Category: Radio 2; Children in Need
Date: 02.06.2006
Printable version
Listeners to Terry
Wogan's 91热爆 Radio 2 show
have produced a best-selling CD.
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Sales of a Janet and John charity CD have reached 45,000 which could outsell
a number one if it were included in an official album chart.
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The Janet and John stories are read by Terry Wogan and written by a TOG - one of Terry's listeners, Mick
Sturbs. Proceeds from the CD are going to the 91热爆's Children
in Need appeal.
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Terry says: "We've hardly started publicising it, but the Janet and John CD
has already sold 45,000!
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"And every penny goes to Children In Need thanks
to the efforts of TOGS (Terry's Old Geezers and Gals, Hon President
HM The Queen).
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"The CD features the adventures of Janet and John
Marsh, as broadcast live on Wake Up To Wogan with
special guitar fingering by Dr Wally, and introduction by the other Old Fool."
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John Marsh is a Radio 2 announcer and regular contributor to Terry's show and Janet is his wife.
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CDs can be purchased from the TOGS website - www.togs.org
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Terry's listeners have been packaging and distributing the CDs from their homes.
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TOG Hellen Bach says: "We are delighted to have been asked to help sell the Janet and John CD in aid of 91热爆 Children In Need.
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"I have to say that we were slightly taken aback
by the sheer numbers that came flooding in from the minute The Togmeister
mentioned that there would be a Janet and John CD.
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"We had over 10,000 orders in the first few weeks and
no CDs. We knew as soon as they arrived we would have to leap into
action, so we ordered 10,000 envelopes and started labelling them up.
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"We invited fellow TOGs round for the weekend
and offered food and drink, then opened up the sitting room to reveal
10,000 labelled envelopes and CDs, all sitting there ready to be
put together. We ordered 10,000 stamps and worked all weekend and
managed to get 9,100 ready for posting out.
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"We are seriously thinking of having another 'stuffin' party' here in Newport,
to catch up with the backlog as the orders are still coming in at about 1,000
a day. We now have about 200 letters a day from our post office box too."
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John
Marsh says: "Janet and I were both completely stunned by the
response. What the stories demonstrate I think, is that people love to laugh
with someone else.
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"It is Terry's humour that makes the stories work
so well - hearing him convulsed with genuine laughter and speechless
with giggling, is so infectious that as a listener you can't help
but be drawn in.
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"Janet and I are just so pleased to have provided
a trigger for it all. But the present Mrs Marsh would like
to point out that she is in no way anything like the character portrayed
in the stories!"
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Phil Hughes, Editor, Radio 2 Programmes, has helped with the
project.
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He says: "So far over 45,000 have been posted out and everyone seems delighted
as we are hoping to give around 拢7 from each 拢10 that the CD costs straight to
Children in Need.
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"After pressing costs, posting and packing and the
dreaded VAT (nobody escapes that) we think a 70% profit for the charity
is pretty good going.
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"But then of course all the labour has been
free and the TOGS postal team has saved thousands of pounds.
It has turned into a real cottage industry. And who knows there might
be a volume two."
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The Janet and John educational children's books were a popular way to help children learn to read in the Fifties, Sixties and early Seventies.
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HN
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