LISTENERS have certainly rallied to the defence of Jim Bowen. All week callers to the show have been asking about the 65-year-old presenter and asking for his return.

The line of 'political correctness gone mad' is the mainstay of his defence - and the fact that no complaints were received by the radio station.

Scores of Lancashire Evening Telegraph readers remember the days when 'nig-nog' meant one thing and one thing along - idiot.

Ray Holt, of Blackburn, keenly remembers being called a 'nig-nog' during his National Service by his superiors.

He said: "I can assure readers that there wasn't a black person in sight but we were all deemed nig-nogs at some stage or other."

Another, Susan Smith, of Blackburn, recalls the phrase being used affectionately as a child to mildy rebuke somebody."Certainly, no racial abuse was intended by the remark -- racial issues were yet to be invented. For an excellent presenter and a great charity worker to lose his job over such a trivial matter is disgusting."

LET columnist Margo Grimshaw, who has known the presenter for many years, remembers a time in her days at the Jubilee when they had Nigerian customers who would regularly pop in.

She said: "They came in regularly and played cards and dominoes in the vault.

"We called them Paddy, Ace and Sam and they called me Snowflake.

"We thought it was funny, they thought it was funny and they were accepted, they were one of the lads.

"I think if the great and good left us alone, we the black, brown, yellow, white and coffee-coloured would work out our own methods of communication."