Humphrey Lyttelton dies, aged 86

Jazz legend and radio host Humphrey Lyttelton has died in hospital at the age of 86.

Lyttelton had been admitted earlier this month to the Barnet Hospital in north London, where he underwent surgery in an attempt to repair an aortic aneurysm.

As well as his contributions to radio broadcasting on Radio 4 comedy show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Lyttelton will be remembered for his success as a musician. He started playing the trumpet in 1936 and twenty years later, his track 'Bad Penny Blues' was the first British jazz record to enter the top 20. He later received lifetime achievement awards at the Post Office British Jazz Awards in 2000 and the BBC Jazz Awards in 2001.

Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer paid tribute to Lyttleton. He said: "Humphrey Lyttelton was a great and towering figure in the history of Radio 4 comedy.

"Of course he was fabulously funny and sharp: but more than that he was the definition of a certain sort of wit - self-deprecating, mordant and linguistically brilliant. I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue has been the most successful Radio 4 comedy - and Humphrey its centrepiece."

BBC director general Mark Thompson added: "Humphrey Lyttelton will leave an enormous gap not just in British cultural life as a whole but in the lives of many millions of listeners."

"On I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue all of his gifts were on show, his warmth and conviviality, his wit, his mischievousness," Thompson continued. "He was a unique, irreplaceable talent. Like his many fans, we owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. Like them, all of us at the BBC feel a tremendous sense of loss."