Leyne joined the BBC in 1985, and provided commentary on the British rowing success at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
[citation needed] In June 2001, Leyne became the BBC's State Department correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. and was less than a mile from the Pentagon when it was hit on 11 September.
In July 2004, he was appointed the BBC's Amman correspondent, during which time he reported from Lebanon and Syria during the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah.
He later became Tehran correspondent, in which he was reportedly expelled, and the BBC's Persian television service was disrupted by "deliberate interference" from inside Iran in the days following the 12 June election.
[4][5] In 2013, he left his Cairo posting because of severe headaches and returned to Britain where he was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour; he died in late July.