Veteran broadcaster Derek Jameson dies, aged 82

Veteran broadcaster Derek Jameson has died, it has been announced.

The 82-year-old, who edited three national newspapers, had a heart attack at his home, his wife Ellen said.

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

He was born in poverty in London's East End where, without parents, he grew up in care.

New tabloid

Jameson began work in Fleet Street as a messenger boy at the age of 14 and rose through the ranks to edit some of Britain's biggest newspapers.

He developed a reputation as a man who could build circulation. When asked to launch the Daily Star - the first new national tabloid for 75 years - he took it to more than a million copies within a year.

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

In 1984, he lost libel action against the BBC after Radio 4 called him "an East End boy made bad".

However, it was the BBC, recognising his gifts as a communicator, which turned him into a celebrity with television series such as Do They Mean Us? and his popular breakfast show on Radio 2.

He went on to present a chat show for six years with his wife, establishing Europe's largest late night radio audience.

I may not have always agreed with him, but I liked Derek Jameson. RIP