Robin Day; BBC Broadcaster

Robin Day, 76, BBC broadcaster who revolutionized British television news with his hard-charging interview style. Day, who anchored two of the BBC’s most important current affairs shows--”Panorama” and “Question Time”--was one of British television’s best-known personalities. With his heavy eyeglasses, polka-dot bow tie and face usually knotted in a scowl, he put an end to the deferential interviewing that had straitjacketed British broadcast news in its early years. Day dispensed with stifling civility, believing it was his job to explain to the public what was going on in politics. Thus, Day, interrupting a monologue by then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: “Can I get this question in, Prime Minister, because we’re having an interview, which must depend on me asking some questions occasionally.” Or, to former Prime Minister John Major: “What kind of Tory are you--Thatcherite fish or Heseltine fowl?” This week Thatcher was among his mourners, saying his death “leaves British political life blander and poorer.” Day, who studied law at Oxford, became a producer trainee at BBC in 1954. He later was chosen to read the news on Independent Television News and became a reporter who relentlessly badgered political leaders for straight answers. He was the author of four books, including a best-selling memoir, “Grand Inquisitor.” On Sunday in a London hospital where he was being treated for heart problems.