POPULAR broadcaster Cliff Michelmore, who lived at South Harting, has died at Petersfield Hospital at the age of 96.

He was often seen out and about in Petersfield, and he was a familiar figure to many people after a career of more than 60 years covering major news stories, including the assassination of President Kennedy and two general elections.

He famously anchored the BBC’s coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing with The Sky at Night presenter Patrick Moore. His wife Jean Metcalfe, with whom he had two children – actress Jenny, and Guy, a broadcaster and composer – died in 2000 and is buried at St Mary and St Gabriel Church at South Harting.

Guy said his father was admitted to Petersfield Hospital a week earlier and died last Wednesday.

Cliff started out as a Forces radio broadcaster based in Hamburg, and met Jean over the airwaves as she was the London anchor of the BBC radio show Two-Way Family Favourites.

This included requests from those in the Forces overseas, and Cliff went on to present it with her. Audiences were encouraged to sing along to the signature tune With a Song in My Heart.

He joined BBC television as a reporter in the South West and then moved to presenting. As host of the current affairs programme Tonight from 1957 to 1965, Cliff became a national broadcasting figure with a more informal style of news presenting.

Cliff’s interviewees included Prime Minister Harold Wilson, the Prince of Wales and a 17-year-old David Bowie. BBC’s Holiday programme from 1969 to 1986 introduced him to later audiences and he continued to work on a range of projects into his eighties.