[peel] Digest Number 479

[Tom Roche]

this from the Press Association wire yesterday...


PA   03/04 1612  LIFE OF BROADCASTER WALTERS REMEMBERED


  By Anthony Barnes, Showbusiness Editor, PA News 
   Broadcaster and radio wit John Walters was remembered by family and friends
including John Peel at a celebration of his life today. 
   Walters, who was Peel's Radio 1 producer for many years and a champion of
eccentric new music, died suddenly in July last year at the age of 63. 
   Guests packed the radio theatre at the BBC's Broadcasting House to pay
tribute to his life and career. 
   The Rev Ernest Rea, former head of religious programmes for the corporation,
said: "John was a very special man who brought intelligent, eclectic skills to
radio and television. 
   "He could be opinionated and outrageous but he was supremely talented and
enormous fun." 
   Radio 3 world music presenter Andy Kershaw said: "With John in the building,
you wanted to go to work." 
   He said Walters had a "natural feel" for broadcasting, and Kershaw recalled a
management meeting at which a chart of audience views had been produced. 
   Kershaw added: "Afterwards in the pub John said `we're not here to give the
public what it wants; we're here to give the public what it doesn't know it
wants'." 
   And Walters' friend, Ian Sharp, a film director, said: "He never let a bit of
truth get in the way of a good story." 
   Also at the celebration was singer Robert Wyatt who praised his kindness and
generosity. 
   Walters was a trained artist and a musician with the Alan Price Set before
turning to radio in the late sixties, producing Peel's groundbreaking Top Gear
programme. 
   He later landed his own show, Walters' Week, on Radio 1. Shortly before he
died he had stood in for Peel on his Radio 4 show, Home Truths. 






The story Peel told on-air about the rude words was hilarious.

I only half-heard him speaking about his vacation... did he say he was going to India?


tom