Distinctive BBC radio announcers Patricia Hughes dies aged 90

One of the BBC's most distinctive radio announcers Patricia Hughes has died at the age of 90, the corporation said today.

Hughes started at the BBC as a secretary in 1944, before becoming an announcer with a famed elegant voice.

She appeared on the Light Programme, the Home Service and the Third Programme, now known as Radio 3.

In 1969, following a career break, she returned to Radio 3 until she retired in 1983.

For many years, she was the only female announcer on Radio 3.

In addition to her radio work she recorded a number of audiobooks, including an autobiography of Margaret Thatcher, the BBC said.

She died yesterday at a nursing home in Winchester, Hampshire and leaves a daughter, Emma, and two grand-daughters.

Michael Berkeley, presenter of Private Passions on Radio 3, said she had been an "utterly idiosyncratic voice of Radio 3 for many years".

PA