Former BBC and ITN newsreader Peter Sissons has died at the age of 77.
Sissons – whose broadcasting career spanned more than 40 years – died on Tuesday while surrounded by family, his agent said.
In a statement, Knight Ayton management said: “We are sad to announce that Peter Sissons, the former presenter on ITN, Channel 4 and the BBC, died peacefully last night in Maidstone Hospital, Kent.
“His wife and three children were with him and wish to pass on their thanks to the hospital staff who were so caring and fought gallantly to save him to the end.”
The newsreader first appeared on TV screens in 1964 when he joined ITN after graduating from Oxford University.
He served as an editor at the channel for a number of years, before becoming the anchor of ITN’s News At One.
Sissons joined the BBC in 1989 as presenter of Question Time, as well as joint presenter of the Six O’Clock News.
He moved to the Nine O’Clock News in 1994 and stayed with the programme until it moved to its new time of 10pm.
He retired from broadcasting in 2009 and was considered at the time to be one of the UK’s longest-serving news presenters.
Paying tribute to Sissons on Wednesday, BBC journalist Simon McCoy tweeted: “Very sorry to hear of the death of former colleague Peter Sissons. A great journalist and a fine presenter at ITN and the BBC. #RIP”
Meanwhile Piers Morgan called him “an excellent journalist & TV newsreader, and splendidly combative & amusing man”.