Tributes were paid yesterday to Desmond Wilcox, the broadcaster and award-winning documentary maker who has died aged 69. Mr Wilcox, who had heart problems for many years and underwent two bypass operations, died at St Mary's Hospital in London.
He was honoured recently on TV's This Is Your Life programme and David Jackson, the subject of his most famous series of films The Boy David, travelled from the US to pay tribute.
Mr Wilcox was married to TV presenter Esther Rantzen, who said yesterday: "I had 32 of the best years of my life with him. He radiated warmth and light into our lives and for the moment we fear that we have lost the sunshine we depended on.
"He was working right up until the end, creating television programmes and raising money for the many charities he supported, some of which were actually created as a result of his award-winning documentaries."
She said her husband had wished for some of his organs to be used to help others, a gesture which she felt was typical of "an extraordinarily caring and giving man".
Mr Wilcox, who had six children, was a long-standing member of Bafta, chairman of Defeating Deafness, and also patron of Wessex Cardiac Trust.
The broadcaster Sir David Frost (61) said: "I first met Des when he was the star reporter on This Week and I was the new trainee - we remained friends ever since. Des mastered every aspect of television and off screen he and Esther were a wonderful team."
Gloria Hunniford, who presents the Channel 5 show Open House, said: "I loved him as a man very much. I believe he was one of the great documentary film-makers of our time." Ms Hunniford said she first met Mr Wilcox in the early 1970s when he would visit the BBC's offices in Northern Ireland where she worked.