{"id":34438,"date":"2025-09-21T11:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T11:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/34438\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T11:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T11:26:08","slug":"veteran-broadcaster-john-stapleton-dies-aged-79-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/34438\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran broadcaster John Stapleton dies aged 79 | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broadcaster John Stapleton – a familiar face on news and current affairs shows for decades – has died.<\/p>\n

The 79-year-old, who had Parkinson’s disease, died peacefully in hospital this morning.<\/p>\n

Stapleton appeared on well-known programmes such as Watchdog, Nationwide, Newsnight, Good Morning Britain, Panorama, and GMTV’s News Hour.<\/p>\n

He was also one of the original Sky News presenters.<\/p>\n

Stapleton’s agent, Jackie Gil, said his Parkinson’s had been “complicated by pneumonia”:<\/p>\n

“His son Nick and daughter-in-law Lisa have been constantly at his side and John died peacefully in hospital this morning,” said a statement.<\/p>\n

Former colleagues have been paying tribute to Stapleton’s warmth and professionalism.<\/p>\n

Sky News’ Mark Austin posted on X: “Incredibly sad. A good man and top presenter who could turn his hand to anything.”<\/p>\n

Good Morning Britain’s Charlotte Hawkins called him a “brilliant broadcaster” and a “genuinely lovely man”.<\/p>\n

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Fellow GMB presenter Susanna Reid said on X that Stapleton was a “legend in broadcasting” and “always good-humoured and gracious to work with”.<\/p>\n

LBC’s Iain Dale called him a “great interviewer” with “a real instinct for the mood of a nation”.<\/p>\n

“I worked with John Stapleton on Central Weekend Live for many years,” added the BBC’s Nicky Campbell.<\/p>\n

“He was a good friend, a kind, wise and very funny man and he was a broadcasting giant.<\/p>\n

“Effortless, relaxed and incisive. A steel hand in a velvet glove. My condolences to all who loved him. There are many. Rest in peace my friend.”<\/p>\n

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As a life-long Manchester City fan, the club also posted a tribute on X.<\/p>\n

“John was a passionate City supporter and a regular at the Etihad Stadium,” it said. “He will be missed. Our thoughts are with John’s family and friends at this difficult time.”<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

Image:
\n In the 90s, Stapleton co-hosted a huge debate on the Royal Family. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n

Stapleton was born in Oldham and began his career at local papers in Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

In a career of over 50 years, he would cover many of the biggest news events of the day, interview prime ministers, and appear in shows with millions of viewers.<\/p>\n

In 2004, he was named the Royal Television Society’s presenter of the year for his work on the Iraq War and a series of interviews that included Sir Tony Blair.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
British fighter jets defend Polish skies after drone incursion<\/a>
Duchess of York defends gushing message to Epstein<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Stapleton<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Stapleton and Vanessa Feltz with jockey Frankie Dettori at Newmarket race course in 1997. Pic: PA<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

His wife, Lynn Faulds Wood, with whom Stapleton presented Watchdog in the late 80s and early 90s, died from a stroke in 2020.<\/p>\n

In October last year, Stapleton opened up about his Parkinson’s diagnosis<\/a>, a condition his mother also had.<\/p>\n

“I am fairly pragmatic about the prospect of this getting worse,” he said. “I try to remain positive, because what’s the point of not being?”<\/p>\n

“Speaking is how I’ve earned my living for the best part of 50 years,” he said in the BBC interview.<\/p>\n

“It’s very frustrating sometimes, particularly (when) people are constantly saying to you, ‘sorry, what did you say?’ And you have to repeat yourself, time and time again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broadcaster John Stapleton – a familiar face on news and current affairs shows for decades – has died.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-34438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}