Edward Stourton, the BBC Radio 4 presenter who spent a decade anchoring the Today programme, has died aged 68 after a long battle with prostate cancer.
The broadcaster died on Saturday surrounded by his family, the BBC announced. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014, and revealed in his 2023 memoir Confessions that the disease had become incurable and spread. Despite this, he continued working until very recently.
“BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Edward Stourton has died aged 68 after a 12-year battle with prostate cancer.”
Tributes from colleagues painted a portrait of a man defined by his warmth and intellect. James Naughtie, his former Today co-host, praised Stourton’s “warm intelligence and wit”, calling him “one of the best colleagues”. Evan Davis, another former Today presenter, said Stourton was “a very important figure for all of us on the daily news programmes on Radio 4”. “All substance, minimum ego, deeply knowledgeable, totally reliable,” Davis added. “And he was one of the nicest of colleagues as well. He’ll be missed.”
Mishal Husain remembered him as “a true gentleman and a broadcaster of immense capacity and intellect”.
Stourton’s career stretched more than four decades. After studying at Ampleforth and Cambridge, he joined ITN in 1979 and became a founding member of Channel 4 News in 1982. He went on to become the programme’s first Washington correspondent, reporting on the final years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. He joined the BBC as Paris correspondent in 1988, then returned to ITN as diplomatic editor, reporting from Baghdad during the Gulf War, Sarajevo during the siege, and Moscow in the final days of the Soviet Union.
He returned to the BBC in 1993 to present the One O’Clock News for six years, and later presented Panorama, Assignment, and his own Radio 4 phone-in programme, Call Ed Stourton. He joined the Today programme in 1999, bringing his foreign correspondent experience to bear reporting from Lebanon, Afghanistan, and New York after the 9/11 attacks. After leaving Today in 2008, he remained a contributor and went on to present The World at One, The World This Weekend, and the religious affairs programme Sunday.
Jonathan Munro, interim chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, who worked as Stourton’s producer at ITN, said: “It’s far too soon to lose Ed. Unflappable then and ever after. Not many broadcasters can present Today, BBC One’s One O’Clock News, The World at One and Sunday – but he did. He leaves a huge gap.”
Mohit Bakaya, controller of BBC Radio 4, called Stourton “an absolutely outstanding broadcaster” who “brought intelligence, authority and an extraordinary hinterland to everything he did”.
Stourton is survived by his wife, Fiona, and their four children.
