Paul Vaughan

The broadcaster Paul Vaughan, who has died aged 89, was blessed with a voice that was honey-toned. It was familiar to many on such programmes as Kaleidoscope and Horizon. His knowledge of science and engineering proved invaluable as, in the early days of Kaleidoscope, it was science and arts orientated and Mr Vaughan was its first science correspondent. Over the years it concentrated more on the arts and Mr Vaughan interviewed many leading directors and actors.He combined a fine microphone technique with an air of authority and remained with the programme until it ended in 1998.

Paul William Vaughan's father worked in the linoleum business and he attended Raynes Park County School, Surrey, and in his first autobiography, Something In Linoleum, recalled his happy school days and spoke warmly of his inspirational headmaster whom he described as bullying but beguiling.

In 1943 Mr Vaughan went up to Wadham College, Oxford, to read English but his studies were interrupted when he was called up into the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. After the war he completed his degree and worked for a pharmaceutical company for five years before becoming press officer at the British Medical Association.

His duties included dealing with the BBC series Your Life In Their Hands. He proved so skilled an operator in front of the camera that he decided to move into broadcasting.

Mr Vaughan remained just a voice: one commentator called him the first invisible star of television. He preferred anonymity and the programmes on which he worked were widespread. He provided the voice-over for Horizon from 1968 to 1995 and contributed to such prestigious science programmes as New Worlds, Science in Action and Discovery.

In 1971 he presented The Story of the Pill, which gave an account for the non-medical about the development of oral contraception. Mr Vaughan's informed questions led to a greater understanding and dissolved many of the myths.

The subjects he covered for Horizon included nuclear flask testing, earthquakes and tidal waves and he made them accessible and interesting.

His voice was much in demand as a voice-over for well-known commercials. He voiced such campaigns as Orange's "The future's bright, the future's Orange", Tesco's "Every little helps" and Colgate's "All toothpastes are not the same".

He took immense care with his pronunciation and delivery: never hectoring the interviewee and he was as comfortable with grand stars from Hollywood as with a nervous director at the Edinburgh Fringe.

His second autobiography, Exciting Times in the Accounts Department, lifted the lid on some off-microphone events at Broadcasting House. For example, he interviewed a rather inebriated Laurie Lee after the death of WH Auden. Lee could only manage "a little grief-stricken sob" for the microphones; and hearing Tony Benn exclaim "Goodness it's James Mason" in a corridor of the BBC.

His first marriage to Barbara Prys-Jones was dissolved, and in 1988 he married a BBC radio producer, Pippa Burston.

She, their two children and four children from the first marriage survive him.