The news that Britain will soon be unable to ‘wake up to Wogan’ was, in some quarters, treated like a tragedy on the scale of Diana’s death or the failure of Bubble to be crowned champion of Big Brother 2.
With Summer over and the news-making H of P still on its collective all-expenses world cruise, newsrooms around Britain saw a chance to dress up something vaguely significant to Radio 2 as an earth shattering, glacier-melting marvel. News 24’s Tim Willcox managed the same level of faux-concern that met the death of the Queen Mum- “Oh no, and she was only 102... what a waste!”
Then again, why isn’t this a big news story? I mean Wogan’s is the most popular radio show in the UK (it has over 213000 more listeners than his nearest rival, Chris Moyles) and he is one of the few to be legitimately dubbed a national treasure. And yet it still seems surprising: Do we really need to care?
There seems to be an overlooked hole in the logic of all this news coverage, this national outcry. What is this hole? What have the professionally informed not accounted for? The answer comes in its time... Its ‘wake up to Wogan’, remember. As we all know, mornings are the stuff of the Devil (or Jeremy Kyle as he’s commonly known) and nothing good or worthwhile can truly exist in this wasted part of our lives. The only real reason Wogan is a good choice is that he has a calming voice which subtly conveys the fact that, about 20 years ago, he was quite a funny man (John Humphreys on Radio 4 does the same thing but its raw aggression that his soothing pipes cloak). Of course it doesn’t help that Chris Evans, his replacement, sounds like a Parrot laying an Ostrich egg but, except for that, we shouldn’t really be concerned: the worst has got a bit worse, that’s all.
Yet, once in a blue moon - on a month of Sundays when Hell’s frozen over - something good and worthwhile happens before 10:30 am that makes you look again at your blind prejudice against the day’s earliest hours. Stood on a windy strip of grass outside the MK Museum, uncaffeinated and nearly conscious, the askMK team awaited a special guest.
The odds of enjoying ourselves were not, to be honest, high: along with the time and the wind, we were also aware that we were about to spend three hours near kids whose attention spans (like all children) normally lasts about 0.03 seconds. Great. As we learnt more, however, we discovered that what would be unfolding was a true testament to local cooperation and community effort. The special guest was, as you can tell from the video, Raymond Blanc and he was giving an intimate, alfresco demonstration to 50 young people with his trademark enthusiasm and culinary skill.
To have a Michelin-starred chef within the city was, of course, a thrill in itself and it was clear from his first comments that this would not be a demo of how to make balsamic scallops or Thai-fried venison: the great man would be teaching the basics. Already this is sounding wonderful, is it not? A simple soup, pesto or crumble was brought to life and initially dubious youngsters were won round by the sheer enthusiasm of the food’s creator and the ‘deliciousness’ (his word, not mine) that exuded from the plates on offer. In addition, Raymond Blanc was here to educate his audience about the distance food travels and the waste which is often produced- and that is where it got really interesting.
Monsieur Blanc would not have minded me writing that he was only there to finish off the work of a good many others. His skill in preparation may not be in doubt but he was clearly aided – in cooking and in his wider ‘message’- by the local source of the ingredients he was using. The baskets of ripe-looking fruit were the product of Growing People, an organisation that gets young people to learn self-sufficiency in the 21st century. Every time that the chef spoke of the importance of using locally grown ingredients the audience knew he meant it: he was doing it in front of them, with their ingredients.
Whatever happens in their future, today askMK saw MK’s kids being given an expert lesson in eating well and being environmentally-aware. Through the hard work of Lifestyle Guides (who organised the event), Growing People and Raymond Blanc, 50 kids have a better chance of being healthier and greener than they might have been before. Modestly, the chef called it “a drop in the ocean”: for Milton Keynes it was a lot more than that - a bucketful of water in a puddle, if you like.
It’s great to work in a company that reports the best of what’s happening in its community. The good work of Milton Keynes and the raw passion of Raymond Blanc left us smiling as we left the Museum to eat our lunches and continue our day - it had been an honour to be present.
All this leaves one last thread to tie up... What kind of idiot doesn’t like the morning? Oh.
