Richard Baker who introduced BBC's first news bulletin dies

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 7 years ago

Former BBC newsreader Richard Baker has died aged 93, vectornews.eu reported on Saturday.

The son of a plasterer, London-born Baker introduced the first news bulletin broadcast on BBC TV in July 1954.

He went on to become one of the BBC's best-known personalities, fronting the Last Night of the Proms and presenting on Radio 2 and 4.

Baker's son James said his father died this morning at the Sir John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Baker's studies at Cambridge University were interrupted by World War Two.

He served on a minesweeper with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the conflict, attached to the supply convoys to Russia.

A keen amateur dramatist, Baker resumed his education after the war and joined the BBC in 1950 as a radio presenter.  His long career at the corporation also saw him voice children's TV series Mary, Mungo and Midge, and make three guest appearances on Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Veteran BBC journalist John Simpson was among the first to pay tribute to Baker, describing him as one of the "finest newsreaders of modern times".

Richard Baker, who has just died, was one of the finest newsreaders of modern times: highly intelligent, thoughtful, gentle, yet tough in defence of his principles.

— John Simpson (@JohnSimpsonNews) November 17, 2018