The highest paid UK talk show hosts of the 80s – where are they now?

Terry Wogan was one of Britain’s favourite presenters, with the Irish personality being the face of major events like the Eurovision Song Contest and Children in Need. Terry first started hosting a talk show in the 1970s with ITV’s Lunchtime with Wogan, but in 1982, he started hosting Wogan.

The show became integral to the public psyche, with comedian Ronnie Barker announcing his retirement from showbusiness on the show, while the programme was partially credited with helping Cilla Black relaunch her career following her appearance on the show in 1983.

The show also included one of Rock Hudson’s final interviews before he died from AIDS-related complications, and an edition of the show featuring Madonna was watched by nearly seven million people.

Following its cancellation, Terry returned to radio and became one of the country’s best-known voices. By 2005, his breakfast show, Wake Up to Wogan, was attracting eight million listeners, and the star was one of the BBC’s highest-paid presenters at the time, with leaked figures in 2006 showing him on a salary of £800,000.

The star remained active on the radio for the rest of his life, with his final show airing on 8 November 2015. By the time he retired, Terry had been diagnosed with an advanced stage of prostate cancer, a secret he kept from the public. He died aged 77 on 31 January 2016.

Often dubbed as “the greatest British talk show host”, Michael started as a current-affairs presenter before his talk show, Parkinson, launched in 1971, coming to an end in 1982. The show was revived in 1998 and lasted until 2007.

Although Michael interviewed some of the world’s most famous talents, he has lamented that the most famous interview from the programme came from his time with entertainer Rod Hull and his hand-puppet, Emu, which jokingly attacked the presenter during the segment.

The star, whose contract was reportedly worth £1 million, memorably interviewed boxing legend Muhammad Ali four times on the show, and he even interviewed then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the topic of conversation moving onto the invasion of Iraq.

Michael retired from broadcasting in 2007, and the final episode of Parkinson attracted over eight million viewers. Among the guests were David Beckham, David Attenborough, Judi Dench, Michael Caine and Peter Kay, who had started his career as a warm-up comedian for the show.

The star died at the age of 88 on 16 August 2023.

Russell started his talk show career in the 1970s, appearing as a direct competitor to Parkinson, however, the duo were strong friends in real-life. During the 1970s, he interviewed the likes of Rita Hayworth and Alice Cooper, the latter of whom said his time on the show was “the best TV show I ever did”.

After starting his career on ITV, Russell moved to the BBC, with shows like All About Books, Russell Harty and Harty. One of his most notable interviews was with singer and actress Grace Jones, who later admitted to taking “bad coke” before the interview, leading her to hallucinate the presenter as her abusive step-grandfather. During the interview, she ended up slapping him across the face, which generated plenty of press coverage.

Although his show ended in 1984, in 1985, he achieved a major scoop when he became the first person to interview Monaco’s Prince Rainier since the death of his wife, Grace Kelly.

In May 1988, Russell was admitted to hospital with hepatitis B. Following his outing in the tabloid press, his privacy was regularly invaded, including a journalist pretending to be a junior doctor in order to gain access to his medical records. Russell died from liver failure at the age of 53 on 8 June 1988.