We were very saddened by the news that Brian Matthew, presenter of Thank Your Lucky Stars for much of its run, died on Saturday.

Brian had only recently finished presenting BBC Radio 2's Sounds of the 60s, after 27 years as host, and was looking forward to making a few programmes for the station in which he would reflect on his life and career in the music business.

After a few years on the staff of BBC Radio, he became a freelance journalist and presenter, but still spent of his career working for BBC Radio. TV viewers got to know him through Thank Your Lucky Stars, which he presented from its second series in 1961 through to 1965, when Jim Dale took over for the final season.

Although he was associated with the pop world for much of his career, through radio shows such as Saturday Club, Easy Beat & My Top Twelve, Brian also presented the arts programme, Round Midnight, for many years, and in 1990 won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for outstanding contribution to radio.

In the early nineties he interviewed a number of composers for a series of two-hour programmes entitled Music Makers UK, including Lionel Bart, Tony Hatch, John Barry, Don Black, Mike Batt & Leslie Bricusse.

2008 brought him further deserved recognition when he won a Sony Gold Award "to celebrate an impressive record of more than 50 years of national and international radio broadcasting."

He will be sorely missed by his family, friends and fans.