More than 200 mourners attended the funeral of award-winning broadcaster Desmond Wilcox yesterday.

His widow, TV presenter Esther Rantzen, looked composed and smiled as she greeted family and friends at Golders Green crematorium in north London.

Mr Wilcox, who had suffered from heart problems for many years and undergone two heart bypass operations, died last Wednesday aged 69.

The couple's three children, Emily, 22, Rebecca, 20, and Joshua, 19, were never far from their mother's side yesterday.

Among the mourners were actresses Maureen Lipman and Bonnie Langford and broadcasters Angela Rippon and Nick Ross.

Television stars Henry Kelly, Nerys Hughes and Floella Benjamin were also there.

Mr Wilcox, who had six children and five grandchildren, converted to Judaism and he and Ms Rantzen renewed their marriage vows at a synagogue near their north-west London home in May last year.

Yesterday's traditional Jewish service was conducted in the crematorium chapel by Rabbi Dr David Goldberg, from the couple's liberal Jewish synagogue in St John's Wood. The ceremony opened with the song May to September sung by synagogue soprano Jane Emmanuel.

The rabbi said that it was poignant as Desmond and Esther married in May and he died in September.

He described how Mr Wilcox became a devout Jew and carried in his wallet a copy of the Sherma.

This is a confession of faith which is usually the first prayer a Jew learns and the last he recites before death. It was read to Mr Wilcox in hospital by his family. He also carried with him a letter written by Ms Rantzen after his first heart bypass operation in 1986.

Those assembled heard how, in hospital, Mr Wilcox had whispered to his family that he wanted to be remembered as a ''mensch'', a decent human being.

Dr Goldberg said: ''Esther and Desmond had a real marriage which was loving, noisy and passionate.''

Ms Rantzen was clearly moved as the song She Moved Through the Fair cut through the silence of the chapel. She had sung the song to Mr Wilcox on a holiday in Ireland.

Mr Wilcox began his journalism career in 1949 as a reporter on a weekly newspaper and moved to Fleet Street before entering the field of television.

It was for the BBC that he did much of his documentary-making, including his famous series of films about David Jackson - the ''boy without a face'' - which earned five international awards.