This morning I got the news that my friend James Whale MBE died. At this point convention says that I should say that his death came after ‘a long battle with cancer’. But my brave friend didn’t rage against his disease, he took it in his stride, lived every day to its fullest. And I believe him when he said he was okay with the cards he was dealt by life.

We will miss you James; on and off the air we will miss your argumentative streak, but also the way you gave everyone a fair hearing. Sure, the rude bastards and the idiots got sent packing, but I’m sure there are plenty of callers to your shows over the years that are proud to have been sent packing by the Whale.

I was privileged to have the chance to talk about the world with you, on air, around the dinner table or just down the pub. I also enjoyed our phone calls when you’d ring me up for a ‘chat’ on your way to the studio, when you used to try out your lines on the events of the day on me. It was my pleasure to be a small part of the James Whale Show.

And before I finish I need to tell those who were not lucky enough to know you personally what great spirit and humour you lived your life with. What other celebrity would agree to turn on a Christmas lights display by pulling the chain of an antique toilet? And then there was the time you sat in a bathtub, in your pin-striped TV suit, with a thousand rubber ducks for company, while we filmed a commercial for the telly.

James, you are already greatly missed by me, your lovely wife, Nadine, and all your friends, fans and foes, whose paths you crossed, in person or over the airwaves.

Today the world lost an original, and some of us, the lucky ones, lost a friend.

Charlie