Tributes for newsreader Sissons after death at 77

Journalist: Peter Sissons FORMER colleagues have paid tribute to ex-BBC and ITN newsreader Peter Sissons, who has died at the age of 77.

Sissons, whose broadcasting career spanned more than 40 years, died on Tuesday while surrounded by family, his agent said in a statement.

“We are sad to announce that Peter Sissons, the former presenter on ITN, Channel 4 and the BBC, died peacefully last night in Maidstone Hospital, Kent.

“His wife and three children were with him and wish to pass on their thanks to the hospital staff who were so caring and fought gallantly to save him to the end.”

Sissons was a familiar face for decades as a newsreader, joining ITN in 1964 after graduating from Oxford University.

Sissons joined the BBC in 1989 as presenter of Question Time, as well as joint presenter of the Six O’Clock News.

He moved to the Nine O’Clock News in 1994 and stayed with the programme until it moved to its new time of 10pm.

He retired from broadcasting in 2009 and was considered at the time to be one of the UK’s longest-serving news presenters.

The BBC’s director-general Tony Hall was among the people from the broadcasting world paying tribute to the news anchor.

Lord Hall said: “Peter Sissons was one of the great television figures of his time, as an interviewer, presenter and world-class journalist.”

Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan said that Sissons was “an excellent journalist and TV newsreader, and splendidly combative and amusing man”.