Sean Coyle, Gerry Anderson’s long-time radio side-kick, has told how he still misses the laughs they shared in a special series marking the tenth anniversary of the presenter’s death.
Regarded as one of the North’s best-loved presenters, Gerry sadly passed away aged 69 following a long battle against the ravages of cancer in August 2014.
In a career spanning 30 years, he hosted a range of popular TV and radio programmes.
Now, a decade after his passing, his on-air companion Sean Coyle and producer Mickey Bradley have come together to share stories about the man they knew and worked with.
Gerry Anderson — Radio Rogue – is a two-part series beginning on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Ulster this Saturday, August 24, at 1.05pm.
Michael Bradley (left) and Sean Coyle carry the remains of Gerry Anderson from St Eugene’s Cathedral.
“We walked into the studio and he would have been sitting in the chair with his feet up on the desk and he would have said to us both — ‘I enjoyed that’ and that would have been the end of the discussion,” Coyle recalled.
Anderson turned to broadcasting as a radio presenter in 1984 after an early career as a teacher and showband guitarist.
He fell in love with the industry and continued to work as a presenter for three decades.
Many praised his gift of putting guests on his show at ease, a skill that helped earn him several awards as a broadcaster of the year.
Anderson was also the first presenter from Northern Ireland voted into the UK Radio Hall of Fame.
“The thing that he had going for him was that he loved people, he was brilliant with people — absolutely brilliant with people,” Coyle said.
In the programme, the pair share why Coyle and Anderson’s constant on-air arguing made for great radio.
“Some of the arguments we had on air, they were genuine,” Coyle said.
Mickey Bradley, Sean Coyle and Gerry Anderson taken in Hollywood, Los Angeles in 1991
They also share some stories behind the programme’s best-loved regular callers.
One of the most popular callers was Geordie Tuft who lived in Loughbrickland, Co Down.
Geordie tragically died in an accidental fire at his home in 2016.
“It was call after call after call if he got the right people,” Coyle said.
There is a dive deep into what it was like working behind the scenes on such a popular radio show.
“There were times I started the show, there were times he was still in the middle of the stairs, reading and I put on the signature tune and there were times I introduced the first piece of music,” Coyle added.
“It was so much fun to work on it. That sounds cliche, I know, but you never thought you were going to work. He hated me saying that too. ‘It’s not work’ he would have said.”
In 2012, following his cancer diagnosis, Anderson left Coyle to present their show alone before passing away in August 2014, aged 69.
Hundreds of fans attended his funeral in his hometown of Derry, which was memorably coined ‘Stroke City’.
In episode two of Gerry Anderson — Radio Rogue; The Bard of Sackville Street, Coyle and Bradley start on Derry’s Sackville Street, where Anderson grew up among sailors, musicians and cursing parrots.
They mull over the broadcaster’s unique and usually hilarious take on the world around him.
Coyle is excited for fans to listen to the show.
Gerry and Christine Anderson.
“It never felt like work and we laughed every day. I think that’s what I miss most — Gerry’s laugh — and I loved making him laugh.”
Fans also have another chance to view On The Air, an animation show made for BBC NI by Flickerpix.
The TV series brought some of the real phone-ins from Gerry’s radio show to life by animating real life with colourful characters and re-interpreting settings.
It is now available on the BBC iPlayer.
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