Derek Jameson

'Morning, Morning'.

It was a very particular sort of breakfast show. One cannot quite imagine the likes of it on BBC Radio 2 now. Derek Jameson’s gruff, distinctive voice which, like that of many good communicators, was not really designed for radio; but he had the companionship in which the medium revels. He woke up Radio Two listeners for five years from 1986, before moving to a late slot, where his wife, Ellen, kept him company.

Derek had already made his name in tabloid journalism. A lovable Fleet Street hack of the old school, time-served at the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, News of the World and the Daily Star, which he launched.

He died on 12th September 2012, aged 82.

My lasting memory of him though is his appearing in a fairly recent TV documentary on coping with age. They tried to get ‘older folk’ to adopt a more active lifestyle to see if it helped.