My husband, Peter O’Kill, who has died aged 79, was a press and television journalist. He went from Fleet Street to a successful career at the BBC, culminating as associate editor of Breakfast News.
Starting at the BBC in the early 1980s, Peter worked as a producer on the first airing of Breakfast Time, on 17 January 1983. It was a live programme with Frank Bough, Selina Scott, the astrologer Russell Grant, and “Green Goddess” Diana Moran among its familiar faces.
The following year Peter was nominated for a Bafta for the programme’s coverage of the Brighton bombing, together with his colleagues David Lloyd and Sandy McCourt.
Born in Clapham, south London, Peter was the son of Ray, a civil servant, and Barbara (nee Johnson). After the family moved to Croydon, Peter went to St Joseph’s college in Upper Norwood.
His first job was in 1964 as a trainee reporter on a trade paper, the Baker’s Review, before the Bury Free Press and then the Leicester Mercury in 1967, where we met. I was a fellow reporter on the paper and we married in 1970.
In 1969 he joined the Leatherhead and Dorking Advertiser series as a news editor and subeditor, then the Fleet Street Evening News from 1971. This experience, and shifts on the Express and Mirror, led to him running the Daily Star news desk from 1979 before moving to the BBC.
After Breakfast Time, in 1985 Peter joined the Six O’Clock news team as a producer, later becoming deputy editor of the new One O’Clock News, playing a major role in its launch.
In 1988 he became editor of Weekend News and Sport, launching the BBC’s first early-morning TV news on Saturdays and Sundays. In 1992 he was made associate editor of Breakfast News, before taking early retirement from the corporation in 1996.
Throughout his time in journalism, Peter was known for being welcoming and encouraging to new colleagues. For two years he was a visiting lecturer in journalism at Ravensbourne College (now Ravensbourne University London, in Greenwich), and he was involved in the early days of Media Minds Consultancy.
Peter was a lifelong Crystal Palace season ticket holder and his love of football led to him qualifying as a referee in 1982. He was also a keen Surrey county cricket club member. For years he was a banjo and guitar player in the Crawdads trio, performing at the Wallingford BunkFest music festival to raise money for charity.
We settled in Sunningdale, Berkshire. Peter wrote history booklets for Sunningdale and Ascot community organisations, and edited the area magazine for Neighbourhood Watch, of which he was a local co-ordinator. He campaigned to save the Sunningdale Allotments, calling on former local man Alan Titchmarsh to help boost support.
Later in life Peter experienced some serious falls. He was diagnosed with cerebellar atrophy in 2019 and, unrelated, progressive supranuclear palsy in 2022.
He is survived by me, our sons, Dan and Tom, four grandchildren, Maddie, Max, Felix and Alice, and a great-grandson, Chester.
