Richard Baker obituary

In July 1954 Richard Baker, who has died aged 93, became the first announcer to introduce a news bulletin on BBC television; up to then it had used just newsreel films. But though Baker came to flourish as a courteous and reassuring dispenser of TV news for the next 28 years, his debut was limited and unseen, beginning with a rather guarded voiceover: “Here is an illustrated summary of the news and latest film of events here and abroad.”

The bulletin itself was read by his veteran colleague John Snagge, with items on the start of truce talks in Indo-China, the end of meat rationing, the Petrov spy affair in Australia and the early tests of the British jet airliner the Comet.

The start-up of ITV in September the following year with named newscasters prompted the BBC to put aside any fears that seeing facial expressions might be distracting for viewers, and make their newsreaders visible. Even then, this was initially limited to late-night summaries, of which the first was given by Kenneth Kendall.

Baker’s first newsflash outside a scheduled bulletin came in October 1955, when Princess Margaret renounced the possibility of marriage to Group Captain Peter Townsend, and from 1957 he and Kendall were joined by Robert Dougall as the regular faces of BBC TV news.

Baker had started with the corporation in 1950, first as a studio manager and then an announcer on the Third Programme, now Radio 3, and returned to his love for classical music, introducing Promenade concerts from the Royal Albert Hall for TV (1960-95), proving a knowledg- able panellist on the quiz Face the Music (BBC2, 1966-79), and presenting programmes with radiant enthusiasm on Radio 2, including Friday Night Is Music Night (1998-2005) and Your 100 Best Tunes (2003-07). He also broadcast on Radio 3 and, in the late 1990s, Classic FM.

His sense of composure – think ing quickly on his feet without betraying the fact – served him well in broadcasting other than news, with its perilous early autocues. He liked to give the impression that he was rather a muddler who could forget where he should be at any given moment, but in reality he was in complete control.

Start the Week (Radio 4, 1970-87), threading together contributions from guests on a weekly theme, was subject to idiosyncratic eruptions from one of its other fixtures, the determinedly provocative Kenneth Robinson. These could not throw Baker or even begin visibly to embarrass him, though eventually he felt compelled to announce on air one Monday morning that Robinson had just made his final contribution to the programme.

Baker came to broadcasting from acting rather than journalism. Born in Willesden, north-west London, he was the son of Albert Baker, a plasterer and caretaker, and his wife, Jane. From Kilburn grammar school he gained at place at Peterhouse, Cambridge, to study history and modern languages. At the university he acted for the Footlights and produced plays for the Marlowe Society. He served in the Royal Navy (1943-46), later becoming a lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Reserve.

In spite of his father’s wish that he should have a “proper” job, Baker tried professional acting in rep at the Dolphin theatre in Brighton, and then teaching, until he wrote to the BBC in search of acting work. It was partly doubt about whether he had done the right thing in staying with broadcasting that caused him to suffer from depression until his career was well established. But by the late 60s, he had become the nearest the BBC had found to a successor for Richard Dimbleby as an anchor man for outside broadcasts of great occasions.

In the late 70s, the BBC decided that journalists were needed for news programmes, and Baker began to be sidelined. He left in 1982, but still had his music programmes: his parents had encouraged him as a pianist, and he also played the cello.

Of his manner at Classic FM, the populist commercial radio station, one critic wrote that he was like a dowager trying to squeeze into a mini-skirt. “That’s charming! How delightful!” said the former naval officer without any discernible irony.

But he was soon back on Radio 2, continued into the new century, and acted as a cruise-ship host for P&O’s Music Festival at Sea (1985-2010). Additional TV roles included narrating the children’s series Mary, Mungo & Midge (1969), three guest appearances on the comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and joining other BBC presenters in a performance of the song There is Nothing Like a Dame on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show (1977). He also took the role of the silky and accommodating Sir Arthur Sullivan in his own staged entertainment, Mr Gilbert and Mr Sullivan.

Baker was a trustee of the D’Oyly Carte opera company, a member of the executive committee of the Friends of Covent Garden, a governor of the National Youth Orchestra, and the author of a number of books on music, the navy and London.

He was appointed OBE in 1976, declared TV newscaster of the year three times in the 70s, and in 1996 won a Sony Gold award for lifetime achievement in radio. As a member of the Broadcasting Standards Council (1988-93), he did much to defuse complaints against his industry.

In 1961 he married Margaret Martin. She survives him along with their two sons, Andrew and James.

• Richard Douglas James Baker, broadcaster, born 15 June 1925; died 17 November 2018

• Dennis Barker died in 2015