look so easy.

Sir Terry had to be whisked off straight after the show as he had a flight leaving less than 2 hours later, and his driver had to negotiate the Naples traffic. That in itself is no mean feat but as we saw the car drive away with both Sir Terry and Canon Roger Royle, we were slightly disturbed to see one of the windscreen wipers held together with cellotape! Anyway they reached the airport safely and in plenty of time despite the driver having to lean over to the passenger side to see through the windscreen. Being forever positive, it did at least provide more material for Sir Terry on his Monday morning show.

With the broadcast over and Sir Terry on his way back to London, we went to lunch in Naples and the home of the Margherita pizza; yes genuinely where this pizza was created for the then Queen of Italy, (this was June 1889 by the way), by Raffaele Esposito in a restaurant called “Brandi”. Although I had been there a couple of times before I wasn’t a hundred percent sure I could remember exactly where it was, but a combination of bluffing and good fortune,  we found it and had a fantastic lunch – I can thoroughly recommend it if you ever go there. On the way back Alan “Deadly – Voice of the Balls” Dedicoat, discovered the Italian Lottery – but I am not sure if “Droppa Those Bigga Money Balls” would translate too well to the residents of Naples!

We rushed back to open the TOGS hospitality desk for the last time, and were delighted to be selling more Bears, CD’s and pins, all in aid of “Children in Need”, to not only TOGS but also other guests who have the delights of “Janet and John” to look forward to when they get home – though I’m not sure what they’ll all make of it! That night was a real treat as we got to enjoy a special show featuring the stunning Royal Cunard Singers and Dancers, with a special performance by Clare Teal. Clare is well known to BBC Radio 2 listeners as a presenter of the Big Band Special series. She has released 6 albums and in 2006 she was awarded “BBC Jazz Vocalist of the year” and then “Jazz Vocalist of the Year 2007”, at the British Jazz Awards. She has a superb voice and I would recommend seeing her if you get the opportunity. 

The last night of any voyage is always one of mixed emotions and is usually spent with new found friends in a favourite bar on the ship. For many of the TOGS and the remaining members of the BBC Radio 2 team it  meant an evening with my good friend Barrington “Barty” Brown, in the Commodore Club, whose quintessentially English style is always tremendously popular. Amongst his extensive repertoire is the Hippopotamus song originally created by Flanders and Swan, but most recently revived by Sir Terry on the Bandaged album. Somehow it became a bit of a theme tune for the voyage. Not satisfied with having performed two shows, Clare Teal also joined Barty and a good night was definitely had by all!

After a smooth disembarkation the following day in Civitavecchia, we kept bumping in to TOGS and guests alike, at Rome airport and even back at Heathrow, with that knowing look of shared experiences!

So there it was, hopefully just the first of an annual tradition of the TOGS voyage, and I’m glad to report that it was a tremendous success, not only for raising so much money for “Children in Need”, but also for being a lot of fun for those who took part. It was great to welcome new guests to the joys of taking a Cunard Voyage and also to introduce the uninitiated to the world of Sir Terry Wogan – your lives will never be the same!

I’ll be back on Thursday with my regular blog hopefully introducing a new guest blogger, but in the meantime I would like to thank again all those who made the TOGS voyage such a huge success. Firstly to Sir Terry and the whole “Wake Up To Wogan” team without whom this wouldn’t have been the voyage it was. Also to Norm, Helen, Kel and all those who work so hard at raising money not forgetting Matt for all his hard work with logistics and so much behind the scenes, things which took up so much of his time. Thanks go to Captain Rynd and his officers staff and crew, (especially Gustavo, Jacqui, Colin, Jim and the Technical Team, and Amanda and her Entertainment Staff), for all they did to contribute to the smooth running of the voyage. Mostly thanks to all the guests on the voyage – TOGS or otherwise – for being there and being fun to be with. I’d better go now before this starts sounding like an Oscar acceptance speech – in my dreams! Cheers for Now - Alastair

What a week for Cunard. We said farewell to QE2, to see her begin a new life in Dubai, and we celebrate Queen Victoria’s first anniversary of sailing under the Cunard flag. Thank you to Peter Shanks for sharing a unique view of QE2’s arrival in Dubai. Thanks Jerry for the links and to answer Paul Bird’s question, although it would be a lovely idea to think that the timing of her farewell was the 40^th anniversary of her sea trials was chosen on purpose, I’m afraid it was just timely coincidence. It’s also good to hear about all your sentiments of QE2 and of course thanks for the feedback regarding the TOGS voyage blog. I liked Doug’s reference to Queen Victoria as a 21^st Century Queen – I couldn’t have put it better myself. But before I bring you up to date with the next part of the TOGS voyage, here is this week in Cunard’s history for the 27^th of November to the 3^rd December.

November 29 1968

QE2 Sails from fitting out berth under command of Captain Bill Warwick

November 30 2007

Cunard takes formal ownership of Queen Victoria as she leaves the Marghera Ship yard flying the Cunard flag for the first time.

December 2 1982

Visit of HM the Queen Mother to QE2 in Southampton the second time in a year

December 3 2004

Cunard signs the contract with Fincantieri’s Marghera ship yard, to build hull number 6127 Queen Victoria

In a week that marks Queen Victoria’s joining the Cunard family, it’s perfect timing to share part four of the TOGS voyage. For those still unsure of what the TOGS are all about – you’ll find out more on my earlier blogs – hopefully that may help! Meanwhile Malta greeted Queen Victoria with a stunning day as she arrived at about lunchtime and I have to say it’s a great port, packed with history and lovely to be just a short walk from the centre of Valletta. Thanks Matt for this great photo.

