Tilly2 - // You really didn't like old Tel, did you Andy? //
Frankly, I loathed him.
Principally because he spent nine years presenting Children In Need and being the only member of celebrity cast who received a salary for his time - around £9,000.
The BBC was mealy-mouthed enough to advise that he was paid out of BBC funds, and they felt it appropriate, because without him, the show 'would not be what it was'.
Considering that the show was nothing at all in the first year, I fail to see how a salary is justified for one presenter, when every other celebrity and musical guest waived any fees they were offered.
Sir Tel, then had the gall to say he would gladly do it for free, and he was unaware he was being paid.
That means, either he was lying, because anyone knows if they are being paid or not, if they check their salary slips, or pay an accountant to keep track of things - which a man being paid £800,000 a year would probably have, you'd think.
Or, he is so busy swimming in licence payers' cash, that he doesn't notice an additional unexplained nine grand mysteriously appearing in his bank account every November, just after Children In Need has been on.
Neither sceario paints him in a good light, and I viewed him as an overpaid duplicitous hypocrite from that day forward.
The other reason I detested him was his constant unctuous over-bearing cod-humility and self-deprecation.
Frankly, if you are that busy knowing that you are a skilled professional presenter, which he was, and telling everyone that it really nothing, you drift through the realm of genuine modesty, and out into the inversely proportional concept of telling everyone how average you are, simply so they can fall over themselves to contradict you, and feed your monstrous ego a little further.
So no Til, I really didn't like old Tel at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For everyone's advance info - following requests for an opinion of Gloria Hunniford will be met with a sharp slap!!!