The TV journalist John Stapleton, who has died aged 79 of pneumonia after suffering from Parkinson’s disease, had a career that spanned reporting and presenting on both the BBC and ITV, in peak-time, breakfast and daytime slots.
He was a popular, friendly face on breakfast TV for more than three decades. After reporting for the BBC’s Nationwide, Panorama and Newsnight, he experienced a baptism of fire on switching channels to join TV-am on Good Morning Britain in 1983 in the months following its disastrous start.
