Former BBC and ITN newsreader Peter Sissons has died at the age of 77.
A statement from the Liverpool-born broadcaster’s representatives Knight Ayton confirmed he passed away peacefully in Maidstone Hospital on Tuesday night.
“We are sad to announce that Peter Sissons, the former presenter on ITN, Channel 4 and the BBC, died peacefully last night in Maidstone Hospital, Kent,” read the statement.
“His wife and three children were with him and wish to pass on their thanks to the hospital staff who were so caring and fought gallantly to save him to the end.”
Sissons grew up in Mossley Hill and attended Dovedale Junior School alongside John Lennon before later studying at the Liverpool Institute with Paul McCartney.
In 1964, he joined ITN as a reporter, covering numerous stories including the Biafran War, where suffered nerve damage in his left leg from a gunshout wound.
Sissons was later appointed as the broadcaster’s Industrial Editor and was responsible for covering a series of high-profile disputes throughout the 1970s.
He regularly fronted ITN’s News at One bulletins and co-anchored its election night programmes in 1983 and 1987 alongside Sir Alastair Burnet and Martyn Lewis.
A year before his first election broadcast, Sissons was one of three presenters on the first edition of Channel 4 News with Trevor McDonald and Sarah Hogg.
Among the stories he anchored included the Lockerbie bombing of 1988 and the dispute between the National Coal Board and Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers.
Sissons left ITN in 1989 to join the BBC, where he succeeded Sir Robin Day as the presenter of Question Time and held the position until December 1993.
He also fronted the Nine O’Clock News and Ten O’Clock News for 14 years.
Liverpool John Moores University awarded Sissons an Honorary Fellowship in 2008, a year before he announced his intention to retire from journalism.
The Hillsborough Independent Panel inquiry enlisted him as part of the process which led to the unlawful killings ruling over the death of 96 Liverpool fans.