Radio 4 presenter John Ebdon dies

John Ebdon presented BBC Radio 4's Archive Feature from 1961

Presenter John Ebdon, who hosted BBC Radio 4's Archive Feature programme for 26 years, has died at the age of 81.

He had been ill for some time with cancer, his son James said on Saturday.

Ebdon hosted Archive Feature from 1961, opening each show with the catchphrase: "How do you do?" and closing with: "If you have been, thanks for listening."

He also presented Nonsense at Noon, on the archives of the Home Service, from 1965 to 1966 and was the director of the London Planetarium.

The humorous radio host shared whimsical musings on the world and conversational snippets with his listeners.

The late presenter Glyn Worsnip once said of Ebdon: "His facetious patrician tones every third Monday morning, his sense of the absurd, his ear for a word mistakenly out of context, his famous cat Perseus, delighted much of middle England as much as it infuriated a small minority."