The former BBC newsreader, Richard Baker, has died aged 93. Baker introuduced the BBC’s first TV news bulletin broadcast in July 1954. He then went on to front the Last Night of the Proms and presented on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4.
Early on in life, Baker studied at Cambridge University before serving as a minesweeper with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during WWII. After the war, Baker resumed his education and then joined the BBC in 1950 as a radio presenter. He made three guest appearances on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and voiced the children’s TV show, Mary, Mungo and Midge.
There has been an outpouring of tributes since Baker’s death was announced, including from BBC director general Tony Hall, who said that he: “became the face of news for millions”. BBC journalist John Simpson described him as one of the “finest newsreaders of modern times”.
Click on the link below to watch Baker give his final bulletin:
