TRIBUTES have been paid to the globe-trotting broadcaster Alan Whicker, who brought the lives of the jet set into millions of homes for more than 60 years, following his death aged 87.
Whicker succumbed to bronchial pneumonia yesterday at the house in Jersey where he lived with his partner Valerie Kleeman.
He presented Whicker's World and also sent himself up in a series of memorable Barclaycard TV advertisements from some exotic locations.
Michael Palin was one of the Monty Python's Flying Circus team who parodied his presenting style in a TV skit in which all the inhabitants of a sunshine island dressed imitated him. He said yesterday Whicker was "a great character, a great traveller and an excellent reporter".
Presenter and writer Stephen Fry said Whicker's death was sad news.
Fellow reporter turned presenter Sir Michael Parkinson said he was "a fine journalist and great storyteller".
Actor Martin Kemp said Whicker had "introduced him to the world".
Judith Chalmers, former presenter of the BBC's Holiday programme, said he had encouraged people to travel to far flung places, adding: "Wherever Alan Whicker went, people wanted to go."
Egypt-born Whicker fronted the show from 1958 to 1998, on the BBC and ITV. The former war correspondent had been on BBC's Tonight programme, before being given his own programme. He interviewed Joan Collins, Peter Sellers, the Sultan of Brunei, reclusive billionaire John Paul Getty and the Haitian president Papa Doc Duvalier in his distinctive relaxed style.
Ms Kleeman said she is "lucky to have shared" his life. She added: "A few years ago a poll asked who was the most envied man in the country– and Alan won by a country mile.
"He said that he didn't know where work ended and private life began. Quoting Noel Coward, he would say 'work is more fun than fun'.
"On this last journey he will arrive curious, fascinated, and ready for a new adventure."
Whicker was honoured with the Richard Dimbleby Award at the Baftas in 1978 for his contribution to broadcasting. He received a CBE in 2005.
In 2010, the presenter named his four favourite places as Bali saying it was an island at the "centre of the universe," Hong Kong, where he had been visiting for 60 years along with Austria's capital. He said the "Viennese have perfected the art of civilised drinking. He also picked Norfolk Island in the Pacific: "A gentle corner of paradise, 12,000 miles from Britain and about 1,000 miles from anywhere else."
He also put his TV success down to luck, adding: "I suppose I was in the right place at the right time. I was working on the Exchange Telegraph [news agency] and I took a leap from there."
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