Veteran newsmen Howard and Hanrahan both dead

British journalism yesterday lost two grandees: veteran BBC reporter Brian Hanrahan, who lost a short fight with cancer, and respected newsman Anthony Howard, who died after an operation for a brain aneurysm.

Brian Hanrahan (above, left), who was 61, was a BBC man through-and-through. A London grammar school boy born in 1949, he joined the corporation in 1970 as a junior clerk in the photo library.

The politics graduate worked his way up, eventually becoming
Diplomatic Editor, a respected correspondent and presenter of Radio 4's The World at One. But it was as a reporter during the Falklands war that he will perhaps be best remembered.

Restricted by the military from reporting the number of Harrier jets
flying from an aircraft carrier, Hanrahan uttered the memorable line: "I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I counted them all out and I counted them all back."

BBC World News Editor Jon Williams today said Hanrahan had been
scheduled to report on the demise of the Harrier – recently scrapped by the coalition government – but had been unable to because of his illness.

Williams added: "He was a big character and television needs big
characters and people who can punch through the screen and be embraced by the audience, and that was Brian's lasting achievement, he was loved by the audience."

Hanrahan's death came swiftly after that of Anthony Howard (right). Howard, 76, was a well-known face to TV viewers where he was often called upon as a political pundit – appearing on Newsnight and Panorama - as well as being a presenter in his own right of Face the Press on Channel 4.

But Howard spent the bulk of a long and distinguished career in print journalism. The son of a churchman, he became president of the Oxford Union in 1955. He was called to the bar in 1956 and always claimed to have fallen into journalism by mistake.

Howard's career quickly flourished and he became editor of the New Statesman, Listener and deputy editor of the Observer. After his retirement he continued to be in great demand as a political commentator and book reviewer for his insight and depth of knowledge, especially about the history of the Labour movement. ·