Alan Whicker

Alan Whicker, who has died at his home in Jersey aged 87, was one of the most popular faces on British television for almost six decades, probably best-known for the globetrotting documentary series Whicker's World which he presented from 1959 until 1990. In that series, one of the longest-running in television history, he uncovered the eccentric, the ludicrous and, as if by accident, the most touching aspects of the human condition in the farthest-flung areas of the globe.

The thick-rimmed spectacles, the Vegas gambler's moustache, the cheeky-but-incisive smirk, the double-breasted suits with cravat, and the vaguely-sarcastic voice – which many, including Clive James, attempted to emulate – set him apart from his generation of journalists and broadcasters. His dash, coupled with his ability to put even the world's worst dictators at ease – at least until Whicker and his crew got out of the country and nailed them for what they were – set him above all the rest. Whicker had no licence to kill, only a licence to inform, but he would have made a great Bond.

At the peak of his career he was a national institution, once voted "the most-envied man in the country" in a newspaper poll because of his mixture of suaveness, charm and constant globetrotting at someone else's (the BBC's) expense. OK, that meant it was at our expense, but no-one was complaining in those days. "Alan won that poll by a country mile!" his longtime partner Valerie Kleeman said yesterday after his death. "On this, his last journey, he will arrive curious, fascinated and ready for a new adventure."

Alan Donald Whicker was born in Cairo to British parents, his father having been posted overseas. Although the family moved back to England when he was a child, those early experiences of a totally different land and culture clearly affected the rest of his life and his need to travel. He attended the historic Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, at that time in London though now in Hertfordshire, before joining the army in the midst of the war when he was 18.

He was still only 19, as part of the army's film and photo unit, when he was among the first allied forces to enter Milan in April, 1945, after its liberation. A few days later he filmed and took pictures of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who was summarily executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans. Mussolini's body had been taken to Milan and hung by the feet outside a petrol station so that Italians and the world could be sure he was dead. (His old ally Adolf Hitler killed himself in Berlin two days later).

After the war, Whicker became a journalist and radio broadcaster, covering the Korean conflict of the early 1950s, during which he was reported to have been killed. Rather than Mark Twain's famous quote about reports of his death having been exaggerated, Whicker cabled his London office in wonderful, economic journalese: "Unkilled. Uninjured. Onpressing." Back in London, he joined the BBC in 1957 and became a reporter for the famous Tonight programme on TV, working with the great presenter Cliff Michelmore. His delivery and distinctive voice as a reporter on that programme won him the new series Whicker's World in 1959, with its jazzy theme tune, West End by the Laurie Johnson Orchestra, and opening sequences which usually involved aircraft taking off to reveal the words Whicker's World on the tarmac and showing Whicker enjoying the drinks trolley on board. The programme quickly and consistently hit the top 10 in the television ratings.

Among his most famous programmes were an interview in 1969 with the notorious dictator of Haiti, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, whose Tontons Macoute militamen were at the time killing opponents ruthlessly. "Every country should have a strongman," Duvalier told him. Whicker said later it was one of the times he most wanted to get safely onto an aeroplane and into international airspace. In 1960 Whicker visited beatniks living in Newquay, Cornwall, who said they were ostracised by the locals and couldn't get a drink or a cup of tea because of their long hair, sandals and bare feet. By chance, the star of the programme turned out to be a young guitar-playing folk singer called Wizz Jones who paraphrased a traditional folk number to sing: "And it's hard times in Newquay if you got long hair." (Bob Dylan later made the tune famous as Hard Times in New York Town). The irony was that with his moustache and thick glasses, but without his long hair, Jones might have been a dead ringer for Whicker.

There was once a saying among politicians that you hadn't made it until you were on Spitting Image and among television celebs that "you haven't made it until Monty Python's done you". Whicker made it. John Cleese and his cohorts did a sketch called Whicker Island, in which all the inhabitants of a Caribbean island – the Python cast – were Whicker clones dressed in identical grey suits and imitating his famous nasal delivery. Their problem, they said, was that "there just aren't enough rich people to interview". The Python episode's final credits famously added "Whicker" to the names of the entire crew and production staff. In 1981 the UK funk group The Evasions had a top 20 hit titled Wikka Wrap, a rap song sung in Whicker style. As always, the man himself saw the funny side.

After his fame reached the US he was visiting once when he heard of an Alan Whicker impersonation contest. He entered for a laugh and reportedly came only third.

As one fan commented after Whicker's death: "So goodybye, Alan, a true national icon and class act from another time, finally getting to go somewhere he's never been before."

Alan Whicker died at his home in Jersey on the Channel Islands after suffering from bronchial pneumonia. He is survived by Valerie, his partner of 44 years.