Sir Charles Wheeler, one of the BBC’s longest serving foreign correspondents, has died aged 85.

The popular broadcaster with a celebrated eye for the withering put-down worked for the BBC all over the world from 1947 until shortly before his death.

Sir Charles died at home this morning after suffering from lung cancer.

Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, said today: “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.”

As chief US correspondent, Sir Charles covered the assassination of Martin Luther King, Beatlemania and Watergate. He was also well known for his disparaging descriptions of President Ronald Reagan’s famous dislike of reading.

His most famous on-air dig, however, was reserved for fellow Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman. As Paxman tried in vain to conduct a live interview while the Berlin Wall came down he was being drowned out by the noise of crowds and fireworks. Sir Charles’ assessment from the studio: “Jeremy, this is pure Monty Python.”

Sir Charles, the father-in-law of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, made his name in Delhi, covering the Dalai Lama’s flight from Tibet.

He also worked as a correspondent in Germany, Latin America, the US and South Asia as well as broadcasting for Newsnight for 15 years and then becoming a producer for Panorama.

In his later years he was an award winning radio broadcaster for Radio 4.

Sir Charles was critical of the cult of personality in TV news journalism but during his own distinguished career had become one of the best known and trusted reporters.

Mark Byford, the deputy BBC director general, said: “Charles was, in my view, the greatest broadcast journalist of his generation.

“Courageous, insightful and always curious, he had the truly outstanding gift for vivid, beautiful writing matched by a quite extraordinary skill for using pictures and sound to convey the power of his own eye witness reportage.

“As a journalist you saw him as the pinnacle of our profession. His death is a huge loss but his legacy will last forever.”

Sir Charles was born in Bremen, West Germany, and educated in Kent. His career in journalism began as a copy boy at the Daily Sketch in 1939.

He then worked in the naval intelligence unit of the Marines in the Second World War, serving undercover in Germany, before returning to journalism.

Sir Charles, who was knighted in 2006, married Dip Singh in 1962 and the couple had two daughters.

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