He helped launch the late night current affairs programme Newsnight on BBC2, where he was both presenter and economic specialist.
His removal from the Today programme in 1996 was greeted with dismay from its listeners and allegations of ageism were levied at the BBC.
Following his journalistic career, Hobday ran media training sessions for industry leaders and senior union officials, was a visiting professor at De Montfort University, and worked as a conference chairman.
[2] He divided much of his time between London and Italy, and wrote a memoir titled In the Valley of the Fireflies: An Englishman in Umbria (1995).
[3] His brother John Hobday, who predeceased him, took the part of the first police constable in Ambridge in BBC Radio 4's The Archers.