Alan Whicker dies aged 87

Broadcaster and journalist Alan Whicker, who travelled the world in a TV career stretching nearly 60 years, has died aged 87, it was announced on Friday.

Whicker, whose most famous television programme, Whicker's World, ran for more than three decades, died at home in Jersey in the early hours of this morning after a short illness.

He had been suffering from bronchial pneumonia and leaves his partner of 40 years, Valerie Kleeman.

Whicker's World, a combination of travelogue and social commentary, was one of the longest-running series in British television history.

Running from 1959 to 1988, first on the BBC and later on ITV, it returned to the corporation in the 1980s.

He returned to television in 2009 with Alan Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime on BBC2, in which he looked back on his extraordinary career.

Born in Cairo in 1925, Whicker became a journalist after the second world war with news agency Exchange Telegraph and worked as a correspondent during the Korean war.

He joined the BBC as part of the Tonight team in 1957. He was also instrumental in setting up ITV regional licensee Yorkshire Television.

Whicker's face and presenting style – much imitated – was instantly recognisable, memorably inspiring the Monty Python sketch about Whicker Island populated entirely by lookalikes.

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