The man who travelled 100,000 miles a year

"Those who cater for the public taste have always found the monstrous a profitable preoccupation."

The man who interviewed Papa Doc Duvalier, Peter Sellers, Paul Getty, Paraguay's last Fascist dictator Alfredo Stroessner, Harold Robbins, the Sultan of Brunei, and Joan Collins - and was equally at home reporting on atrocities in war-torn Korea, the rise of the Gay Rights Movement in San Francisco, refugee boat people in Hong Kong or the glitteringly unreal world of the mega-rich in Palm Beach - Alan Whicker's inimitably suave, calm manner of presenting the facts and getting to the truth (usually in far-flung exotic locations) made him an instant television favourite (and target for satirists) in the 60s and 70s.

On his retirement in the 90s, broadcasting was never quite the same again.

Here he is interviewing Christopher Lee in 1968 in a golf cart (and why not?):

Alan Whicker in Los Angeles

RIP Alan Whicker CBE (2nd August 1925 – 12th July 2013)