Dame Jenni was 'broadcasting giant', says co-presenter

Dame Jenni Murray was a "broadcasting giant", her long-time BBC South Today co-presenter Bruce Parker has said.

Dame Jenni, who hosted BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour for more than three decades, died at the age of 75 on Friday.

She began broadcasting in 1973 on local radio in Bristol, before presenting BBC South Today between 1978 and 1983.

Parker, who worked on South Today from 1967 until 2003, said it was "no coincidence" that the news programme became so successful after Dame Jenni came on the sofa.

Parker said: "She managed to be able to talk to anyone and that is a broadcasting skill.

"People liked her, she was jolly, she was a very good journalist, she dealt with facts not fiction and she didn't mind what questions she asked either."

He said it was unique for the time to have a man and woman presenting the show as a pair.

"We had a wonderful duo together and so much so that I think people thought we were almost married," Parker added.

"I'd go somewhere in public and they'd say, 'where's Jenni?,"

He jokingly reminisced about how cluttered her desk used to be in their shared office, adding: "She was terribly untidy."

"We had a great deal of fun, but we worked hard and i think it was successful," Parker added.

"It's such a sad moment that we've lost her and we're going to miss her a great deal."

After her time on South Today, the veteran broadcaster worked on BBC Two's Newsnight and Radio 4's Today programme before taking over from Sue MacGregor on Woman's Hour.

She once said it was no surprise that she had chosen to champion women's issues in the media as she "recognised very early on that girls did not have it as easy as boys did".

Dame Jenni announced on the radio in 2006 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

She regularly campaigned to raise awareness of the importance of checking for cancer.