It started when Victoria was in Prep 1 and never really ended till he retired. Sometimes we would catch a snippet before we left for school but mostly, in a succession of cars, Jaguar, Golf and Mercedes, it was the forty minutes of the drive. Occasionally Victoria would push the Radio 1 button but she soon returned to 2.

What was the attraction? Gentle humour, dry and often quick wit. The regular features , including limericks by a man from Bangor [I wonder who he was?] . The excitement of a new Janet and John story. The ability to discuss with her later the part of the programme she had not heard.

It was a background for “I spy’ or ‘yellow car’ or discussion of the latest plan that she had for a holiday or some other wheeze she had dreamt up. Its humour has lasted through ups and downs and we still return to it. It was a imperceptible bonding device. The double meanings and the cheeky humour, something we both enjoy.

I’m not much given to sentimentality about celebrities and I have certainly not written about one before.

Terry Wogan provided a safe place for us both for that important journey and for me, an antidote for what lay ahead in court. Often, I would tell Victoria that when she got out at school the best part of my day was over.

Why do I feel so sad? Perhaps that there were , within Terry’s delivery , echoes of my father’s humour. Perhaps we mourn something that we thought would be with us for ever.

Perhaps it just that at a time when it seemed that the world around me was wicked and inexplicable Terry and Victoria came along to bid me be calm.

Whatever it was , Terry Wogan was part of our silly ,childish,innocent  humour and we were the better for it.