Broadcaster and popular newsreader

Born: June 15 1925;

Died: November 17 2018

RICHARD Baker, who has died aged 93, was one of the longest-serving and best-known newsreaders on the BBC, as well as a frequent broadcaster on classical music programmes, notably the Last Night of the Proms and Face the Music, on which he was a regular; he also provided the narration for the children’s cartoon Mary, Mungo and Midge.

Baker, alternating with Kenneth Kendall and Robert Dougall, presented the main BBC television news bulletins from 1955 until his retirement in 1982, though he continued to present programmes on BBC Radio 2 and Classic FM well into the 1990s. During a period when there were only three television channels – indeed, for the first decade of Baker’s broadcasting career, just two – he became one of the country’s best-known and most trusted figures.

His attributes included a mellifluous voice, an authoritative manner and a calm and capable presence which easily dealt with the hazards of live broadcasting at a time when technical hitches were commonplace. Film for each item had to be brought physically to the studio, and did not always arrive on time, while early autocue machinery was often literally held together with Sellotape, which fell apart in the heat of the machinery.

Though – as was at that time the norm – Baker had no journalistic background, he dealt efficiently with such glitches and proved an assured and reassuring presence behind the desk, enhancing the BBC’s reputation as an impartial and commanding voice.

Inevitably, despite the BBC’s initial wariness of allowing newsreaders to appear on screen, he and his fellow broadcasters became national figures; Baker also became a commentator for live outside broadcasts of state occasions, alongside figures such as Richard Dimbleby and Tom Fleming.

Gradually, his fame led to appearances on other programmes: first, from 1966, on Face the Music, a panel game devoted to classical music presented by the pianist Joseph Cooper. The standard and the level of knowledge demanded of the guests was high, and Baker, who had a deep and genuine understanding of music, became a regular.

More light-hearted appearances on other shows followed; he popped up in cameos on Monty Python’s Flying Circus three times, and was one of the celebrities togged out as sailors for a rendition of There is Nothing Like a Dame, from South Pacific, on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special in 1977.

In 1969, he provided the narration for Mary, Mungo and Midge, an animated children’s programme created by John Ryan (who also produced Captain Pugwash), about a girl, her pet dog and a mouse who lived in a tower block. One of the first children’s shows to focus on everyday activities in a modern urban setting, its 13 episodes were frequently repeated throughout the 1970s. Baker later provided the narration for Teddy Edward (1973), which featured a series of still photographs showing the travels of a teddy bear; it too ran for 13 episodes on BBC1, and was frequently repeated until the early 1980s.

Richard Douglas James Baker was born on June 15 1925 at Willesden, north London, the son of Albert and Jane Isobel Baker. His father was a plasterer, but a keen amateur singer, and Richard grew up with a deep appreciation of music, learning the piano, which remained an enthusiasm for the rest of his life. A bright boy, he attended Kilburn Grammar School and then secured a place at Peterhouse, Cambridge, to read history and modern languages.

The war was underway, and after two terms he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve; in 1943, he was called up to serve in minesweepers accompanying supply ships on the route to Russia. In 2015 he, with other surviving veterans of the Artic convoys, was awarded the Ushakov medal. He spent his off-duty hours reading War and Peace and making notes which became the basis for his biography of Admiral Sir Gilbert Stephenson, who founded the Navy’s anti-submarine training unit on Mull in 1940. The Terror of Tobermory appeared in 1972.

After demob, he returned to Cambridge and became involved in the university’s Marlowe Society dramatics; after graduation, he had a spell as an actor, and also took up a post teaching at a London grammar school in 1949. Keen to break into broadcasting, he wrote to the BBC and was taken on, in 1950, as an announcer on what was then the Third Programme (the forerunner of BBC Radio 3).

It was the perfect fit for someone steeped in classical music. The BBC was sufficiently impressed by his performance to add Baker to their roster of prospective newsreaders. His voice introduced the first television bulletin on July 5 1954, though the first edition was read by John Snagge; newsreaders did not appear on screen between the broadcast pictures until the following year, when ITN launched their competing news programme.

Between 1960 and 1995, Baker also presented television coverage of the BBC Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, and between 1970 and 1987, was the presenter on Radio 4’s Start the Week. Other shows for the station followed: These You Have Loved (72-77), Baker’s Dozen (78-87), Music in Mind (1988) and Richard Baker Compares Notes (87-95). On Radio 3 he presented Mainly for Pleasure (86-92) and In Tune (92-95).

He served on the executive of the Friends of Covent Garden, as a trustee of the D’Oyly Carte Opera and as a governor of the National Youth Orchestra, and was three times voted Newscaster of the Year, as well as Radio Personality of the Year for 1984, as well as receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award for broadcasting in 1996.

Baker received honorary doctorates from both Strathclyde and Aberdeen, as well as a fellowship of the Royal College of Music. He wrote several other books, mostly companions to music, including a survey of Mozart’s work. Besides music, his chief recreation was gardening, though he was also to be found at the Garrick, where he was a popular member.

In later life, he and his wife Margaret (née Martin), whom he had married in 1961, and with whom he had two sons, moved to a retirement village, where Baker would cut out the most interesting stories from the day’s newspapers, and read them to the other residents in the evening. He is survived by his wife and sons.

ANDREW MCKIE