Producer Wilcox suffers heart attack

Television producer Desmond Wilcox is recovering in hospital after suffering a heart attack at his family's country cottage.

Mr Wilcox, 67, who had a heart bypass operation in 1986, was taken ill with severe chest pain on Saturday morning at the New Forest cottage.

He was flown to Southampton General Hospital and is now in a stable condition.

His wife, TV presenter Esther Rantzen, said: "Saturday was the longest day of my life. The whole family has lived through a nightmare but we are so relieved that he is recovering."

Prolific campaigner

Mr Wilcox had been due to fly to the United States to film an edition of BBC documentary Inside Story.

Mr Wilcox said after the 1986 open heart operation how he had learned to "treasure" every day.

He has been a prolific campaigner for heart charities, and was a patron of Wessex Heartbeat, which has raised money for vital equipment at the Southampton hospital.

Mr Wilcox, who has three children with Ms Rantzen and three from an earlier marriage, said in one interview: "I photograph my children with my eyes each day. It's almost as if I'm not going to see them again."

He added: "I call Esther on her car phone to come back and kiss me goodbye if she forgets, because it might be the last time." But the couple admit they are both workaholics.

Three plane crashes

A pioneer of programmes about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, he is used to working a 72-hour, six-day week, running an independent production company.

He has also survived three plane crashes, an operation without anaesthetic, and a loss of hearing in his right ear caused by noise on the firing range during National Service.

Last year he appeared on his wife's afternoon show, Esther, to talk about his role as chairman of Defeating Deafness, the only national research charity for the 8.5 million deaf people in the UK.