Introduction by Angela Rippon
B.B.C. News reader

Dear Giles,

Thank you for making me laugh. Thank you for taking the gloom and doom out of the day’s news, and always seeing the funny side of life.

You won’t let any of us take life seriously. You make us all laugh at our ridiculous weather; the decisions of government; the pettiness of bureaucracy, and the crazy notions of the sometimes mad, mad world. I’ve even had a good laugh at myself when I’ve been the subject of your wit.

People often ask me: “How do you keep a straight face at some of the things you have to read on the News?” The answer is—”With difficulty!” But then news is a serious business, and who’d pay a licence fee to watch a giggly newsreader? Not me—but I’d pay 8p any day for a giggle with Giles.

You told me recently that in the Giles household I was referred to as “Dear”. And I often have a quiet smile to myself just before going on the air, knowing that whatever the catalogue of daily disasters 1 may have to read out at 9 o’clock, somewhere in Suffolk they’ll be drowned by a chorus of “Ullo, dear”. And while Gran, baby, junior, and the rest of the Giles menage hold the world in such humorous perspective—you’ll keep the whole of Britain smiling too.

With love, and thanks