Eamonn Andrews – on the air

Sir, – Finn McRedmond returns to the subject of Ryan Tubridy’s new career in the UK (“Tubridy careful not to overplay his Irishness”, Opinion & Analysis, February 1st). Some readers may be left with impression that it was Terry Wogan who was the pioneering Irish voice on the British airwaves.

However, long before Terry’s arrival, Eamonn Andrews was a giant of British broadcasting.

Between the 1950s and his early death in the 1980s, he was initially the presenter of Sports Report on the BBC Light Programme (as it then was) and arguably the greatest ever boxing commentator (on the same station) as well as being the host of the immensely popular What’s My Line? and This Is Your Life ( on BBC TV). He went on to become the first presenter of World of Sport on ITV where he also hosted Britain’s first celebrity chat show, The Eamonn Andrews Show. Eamonn brought back This Is Your Life on ITV and he also hosted a daily London-based news programme on Thames TV.

Eamonn’s Irishness was never in doubt and he always carried a fountain pen with green ink for signing autographs (of which I have one). – Yours, etc,