...And he presented every episode of Sky At Night for 57 years, except for one when he was poisoned by a goose egg that had gone off :-). He was an irascible ould bugger, but I felt sorry for him on August 11 1999 when he camped out at Falmouth to see the total eclipse of the sun, presenting the event for the BBC, when the clouds came down to thwart him. At the other end of Cornwall that day, we'd hiked to the top of Sharp Tor on Bodmin Moor, where the totality was going to be about two minutes. Where we lived near Bude the eclipse was going to be 99%, so no corona or Bailey's beads, so we made the 45-minute journey to Sharp Tor. We were incredibly lucky in that the clouds parted just after 11, so we saw the whole thing in all its glory, and, because we were elevated, we saw the shadow rushing towards us and rushing away again just as quickly. I think we were probably the only people in Cornwall who saw it all!

His fiancée was killed in the war and he never married, regarding her as the one and only love of his life, living afterwards with his mum for decades. I suppose his world view might have expanded more in different circumstances. I'll forgive him. He did me no harm, and look at me now!

(He ducks...)