Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and presenter of BBC Radio 4 comedy show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, has died aged 86.
Lyttelton, who had hosted the "self-styled antidote to panel games" since 1972, was admitted to hospital earlier this week for surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm.
Best known as a musician, Lyttelton began playing the trumpet in 1936 and still toured with his band up until recently. In 1956, Lyttelton's
Bad Penny Blueswas the first British jazz record to enter the top 20.
The spring series of
I'm Sorry I Haven't A Cluewas cancelled this month after Lyttelton was admitted to hospital.
In 1993 he received a Sony Gold Award for services to broadcasting. In 2006 he published an 'autobiographical scrapbook' called
It Just Occurred to Me.
BBC director general Mark Thompson said: "Humphrey Lyttleton will leave an enormous gap not just in British cultural life as a whole but in the lives of many millions of listeners."