Whiteley reappraised...

Having read the following, I think Al's being a bit harsh on Mr Countdown.
As well as surviving the Brighton bomb, The Friday Thing re-printed the following webchat - which has a great set-up and pay-off gag that made me laugh out loud on the tube last night. RIP.

>RICHARD WHITELEY LAUGHS
=

On September 7th, 2000, and August 19th, 2003, Richard Whiteley
took part in two Channel 4 webchats. In total the two chats took
up just one hour of the jovial presenter's too-short life, but
the pleasure they brought to the lives of the other participants
was surely infinite. In a way, this was typical Whiteley. He'd
bumble into people's lives for half an hour at a time and enrich
them like they'd never been enriched before.

Here are some of the best bits:

..

juice: are any of the other male presenters you know jealous of
your massive clock?

Richard Whiteley chuckles
Richard Whiteley: I know that Wogan is, but then he's jealous of
everything!
Richard Whiteley laughs

..

von: mr whiteley?... whats your favourite word?

Richard Whiteley: My favourite word is the word "moonset". We had
it on the show once and no one had ever heard of it. Just as you
can have a sunset you can have a moonset, it's nice and romantic
isn't it? It's a lovely word.

..

Andy: What was your favourite moment in the history of the
program?

Richard Whiteley: Erm... Carol has a dressing room next to me...
and last week I discovered there was a hole in the wall. I
thought of reporting it to studio security, but then I thought
bugger it, let her look!