Bryan Martin, who read the news on Radio 4 for many years, has died after a long illness.  Details to follow.

This is taken from the Telegraph:

Bryan Martin
Last Updated: 7:52PM GMT 22 Mar 2009

Bryan Martin, who died on March 4 aged 73, was one of the voices of BBC Radio 4; he announced the death of Elvis Presley in 1977, news of the Iranian embassy siege in 1980, and became the network's senior newsreader.

As well as his routine newsreading duties on the Today programme and other current affairs sequences, Martin appeared in The News Quiz, occasionally introduced The Goon Show, and read the spoof "news bulletin" which always featured in the middle of the comedy The Men From the Ministry.

By 1990 Martin had begun to feel the strain, not so much of the hours, but of the irregularity of his shifts. Furthermore he was unhappy about the decline in BBC standards of his great love – the English language – especially the near-demise of the adverb. In 1992, he decided to take early retirement.

In the course of 30 years behind the microphone, there had been many lighter moments. One bulletin reading: "Sugar shortage – Sainsbury's say there should be sufficient supplies in the shops by Saturday" sent him into a heaving paroxysm.

Bryan Russell Martin was born on May 29 1935 at Ulverston, Cumbria, the son of a stock and share broker who lived in the next street to the birthplace of the comedian Stan Laurel. His father died when he was two, and he and his mother moved in with his aunt. After Ulverston Grammar School he worked briefly for Glaxo; he had always been interested in medicine but lacked the necessary qualifications to become a doctor.

He trained instead at Manchester Royal Infirmary as a medical photographer. On one occasion the umbrellas he used to reflect light on to the operating table (better to photograph the surgery) caught fire and charred remains fell on to the patient. "At least it's sterile," the surgeon remarked drily.

Called up for National Service, Martin survived six weeks of Army square-bashing before it was discovered that he had either flat feet or a heart murmur – it was unclear which – and achieved an honourable discharge.

Recalling his first appearances on the radio as a child actor in Children's Hour when he was about 11 years old, Martin wrote to the BBC and asked for further work. He appeared in a few more Children's Hour productions broadcast from Manchester, including The Mystery of Hold Nickar Mine, with Judith Chalmers playing his sister.

More part-time BBC work followed during his medical photography training, but having qualified in January 1958, he accepted a job at the BBC as a studio manager instead, mainly because he was offered a considerably larger salary than at the NHS.

He travelled round the country from Midland Region to Northern Region, Scotland, the General Overseas Service and London Sound Presentation.

He later became a relief announcer in the Overseas Service (Bush House) and in the regions before being taken on by John Snagge as a full-time announcer in May 1963.

When he joined the BBC, the presentation department covered all three radio networks (the Home Service, Light Programme and Third Programme). Having always been interested in music, Martin opted for introducing as many concerts as possible on the Third Programme, including the Proms, and it was this work that first took him to Snape in Suffolk, where he later settled. When the presentation team was split up in the early 1970s, he was allocated to Radio 4.

Martin was a supporter of the Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead in the early 1970s and organised "An Evening Without Auntie" as a fund-raiser, with contributions from other BBC personalities, including Richard Baker.

During the 1960s Martin continued to act as a freelance medical illustration consultant. During the 1970s and 1980s, he undertook several stints in staff training as Instructor, Speech and also trained British Forces Broadcasting service personnel in Germany, Cyprus and Malta. In Cyprus he was made an honorary colonel so that he could use the officers' mess.

In retirement Martin continued to freelance, for Channel 4 for example, but mostly concentrated on his hobbies of photography, painting, and country pursuits.

Bryan Martin married, in 1959, Mary Hallewell, a studio manager in the BBC World Service; they divorced in 1978 and she died in 1984. He is survived by his companion of more than 30 years, Eileen Jay, and the son of his marriage.