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Veteran BBC correspondent Charles Wheeler dies

by Alfred Hermida | July 4, 2008 at 10:11 pm | 323 views | 1 comment

The BBC's longest-serving foreign correspondent, Charles Wheeler, has died from lung cancer at the age of 85.

Wheeler was considered something of a legend at the BBC. As a reporter, presenter and producer, he had covered stories such as the assassination of Martin Luther King and Watergate when based in Washington.

For more than four decades Charles Wheeler, who has died aged 85, reported for radio and television from most of the world's trouble spots, becoming in the process the BBC's longest-serving foreign correspondent.

Though his craggy features and shock of white hair were his most obvious trademarks, they were incidental to an investigative skill and sense of judgment which made him one of the most authoritative reporters of his generation

Mark Damazer, the controller of BBC Radio 4, said Sir Charles was a "magnificent" man who "embodied all that is best in the BBC's journalism".

"He had a brilliant eye and an unequalled ability to convey what he saw and what he knew."

The BBC News website has been soliciting people's memories of the veteran journalist.

I feel a real sense of loss at the news of the death of Charles Wheeler. he was a superb journalist and a wonderful broadcaster. For more than 40 years i have listened with the knowledge that his was a voice of intelligence, compassion and absolute integrity.

Sharon Hancock, Harbury, Leamington Spa

I first watched Charles Wheeler on Nigerian TV in 1988, when he reported on the Democratic convention. His analysis and reporting style totally engaged my siblings & I (all of us of school age). He was able to interest us totally in the method through which American Presidents were chosen (1st time I'd heard of American Party Conventions) - no dumbing down, no gimmicks, just straightforward reporting. God bless you, sir. RIP.

Anne Evans, Hounslow, England