Later that afternoon Sir Terry Wogan, (also affectionately known as the Togmeister), arrived at the ship, to be greeted by Captain Christopher Rynd and Hotel Manager Jacqui Hodgeson. There were a few TOGS hanging over the ships rails (well not literally but you get the meaning), to greet him as his Butler escorted him to his suite. However, despite him having broadcast that morning back in London and the flight to Valletta, we had a rehearsal booked for him at 6.00pm. As I escorted him from the aft of the ship to the Royal Court Theatre (forward), he remarked that a Par 9 would have been a shorter distance! For someone who has appeared on stages all over the world, even Sir Terry was amazed as we entered the Frank Matcham inspired Royal Court Theatre mentioning it reminded him of the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin where he had hosted the famed Eurovision Song Contest some years ago.  

For this special performance, we had sold the Theatre Boxes and front row in a silent auction raising even more for “Children In Need”. Entertainment Director Amanda Reid gave Sir Terry a great introduction and the show began with him regaling hilarious stories and tales from his TOGS before introducing Canon Roger Royle who auctioned off items including, “Dinner at the Captains Table hosted by Sir Terry and Captain Rynd”, “An invitation to London to watch the Wake Up To Wogan show followed by brunch”, “A limited edition print of Queen Victoria signed by the ships senior officers and the Wake Up to Wogan Team on board” and some exclusive TOGS items.  Although it was all aimed to raise as much money for “Children In Need” as possible, it proved to be hugely entertaining with the banter that they do so well on Radio 2 each morning. John “Boggy” Marsh and his wife Janet were then invited by Sir Terry to join him on stage for the latest “Janet and John” tale which was………….unprintable here ………but hilarious. I am not sure if it will ever be published, but don’t forget you can get copies of other “Janet and John” tales, which have been heard on the “Wake Up To Wogan Show” by clicking on this link.

http://www.charitygoods.com/

I would at this point like to acknowledge the incredible work done by Norman, Helen and the various Togs around the country who run this website and work so hard in getting the various merchandise sent out, as well as having the inspiration to come up with so many brilliant fund raising ideas. They do a fantastic job and raise over £1 million for children in need each year. Their current aim is to get Sir Terry’s duet with Aled Jones performing “Little Drummer Boy” from the “Bandaged” CD to be the Christmas number 1 – good luck to you all.

Meanwhile back on stage John Marsh invited Sir Terry to close the show with the Hippopotamus song (which is also on the “Bandaged” CD). Sir Terry wasn’t too sure about this surprise, but it was too late, as Canon Roger Royle appeared on stage with the words and Alan “Barrowlands” Boyd appeared majestically on a lift coming up from the orchestra pit. That sight alone was enough to start Sir Terry off in a fit of the giggles and it clearly made quite an impact on him as he still mentions it frequently on air! It was a great close to the show with the entire audience joining in the chorus of “Mud, mud, glorious mud……….” Have you noticed there are some tunes you just can’t get out of your head! It was already late and with the prospect of an early start, most of us got an early night (I’m not mentioning who didn’t…….) ready for the live broadcast the following morning.

I was in the Commodore Club by 7.15am but was beaten to it by Myles, Neil, Jim, Gary, Keith and the technical team who were busy establishing the satellite link up from the ship’s Commodore Club to the BBC’s Radio studios back in London. This is no mean feat on a moving ship coming into port, but they did an incredible job. Gustavo and his team had also set up breakfast for Sir Terry and his team, including the much loved “Snorkers” (or sausages to you and me!) I was also beaten to it by the TOGS who were already ensuring they had the best view, with the earliest being “Cocktail Clare” who apparently arrived at 6.20am – now that’s what I call keen! Before too long the Commodore filled up and Sir Terry arrived at 8.00am to a huge cheer from the gathered crowd.

The broadcast began at precisely 8.30am ship’s time (7.30am) back in Britain and Sir Terry began by gloating about the beautiful weather over the straits of Messina. To all of you at home – yes it really was that lovely I’m afraid. There were also claims of canned laughter from back in the studio but I can assure you the Commodore Club was packed with over a hundred very excited TOGS!

It was fascinating for everyone who hadn’t seen a live radio broadcast before, to see how it all happened and to see the professionalism of the operation, despite the banter and lightheartedness you hear on air. Alan “Barrowlands” Boyd even had access to emails coming in from listeners in the UK, with the help of his assistant Joe and the technical knowhow of Keith. During his broadcast Sir Terry was very complimentary about the ship and her crew and as part of the first morning’s broadcast, he interviewed the ship’s Master, Captain Christopher Rynd.

During the interview he did happen to mention why he, as a knight of the realm, hadn’t been piped aboard, so we all made a mental note to arrange something next time! And, while a song was being played back in London and not forgetting what this voyage was all about, he took the time to pose with Captain Rynd and Pudsey.

There is lots more to tell you about the voyage and the last two days but I have just realised how long this blog is getting so I’ll sign off here, and post you the last episode in a few days time – I bet you can’t wait! In the meantime I’d like to thank the “Wake Up To Wogan” team and the TOGS for being so much fun as well as the Captain, officers and crew on Queen Victoria for doing such a great job in looking after us all, and making the event so special – true White Star Service.