Brian Hanrahan, the long-serving BBC foreign correspondent best known for his coverage of the Falklands war, has died after a short illness.
Hanrahan, 61, the former BBC world diplomatic editor, also witnessed first hand the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
However, he will be best remembered for the line: "I counted them all out and I counted them all back," from one of his report's from the South Atlantic during the Falklands war in 1982.
Hanrahan was referring to Harrier jump jets returning to one of the Royal Navy's carriers after completing a combat mission without loss.
He used that form of words to get round military censorship of media reports – and it became the title of his book about the conflict, co-written with fellow correspondent Robert Fox.
Hanrahan died after a short battle with cancer. His BBC career spanned nearly 40 years, beginning in 1971 after graduating from Essex University.
He was on the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes during the Falklands war when the first air strikes started taking place on Port Stanley in May 1982. Naval officials placed severe restrictions on what he could report, particularly in respect of the numbers of sorties flown by the Harrier jets.
Fox told the BBC today that in order to get round the restrictions, Hanrahan colluded with the "raffish Old Etonian intelligence officer" Rupert Nichol, who told him that they had both seen the same number of planes going in and coming back, and "that was the way he should go". Hanrahan turned the idea into the line he used on his broadcast.
The BBC's world news editor, Jon Williams, said Hanrahan "would always be remembered for an extraordinary story and an extraordinary turn of phrase".
Williams added that it was his "longevity" and his "tone" that marked him out. "He could always be relied on to find the right word at the right moment."
As well as the Falklands, he covered many of the biggest foreign stories of the past 30 years as a correspondent on location and latterly, as diplomatic editor, interpreting international affairs from London and travelling widely to provide expert analysis.
From 1983 he covered Asia, based in Hong Kong, observing the reforms of Deng Xioping in China, the assassination of Mrs Ghandi and the succession of her son as Indian prime minister.
He moved to Moscow in 1986 and reported on Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to reform the Soviet Union.
In 1989 he became diplomatic correspondent during a momentous year, covering Tiananmen Square and the collapse of communist regimes in eastern Europe.
He was present in Poland for the arrival of the first non-communist government in eastern Europe; at the fall of the Berlin Wall; and during the Romanian revolution.
As diplomatic editor from 1997 he provided live studio analysis of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US and went to New York shortly afterwards to report on the aftermath.
More recently he has filed for BBC Radio 4 current affairs programmes including The World At One and The World Tonight, as well as contributing to TV programmes on major international and historical events.
Hanrahan was also part of the BBC commentary team for major ceremonial and state occasions including the funerals of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother, the millennium celebrations, the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of his successor.
By:- Jason Deans
Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/20/brian-hanrahan-bbc-foreign-correspon...