Another old Al

Alan "Goodness Gracious" Green joined the BBC as a News Trainee on April Fools Day, 1975, and is now preparing ungraciously for his exit.

He's told Henry Winter in The Times that his BBC contract ends in the summer: “They have shown me very little respect in how that is ending. I feel a mixture of disappointment and anger. I don’t think it’s justified. I was basically told, ‘You don’t fit our profile.’ I got a fair idea of what they meant by just listening to the output over the last year or so. There isn’t an ageist, sexist, racist bone in my body. I only care about ‘Can somebody do the job?’ There are new people in favour. They match the requirements in terms of ‘bants’ — banter with presenters.”

Mr Green started commentating in 1981, at just 29.  He was dismissive of football phone-ins, which started on 5Live in 1991 with Danny Baker, then David Mellor, Richard Littlejohn, Adrian Chiles, DJ Spoony and others - then he got the gig in 2000. He was dropped in 2013.

He's not always been the most helpful colleague. He's been censured by Ofcom. And he's been combining his BBC duties with work in Atlanta.