Radio Four journalist and veteran BBC foreign correspondent Sir Charles Wheeler CMG has died from Lung Cancer.
Charles was a popular Newsnight and Panorama presenter, and was most recently working on a documentary programme for BBC Radio Four about the Dalai Lama almost until he died.
BBC Director-General Mark Thompson led the tributes, saying: "To audiences and to his colleagues alike Charles Wheeler was simply a legend.
"His integrity, his authority and his humanity graced the BBC's airwaves over many decades. He is utterly irreplaceable but like everyone else, I am privileged to have worked with him."
Radio 4 Controller Mark Damazer said: "Charles Wheeler embodied all that is best in the BBC's journalism. He had a brilliant eye and an unequalled ability to convey what he saw and what he knew.
"His work for Radio 4 over the last decade demonstrated his astonishing range – dealing with central and eastern Europe – but also, and superbly, with the legacy at home of World War Two. The documentary series Coming Home in 2005 was the Radio 4 highlight that year.
"He was working for Radio 4 almost until he died, on a programme about the Dalai Lama. Everything he did was shot through with his compassion and wisdom. He was magnificent."
