Air force One

Ed, who simultaneously presented the popular request show on both Radio One and Radio Two in the 60s and 70s will be re-living the station's golden era from 10am on Radio Two on Sunday.

As he looked forward to joining in the nostalgia-laden celebrations he recalled the real buzz and excitement he felt being part of Radio One's original team and a career that saw him rubbing shoulders with everyone from royalty to rock stars to some of his favourite sporting celebrities.

In fact, he revealed the Queen Mum was one of his biggest fans!

It had all started in 1961 when he went to work as a musician in Hong Kong where the job offer fell through so he ended up presenting on Radio Hongkong.

"I knew I had a good voice for radio and I got work as a film critic, news reader and sports reporter.

The pirate stations had just started and I came back and joined Radio London. That closed down 40 years ago about six weeks before radio One started and they took us all on.

Radio One first went on air on September 30 1967.

"It was an incredibly exciting time. We had so much publicity. We had so many listeners. We couldn't do non-stop records like the pirates. The Musicians Union was very powerful so only one quarter of the programme could be what we called needle time'- recorded music, otherwise it has to be BBC recordings or live musicians because it was considered we could put a lot of musicians out of work. So we brought in live performers but compromises had to be made."

Ed was only too aware of how important Radio One was to the nation.

"Half the country must have been listening. I had 16 million listeners to my weekend show and Tony Blackburn had eight million a day.

"There was no such thing as commercial radio until 1969/70 and daytime TV didn't start until 1972/73. Daytime TV was non-existent! Now of course it's 24/7!

He found himself in a very high profile position. After starting off presenting Happening Sunday and the What's New? record review show he took over Junior Choice (originally called Children's Favourites) from Leslie Crowther in 1968.

"I had my weekend programme, The Radio One Club, The Radio One Road Shows and in the 70's I was on TV presenting Top of the Pops and Crackerjack. I enjoyed it all - it was a marvellous way to earn a living!"

Ed could also be seen in panto in Bournemouth at this time as Wishee Washee in Aladdin!

"Meeting people was one of the best things. I met everyone from the Queen downwards and all the members of the royal family."

Junior Choice was very much built around the requests. Ed recalls he came up with the idea of visiting local hospitals with his tape recorder to tape a few requests. On one such occasion one cheeky little lad who was a patient in Basildon, Essex, who uttered those immortal lines "Ello Darling!" followed by a riotous heckle. The sound bite was constantly repeated on every show it had become part of Radio One history!

As we chatted this week Ed was really excited because researchers had tracked down the eight year-old lad (now in his 40's of course)and he is due to make an appearance on the show on Sunday!

As presenter his brief was to play a mixture of music that was half pop and half old classics. It made the show quite unique.

"We made Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) by Benny Hill, Grandad by Clive Dunn and Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris, massive hits which they just wouldn't have been without our request show."

All manner of stars appeared on the show including teen heartthrobs The Osmonds and David Cassidy.

"When they came to the studio we had to close all the roads round the BBC because there were so many screaming kids.

"Over the years I met them all from Rod Stewart to whoever was in the music business and many of them are big stars still around today.

"My particular favourites were probably some of the sports stars, especially Bobby Charlton who was always a gentleman. I used to watch football and cricket a lot and invite them on the show - we are all entertainers in our own way and we were drawn together."

Behind the scenes at Radio One Ed says all the presenters got on but they were like ships passing in the night as there "was no DJ common room and a lot were not drinkers or socialisers."

In those days Ed was playing records- both 45s and 33s- sometimes complete with scratches. The producer put it all in order but whilst some programmes were scripted Ed's was spontaneous involving reading out many letters from his huge postbag.

Apart from visiting hospitals for requests he got listeners to send in their own request on cassette.

He recalls one of the most exciting and bizarre requests came from the late Queen Mother.

He was compering at some Girl Guide event, which Princess Margaret was attending. The princess came up to Ed and asked if it would be possible to request a record for the Queen Mum's 80th birthday to play on his show.

"I said find out what she would like and phone me at the BBC but Princess Margaret said oh no I will never get through to you at the BBC - give me your home number and I will call you there'.

"After some discussion between Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother Ed received the request - she wanted to hear him play Car 67 by Driver 67, a one-off (No 7) hit of 1978 by a brummy DJ.

"It was the story of a minicab driver whose boss asked him to pick up at number 43 and he says oh no I can't go there because it's my ex-girlfriend's house'. It was a story of human pathos and the Queen Mother loved it!"

A similarly unusual royal request came from Viscount Lindsay and Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones who asked him to play Don't Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie!

Ed presented Junior Choice on Radio One for 12 years. Although a Radio One show, Junior Choice was also heard on Radio 2 until 1978 due to the higher sound quality.

The regular playlist included many pop singalongs like My Brother by Terry Scott, Nellie the Elephant by Mandy Miller, You're a Pink Toothbrush by Max Bygraves and Jake the Peg by Rolf Harris.

Ed has worked on and off for BBC radio right up until 16 months ago when they decided not to renew his contract presenting a Sunday night reunion show which included a blend of music, chat, listeners' letters and where are they now reunion feature'.

On his final show last April Ed said he had been touched by the listeners' many letters saying how much they would miss both him and his music when many said they had listened to him since his Junior Choice days.

The last record of the show was Always Look on the Bright Side of life by Eric idle.

Ed, who is now 66, says: "It's always disappointing when your contract isn't renewed" and should his Junior Choice show prove a massive hit again on Sunday he would love to do it all again: "I'm open to anything!".