Jacobs finally stepped down as a BBC Radio 2 presenter shortly before his death in 2013, his career having spanned more than 65 years.

He had, between 1957 and 1961, established the chart show format of the BBC Light Programme's Pick of the Pops, to which he briefly returned in 1962.

This was a weekly show in which a guest panel reviewed newly released pop records and forecast whether each would become a "hit" or a "miss".

During the 1980s, he hosted a TV series with a similar format, called Questions, for viewers in south and south-east England, made by and shown on TVS, the ITV franchise holder in the region at the time.

He also appeared as himself in an episode of the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em alongside Michael Crawford, presenting a fictional home-improvement show.

Jacobs subsequently presented a weekly programme following a similar format, for a time on Saturday evening and later on Fridays, although the show finished airing in early 1999.

By now one of the station's oldest presenters, he hosted a Sunday late-night easy listening show from 1998 until 2013, The David Jacobs Collection, showcasing songs from Hollywood, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley and continuing the "our kind of music" theme.

The programme regularly featured recordings by Matt Monro, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Vic Damone and Robert Preston among others and its signature tune was an instrumental version of Cole Porter's "I Love You, Samantha" from High Society.

This followed the success of his choice of Maurice Chevalier's I'm Gonna Shine Today as a song to play on the programme.

On 22 July 2013 Jacobs announced that he was stepping down as presenter of his Radio 2 show, citing ill health.

[13] He was vice-patron of the charity Advance Centre for the Scotson Technique,[14] and patron of the Disabled Photographers' Society.

He was also involved in the Celebrities Guild, which Michael Freedland described as "a kind of Jewish Variety Club", and regularly spoke at "ordinary suburban synagogues".

[16] In 1949 Jacobs married Patricia Bradlaw, with whom he had three daughters and a son, but their marriage collapsed in 1969,[4] and the couple finally divorced in 1972.