Ken's funeral is at 3pm next Friday - November 29th - at Westerleigh Crematorium. This is about 20 miles from Malmesbury off the M4 towards Bristol and quite close to Chipping Sodbury.
If you get an e-mail from Ken's son Fred it says there will be drinks afterwards at the White Lion in Malmesbury. This is in fact Ken's house at 8, Gloucester Street, Malmesbury - a former pub.
The reference to the White Lion threw me at first and I have been there many times.

This obituary appeared in The Times:

KEN GOUDIE
Published at 12:01AM, January 9 2014
BBC journalist who skilfully steered the Today programme through troubled waters

Ken Goudie was the man chosen to rescue the BBC’s Today programme when it went through the most difficult period in its history. In 1977, the then Controller of Radio 4, Ian McIntyre, had deemed that reducing the programme from two hours to one would improve its quality. So he cut Today into two 30-minute segments and filled the gaps with a programme called Up to the Hour, a mish-mash of weather, trails, music, sport and the Thought for the Day slot.

The new programme was hosted by Radio 4 announcers, one of whom, Peter Donaldson, echoed the derision with which the programme was held by most within the BBC by thanking listeners on-air for not re-tuning to Radio 2. He even distanced himself from it by announcing himself as Donald Peterson. Eventually, after a few months, the BBC’s Director-General Ian Trethowan declared e demanded that Today be restored to its previous format.

Ken Goudie was chosen to put the programme back on its feet. As the assistant editor of the newsroom, he was regarded as a safe pair of hands. His acute news sense, authority and affability were the qualities necessary to calm the troubled waters.

It was the highpoint of a journalistic career that had begun at the age of 15 when he joined his local paper, the Gloucestershire Echo. Kenneth Wallace Goudie had been born in Amersham, Bucks in 1926 but had moved to Cheltenham as an infant when his father was moved there as an accountant for a construction company building airfields. Goudie’s first task was to interview mothers who had lost loved ones during the war — a difficult rite of passage for a cub reporter. In 1944, at the age of 18, he was called up by the RAF and served in clerical positions in Singapore, Burma and India.

He returned to the Echo after demob in 1947. Six years later, after his father had taken a job in New Zealand, he decided to emigrate there only to return with his mother within a year after the marriage failed. In 1954, he became a reporter with the Press Association, sharpening his journalistic skills. He was exactly what BBC radio was looking for when boosting its news output and he joined the corporation in 1957 as a sub-editor. By 1978, when he moved to Today, he had risen to the post of assistant editor.

Today proved an immediate challenge. Aside from rectifying a wrong-headed experiment, there was an initial resentment from the current affairs department at the arrival of an interloper from news. There was a personal rivalry between presenters Brian Redhead and John Timpson that would need careful management, and there was a tendency for producers to push single issue causes which Goudie wanted to stop. After the 1979 election of Margaret Thatcher, who viewed the BBC with suspicion and refused to appear on the programme, the editor of Today became an increasingly politically sensitive post. This was particularly so as the Troubles in Northern Ireland worsened.

Goudie proved an able diplomat who exuded a calm sense of authority even in the most trying circumstances. He is said to have presided over the programme “like a benign Buddha”. A cultured man, in quieter moments he would put on earphones and listen to Radio 3. Goudie changed the atmosphere within the programme too, casting aside aloofness to join his staff on frequent visits to pubs and local Indian restaurants where his appetite became legendary.

A big shambling bear of a man, he was affectionately known as “two dinners Goudie”. He once went for a BBC medical and as the doctor pushed more and more weights across the scales, Goudie inquired: “A little overweight am I doctor?” The reply came: “Well according to my chart you should be 8ft 6in.” Despite this imposing presence, he was soft as a manager of people. When a foreign correspondent was brought back for a pep talk, Goudie was deputed to tell him to pull his socks up. He took him to lunch but admitted afterwards that he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

He spent three years at Today before moving to the more tranquil pastures of The World Tonight in 1981 which he edited until he left the post through “waning powers”, a BBC term used for enforcing retirement. One of his colleagues, the late Michael Vestey, was so taken by the phrase that he used it as the title of a satirical novel about the BBC. Retirement meant more time for Goudie to indulge his love of steam railways and for classical music. He is survived by a son Fred and a daughter Lucy.

Kenneth Goudie, journalist, was born October 26,1926. He died on November 19, 2013, aged 87

My attention has been drawn to the curious,inaccurate post by Webb.  To correct the record: Ken and I  chose two clips of Britten's music independently.  He chose the first Sea Interlude from Peter Grimes; I chose the second interlude - both "quintessentially Britten".    The Young Person's Guide was chosen by the summaries desk for use on Radios One and Two. This may have been suggested or approved by Ken.  I had no say in this - I was a Senior Duty Editor (not an Assistant Editor)  at that stage.  Britten died  at a weekend.  I was on a night shift; the news broke just before the 9am news and I put it out on Radio Four with a clip of the first sea interlude selected by Ken.  I hope now that Webb will sleep  easy, knowing that Ben was treated with due respect.

At the risk of stirring up another controversy, I always thought Ken did not favour von Karajan. At any rate, he approved of my dropping off to sleep during a performance by the above named in (then West)Berlin at the opening of a new concert hall.
Why did I fall asleep? Well I was rather tired, on a Today freebie, along with one Peter Gallimore.
Enough said.