THE wife of Harry Gration has thanked people for their support following the veteran broadcaster's sad death. 

Helen Gration sent a message out through Harry's Twitter account and said: "The boys & I would like to thank everyone sincerely for the beautiful things here about Harry.

"We are in such disbelief that his chair remains empty today & his coffee cup unused.

"We’ll try to reply as much as possible in time. We love him & miss him totally. Helen xx"

The Bradford-born broadcaster joined the BBC in 1978 and Look North in 1982. He presented his last show in 2020.

Known as the face of Look North, he presented around 12,000 editions of the regional BBC news programme until his retirement.

His illustrious career began in sport for BBC Radio Leeds in 1978.

He won two Royal Television Society (RTS) awards for sports documentaries and the RTS Best Presenter award twice.

The news of his death was broken by Look North presenter Amy Garcia at the end of the 6pm bulletin yesterday.

For the last seven years of his time at Look North, Harry shared the screen with Ms Garcia.

In 2019, he became a father again at the age of 68, when his wife, Helen, gave birth to his sixth child.

At the time of his retirement from broadcasting, he said: “For the past four decades, it’s been a privilege to meet the people of the county I love.

“Make no mistake, these good folk are the heartbeat of the programme.”

He said: “I’ve interviewed every prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, covered every major Look North story even at the expense of my holidays, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.”