TODAY we're handing over the Looking Back pages to former Radio 1 and 2 DJ David Hamilton who was in Weymouth on Sunday with his Rock 'n' Roll Back the Years show.

David, known as Diddy Hamilton, wanted to pay tribute to his late friend Terry Wogan and asked us to share some of his memories.

Terry died of cancer aged 77 on January 31 after suffering a short illness.

Terry's last visit to Dorset was in April last year when he came to Weymouth and Dorchester to film episodes of a series on regional food with his friend London cabbie Mason McQueen.

Here, in David's own words, is his tribute to the Terry Wogan he knew.

Terry Wogan, whose death was announced on Sunday, had to thank a BBC producer called Tony Luke for giving him his big break. Luke, who died in July last year, was the producer of Late Night Extra one of the programmes broadcast on both Radio 1 and Radio 2 in the 10-midnight slot when the stations launched in 1967.

Emanating from the production offices of Radio 2, it was more than just a record show but included news, interviews and features as well as music recorded in BBC studios. Late Night Extra ran successfully for several years, hosted each weekday evening by a different presenter.

Tony Luke, who became LNE`s executive producer, told me, “The gramophone department were pushing for us to use a young broadcaster from Ireland who`d been tried out on Mid Day Spin.

Unlike so many of the starting line-up, he wasn`t an ex-pirate but had started his career on RTE in Ireland. His name was Terry Wogan.

Before we decided to use him, he had to pass an audition, probably the only one he ever did in his career.

He became the Wednesday night man, hosting his first show on October 18, 1967, for which he was paid £33. As he had to travel over from Ireland, the BBC also paid his travel expenses and overnight accommodation. His total fee was £67, three shillings and sixpence in old money”. From little acorns.....

Terry got his break on Late Night Extra, and after sitting in on Jimmy Young`s morning show on Radio 1 in 1969, he was offered his own daily afternoon show from 3 to 5.

Though he stayed there a while, it was clear that his natural home was Radio 2 and where else would they put their main man but on the breakfast show? There he delivered Radio 2 an enormous audience in two lengthy spells either side of hosting his late night chat show, Wogan, on BBC TV.

He was a radio man who moved effortlessly into television but it was on the breakfast radio show that he built up a cult following first with Fight The Flab (as Bob Monkhouse once quipped, the flab won) and then with his T.O.G.S., Terry`s Old Geezers.

He tore up the rules of broadcasting and invented a style all his own. Dead air – with no one speaking – so what? Pacey presentation? Forget it. And how clever to get the listeners do the work for him with their witty letters and emails, and then sell them back to them in book form.

Millions tuned in every day for his handover with Jimmy Young. Though they bounced off each other well, giving the impression they were great pals, to my knowledge they never socialised.

JY was probably as close to being a recluse as anyone in the entertainment business and Terry, one suspected, couldn`t wait to get home to the lovely Helen at Wogan Towers in the Thames Valley, far from the showbiz hustle and bustle.

With his blarney and gift of the gab, he could be very persuasive and I remember him talking me into turning out in a charity cricket match he was organising at Taplow, though I hadn`t played the game for over twenty years. “If Isla St. Clair can play, you can play”, he said, and there was no answer to that.

Ernie Wise, Pete Murray, Roy Castle and I were among those who donned the whites for Wogan in what turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon at his local cricket ground. I even managed to score a few runs before Pete Murray at the other end of the wicket shouted, “Who do you think you are, Geoffrey Boycott? Throw the bat.” So next ball I threw the bat and was bowled out. Thanks Pete!

Who scored the most runs and hit the winning boundary? Who else but our friend Terry? It couldn`t have been stage managed better. A perfect end to a perfect day.

I do remember I agreed to play in his cricket match if he`d turn out in a match for the Showbiz X1 football team which I was organising at the time. Surprisingly, that never materialised!

Always in press interviews Wogan would emphasise how lazy he was and not really ambitious. Hang on a minute.

This is a man who in his seventies was still driven enough to get up every morning at the crack of dawn to host a two hour breakfast show... to present TV shows for various channels... to appear on commercials... write books... who was shrewd enough to have his own agency that handled the likes of Kenny Everett, Gloria Hunniford and Tony Blackburn, not only eliminating the need to pay commission to an agent but also having other artists pay commission to him... to have at one time a car company with a contract to ferry performers to and from BBC studios.

Lazy? I don`t think so. But a nice man with it.