Jameson, who edited three national newspapers, had a heart attack at his home, his wife Ellen said.

He edited the Daily Express, the Daily Star and the News of the World and was also managing editor of the Daily Mirror before becoming a popular presenter on BBC Radio 2.

Jameson grew up in a children's home in London's east end and began work in Fleet Street as a messenger boy at the age of 14

After scaling the ranks, Jameson developed a reputation as a builder of circulation and, asked to launch the Daily Star, he took it to more than a million copies within a year.

He also put on half a million readers at the Daily Express, which languished at less than two million when he joined it.

Jameson launched a disastrous libel action against the BBC after Radio 4 called him "an east end boy made bad" but it was the broadcaster who turned him into a celebrity with television series such as Do They Mean Us?