The former presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme has died from coronavirus aged 62.
Richard Sanders died after contracting Covid-19 while in hospital, the programme’s current presenter Charlotte Smith tragically confirmed.
Former colleague Anna Hill paid tribute to her former co-star on Saturday’s programme remembering Richard as a “very good journalist” who was “never afraid to hold politicians to account”.
Mr Sanders worked on the popular programme, which is aired every weekday and on Saturdays, for more than a decade from 1988.
Announcing his death, Anna said: “We finish this morning with some sad news, the former BBC Farming Today presenter Richard Sanders has died at the age of 62 after contracting COVID-19 in hospital.”
Richard Sanders died after contracting Covid-19 while in hospital, the programme’s current presenter Charlotte Smith tragically confirmed today
The TV presenter said of her former colleague: “He was a really good journalist and very proud of his work on BSE or Mad Cow Disease. He won an award for a programme on the subject.
“He was never afraid to ask a hard question or hold politicians to account.”
Anna added that Richard once tricked listeners with an April Fools Day story about ‘milking prairie chickens’.
Farming Today is a radio programme about food, farming and the countryside broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Former colleague Anna Hill said on Saturday’s programme that Richard was a ‘very good journalist’ who was “never afraid to hold politicians to account”
It is broadcast each weekday morning from 5.45am to 5.58am, and a longer programme is broadcast on Saturdays between 6.30am and 6.55am.
Around one million people listen to the programme daily.
The announcement of Mr Sanders’s death follows that of former BBC Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood.
The star, who was 72, died on Friday after suffering from a ‘massive stroke’ on Thursday, her family said in a statement.
The announcement of Mr Sanders’s death follows that of former BBC Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood, 72, who died on Friday after suffering a “massive stroke”
She passed away surrounded by her husband John Stapleton and son Nick by her bedside.
Her heartbroken family released a statement earlier today, saying: ‘Having suffered a massive stroke last night and a subsequent bleed on the brain, presenter and journalist Lynn Faulds Wood passed away peacefully at 12 noon today with her husband John Stapleton and son Nick at her bedside.’
The presenter was best known for fronting the BBC consumer show Watchdog alongside Stapleton from 1985 to 1993.
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