Veteran broadcaster remembered for fearless reporting and decades fronting Britain’s breakfast TV

John Stapleton, one of British television’s most versatile and enduring presenters, has died aged 79.

Known to millions as the steady hand of breakfast television, Stapleton was equally at home confronting fraudsters on Watchdog, interviewing world leaders, or reporting from the frontlines of war. Across a career spanning five decades, he built a reputation as one of broadcasting’s most adaptable and trusted figures.

Stapleton first rose to prominence with Watchdog, the BBC consumer affairs show he presented for 232 episodes alongside his wife, the late Lynn Faulds Wood, who died in 2020. Together they became one of television’s most formidable partnerships, exposing scams and fighting on behalf of ordinary viewers.

But his career was never confined to the studio. As a reporter for Panorama, Newsnight and ITV’s World in Action, Stapleton covered global conflicts from the 1982 Falklands War to the 2003 Iraq invasion. His fearless reporting won him a Royal Television Society award and confirmed that behind the genial breakfast persona was a serious journalist.

Born in Oldham, Stapleton cut his teeth at the Oldham Evening Chronicle before moving to the Daily Sketch in London. Like his contemporary Michael Parkinson, he was part of a generation of northern newspapermen who migrated into television at a time when print and broadcast were deeply entwined.

His first TV jobs included researching for This Is Your Life and reporting for Thames Television’s Tonight. By the late 1970s, he had begun presenting on-screen, even hosting the Miss United Kingdom contest in 1976 and 1977—a role he later viewed as an outlier in an otherwise serious career.

His real breakthrough came with Nationwide, BBC One’s hybrid of hard news and consumer investigations, which provided the perfect launchpad for breakfast television. When Breakfast Time arrived in 1983, Stapleton’s blend of authority and warmth made him a natural choice. He went on to front every major ITV breakfast incarnation—TV-AM, GMTV, Daybreak and Good Morning Britain.

Such longevity was rare. While ITV frequently rebranded and reshaped its morning output, Stapleton remained a constant, valued for his professionalism and his ability to switch seamlessly between light features and breaking news. Off the breakfast sofa, he also hosted ITV’s audience discussion show The Time, The Place for seven years in the 1990s.

Despite personal struggles—including Parkinson’s disease in later life and the loss of Faulds Wood after years of shared health battles—Stapleton never withdrew from public service. Together, the couple used their platform to raise awareness of bowel cancer, skin cancer and Parkinson’s, turning private adversity into public advocacy.

Even after stepping back from full-time broadcasting, Stapleton remained a familiar presence on television. As recently as November 2024, he appeared on Lorraine, and only last month he joined GB News’ The Great British Breakfast as a guest.

The Stapleton family legacy continues through their son Nick Stapleton, presenter of BBC One’s Scam Interceptors, which follows in the tradition of consumer protection journalism pioneered by his parents.

Colleagues remember John Stapleton as unflappable, committed and kind. Producers valued his reliability; audiences trusted him to tell their stories with empathy and clarity. From war zones to breakfast sofas, from consumer rights to political interviews, he proved himself a broadcaster who could truly do it all.

Stapleton’s career embodied the breadth of British television in its most dynamic decades. His passing marks the end of an era, but his influence endures every time a journalist challenges injustice on behalf of the public.