Cliff Michelmore

Cliff Michelmore, who has died aged 96, was one of the most familiar faces on British television in the 1950s and 1960s, notably as presenter of Tonight, which ran for some 1,800 editions between 1957 and 1965.

Tonight, the first nightly television news journal, featured short and snappy items aimed at an audience whose attention span was presumed to be limited: men coming home from work; women putting children to bed.

Reassuring and affable, Michelmore was very much the man in charge. At the end of 1957

The Daily Telegraph’s L Marsland Gander had no hesitation in naming Cliff Michelmore as the television personality of the year: “He radiates unaffected friendliness and good humour. Being entirely natural and unselfconscious are his great attributes. Moreover there is real intelligence and wit behind his spontaneous interviewing.”

Although in the late 1950s and early 1960s he was appearing in as many as 300 programmes a year (for Tonight was by no means the only string to his bow), on screen he invariably appeared unhurried and unflappable.

There was keen rivalry between Tonight and Panorama. On one occasion, after an unfortunate camera switch had caught Richard Dimbleby combing his hair, Tonight teased the great man by including a clip of Michelmore cutting his toenails. Born December 11 1919, died March 17 2016