Much loved UK broadcaster Dickie Davies dies aged 94

Subject of a Benny Hill skit and immortalised in the song 'Dickie Davies' Eyes' by the satirical rock band 'Half Man Half Biscuit', Dickie Davies transcended his role as anchorman of ITV's 'World of Sport' to become one of the most enduringly popular faces on 1980s television. Davies' deadpan introductions of fringe sports from tenpin bowling to stock car racing played a major part in helping the programme rise from its inauspicious beginnings to become a genuine challenger to the Saturday afternoon dominance of the BBC's rival 'Grandstand'.

But it was his association with wrestling, and its motley collection of out-of-shape stars, including Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, for which Davies and the programme would become best known, despite the presenter admitting in later years that he was never its greatest supporter. "I was never a great wrestling fan," Davies told The Guardian in 2006.

"I never thought of it as a sport, but we used to get six to 10 million people watching it every Saturday, so the success of it can't be denied." Born as Richard Davies in 1928, it was not until he took over as the main 'World of Sport' presenter from Eamonn Andrews in 1968 that he changed his name to Dickie at the behest of his friend, the footballer and pundit Jimmy Hill, who suggested the change during a round of golf. Davies spent his early professional life outside sport, completing his national service with the RAF before taking a job as head purser on the Queen Mary ocean liner.

In 1961, Davies took on a job as an announcer for Southern Television, paving the way for his appointment as an understudy to Andrews when ITV launched its rival to Grandstand, originally known as 'Wide World of Sport', in 1965. When Andrews departed three