29 NOVEMBER 1997, Page 36

We were amusing

Sir: Reading Rory Bremner's story about the Queen and Terry Wogan (Diary, 15 November), I felt that I should leap to the defence of 'the greatest living Irishman'.

As anyone who listens to Wogan on Radio Two every morning knows, one of his show's running jokes concerns his long but sporadic career in the far more glam- orous world of television.

As I have it on no less an authority than Paris Match (in an article describing the daily routine of 'la reine d'Angleterre') that the Queen is a TOG, i.e. one of 'Terry's Old Geezers' or faithful old listeners, it seems to me that her remark about his ever having done any television was an insider joke and not in the same acerbic vein as the dig at Clare Short.

Caroline Goulding

London SW6