ITV Granada Reports presenter Tony Morris dies aged 57

Morris, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year, had presented Granada Reports for 17 years alongside Lucy Meacock, who described him as a "great observer of people a great listener".

She added: "He was without doubt one of the most humble, kind and funny people I have ever met, and he would often make me laugh till my sides ached.

I am so very, very sad and my heart goes out to his daughters Nat and Becky. A smile from Tony Morris always brightened everyone's day and certainly brightened up the whole of the North West for 17 years."

The journalist, who served in the RAF before beginning his media career, arrived at Granada from BBC's North West Tonight in 2003 and helped the show become the first regional news programme to win a BAFTA with his coverage of the Morecambe Bay Cockle Picking tragedy.

The programme won a second BAFTA in 2013 with Morris presenting, after receiving critical acclaim for Granada's coverage of the Independent Panel into the Hillsborough Disaster.

Morris anchored Granada Reports in the aftermath of the 2017 Manchester Bombing and after the publication of the Kirkup report into baby deaths.

The presenter, who grew up in foster care in Portsmouth, was shortlisted by the Royal Television Society in the Nations and Regions Presenter of the Year category last year and was a big supporter of charities such as the Anthony Walker Foundation.

ITV's Director of News and Current Affairs Michael Jermey described Morris as a "great presenter with an instinctive understanding of what would interest his audience".

"He will be missed enormously by everyone who so enjoyed working with him and by viewers who appreciated his warmth, his incisive questioning and his dry sense of humour. Tony’s death is a great loss to news broadcasting," he added.

ITV Granada Reports will be paying tribute to Morris with a special programme at 6pm on Monday 3rd August.

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