Tony Blackburn has spoken of his upset after not being invited to Sir Terry Wogan’s memorial service by the BBC.
He tweeted yesterday: “I would love to have paid my respects to my friend Sir Terry today but sadly wasn’t invited.”
He added: “I’m sad about it as I knew him so well and he was a lovely man, and invitation would have been nice.”
Blackburn was sacked as a Radio 2 DJ after the publication of a report into sexual abuse at the BBC earlier this year.
Sources close to the radio star said that Blackburn had known Sir Terry for 50 years and said the decision was “petty” and “ridiculous”. The insider added: “it makes no sense for them to exclude him in this way.”
A BBC spokesman said: “Sir Terry had so many friends and colleagues from so many walks of life and we tried to cater for as many as possible to attend the service.” A source added: “It wasn’t deliberate.”
The Westminster Abbey service was broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 on the 50th anniversary of Sir Terry’s first BBC radio broadcast, and began with recordings of the star's unmistakable voice from his archive..
Chris Evans gave a moving tribute to Sir Terry in an emotional speech, saying: "He wasn't the best, he is the best, and he will always be the best."
It included an emotional message as he signed off from his Radio 2 breakfast show for the final time, telling his loyal listeners "thank you for being my friend", imploring an audience to dig deep for Children In Need and giggling live on air.
Leading a stream of tributes, Radio 2 host Chris gave the first reading, recalling a number of funny memories with his close friend througout his life.
"I started listening when I was 17. I know I was 17 because it was in my first car after I passed my test," he began.
"I suppose I should have been listening to Radio 1, but Terry was livelier, quirkier, cheekier, naughtier, he was happier to be there, he was excited to be there...
"And he was completely uncool, which I thought was really cool."
The star then remembered his time in 1996, when he was hosting the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, and was in direct competition with "the mighty Wogan".
Sir Terry invited his rival for dinner, and it's there, Chris admitted, he was given the "single best advice" he'd ever received.
The star was invited to Sir Terry's home, where they enjoyed a spread laid on by his wife "Lady Helen", who left them a note saying she was "leaving you boys to it".
"It had as much to do with Terry's love of (many) wines, as it did with Helen's formidable cooking," Chris said.
Terry then announced they'd be playing a game of golf, after an afternoon of drinking, and Chris joked: "I could barely see the cheese board in front of me."
"But, golf we did, not 18 holes mind, not even nine, I think it was more like seven, maybe six," he recalled.
They went on to enjoy dinner at an Italian, and when - shortly before midnight - Chris suggested getting the bill, he told the crowd Terry replied: "Well, I never had you down as a quitter."
Asking Terry if he'd need to prepare for his Breakfast Show the next day, the late star told him: "It's very simple, they either like it or they don't."
Chris concluded: "Terry Wogan wasn't the best, he is the best, and he will always be the best."
Meanwhile, Lord Hall called Sir Terry a "national treasure", saying the "often over-used phrase was entirely appropriate" for the star.
He spoke of the broadcaster's "numerous" and "memorable" Eurovision quips, adding: "My own favourite comes from 2007, when he announced as the coverage began: 'Who knows what hellish future lies ahead? Actually I do, I've seen the rehearsals!"'
Referencing his prolific output on TV and radio, Lord Hall added: "But of course it wasn't just Eurovision. During the 1980s, there was barely a night when you didn't turn on the TV and find Terry there."
The BBC chief said that Sir Terry was most proud of his work for Children In Need - he fronted the main appeal show from its inception in 1980 to 2014.
He said his contribution behind the scenes was also "huge".
He pointed to how modest the star had been about his achievements, quoting him as saying: "I'm merely in the crow's nest, there are many more people sailing the ship."
He thanked Sir Terry "for giving us so much sheer unalloyed joy".
Elsewhere, Eamonn Holmes , Ruth Langsford and Gloria Hunniford spoke to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield during a live link to the This Morning studios earlier today, where they paid an emotional tribute to the broadcasting legend during the memorial service.
"It's a mixture of sadness and smiles," Eamonn said of Sir Terry who passed away in January after a short battle with cancer aged 77. While Gloria added: "I wish we weren't here for the reason we here."
She continued: "On the other hand personally, I'm really glad that I get to say goodbye. Everything was fought in such privacy for Terry, even his funeral.
"No paparazzi even got a shot of it. I think everyone here today will get a mixture of sadness and happy to be here."
Celebrities including Ken Bruce and Joanna Lumley attended the special memorial, to mark 50 years since his first broadcast for the BBC.
Bruce read WB Yeats poem The Song of Wandering Aengus, while Lumley read a specially commissioned poem, co-written with songwriter Sir Richard Stilgoe, entitled For The Former Greatest Living Irishman.
She compared Limerick-born Sir Terry's voice to an "aural newly-ripened peach/That never spoke to all, but spoke to each" in the poem, penned especially for the service.
"I think he was the tops, the cat's miaow," she said. "For pity's sake, who else would you allow/To mutter in your ear each dawn of days/Just rambling on, with nothing on his mind?/A brainy burbling, charming us to shreds/When we should long have risen from our beds."
Lumley, who provided one of Children In Need's most memorable moments when she stripped down to her underwear on live television in 1983 as host Sir Terry pretended to yawn, added: "If he was here I'd kiss his handsome face/And tell him that they simply broke the mould/When he was made."
Sir Terry's children Alan Wogan, Mark Wogan and Katherine Cripps paid tribute to their father's "love of our mother, his children and grandchildren"..."his true understanding of charity" and his "empathy and selfless wisdom" and his "life's work, warmth and humour...his gentleness and for his love of people".
Eamonn added that he believed Sir Terry had no idea he was ill as the pair often swapped doctor recommendations for their own 'aches and pains'.
He recalled: "We swapped medical notes all the time, bad knees and bad hips. I was going in for my operation and Terry would tell me who the doctors would be and I would get his knee doctor. And we would talks aches and pains."
Ruth added: "That was why it was a shock to us, we didn't know he had been so unwell. It is a tribute to him, how many people are turning up here today."
A close friend of Sir Terry, Eamonn finished by saying: "We are gathered here today to celebrate the type of broadcaster viewers will never see again."
See all the arrivals here:
