Peter Sissons: Former BBC and ITN newsreader dies at 77 – BBC News, BBC News

        

                                                          

Peter Sissons, the former BBC and ITN newsreader and Question Time host, has died at the age of 77.

Sissons joined ITN in the 1960 s before moving to the BBC in 1989 to present Question Time and the Six O’Clock News.

BBC director general Tony Hall described him as “one of the great television figures of his time”.

Tributes also came from such figures as Piers Morgan and BBC presenter Simon McCoy, who said Sissons was “a great journalist and a fine presenter“.

Good Morning Britain hostMorgan hailed him as“an excellent journalist and TV newsreader, and splendidly combative and amusing man”.

Born in Liverpool in 1942, Siss ons joined ITN in 1964 as a writer, and became a reporter three years later.

He earned his foreign correspondent’s spurs when he was wounded by gunfire in Biafra in 1968. He was promoted to ITN’s news editor and then industrial editor before becoming a presenter of ITN’s News at One in 1978.

                                                                                                                          

He later moved to Channel 4 to present the channel’s early evening news before joining the BBC in 1989. At the corporation, he hosted Question Time until 1993, and also presented the Nine O’Clock News and 10 O’Clock News.

(In) , he faced criticism for wearing a burgundy-colored tie rather than the customary black when breaking the news of the Queen Mother’s death .

Sissons retired from broadcasting in 2009. Two years later, he published an autobiography in which he criticized the BBC for having what he saw as a left-wing bias.

Lord Hall said: “Peter Sissons was one of the great television figures of his time – as an interviewer, presenter and world-class journalist. During his distinguished career he was one of the most recognisable and well-respected faces of television news.

“He was always a great person to be with and to work with. He will be missed by his many friends and colleagues and our thoughts are with his family. “

A statement from Sissons’ management company said he “died peacefully” in Maidstone Hospital in Kent on Tuesday.

“His wife and three children were with him and wish to pass on their thanks to the hospital staff, “it added.

                                                                                                                      

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