Richard Douglas James Baker OBE RD (15 June 1925 – 17 November 2018) was an English broadcaster, best known as a newsreader for BBC News from 1954 to 1982, and as a radio presenter of classical music.

[2] The eldest son of a plasterer, Baker was born in Willesden, North London, and educated at Kilburn Grammar School and at Peterhouse, Cambridge.

[8] He made cameo appearances in three episodes (30, 33 and 39) of Monty Python's Flying Circus[8] and in the 1977 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show.

[18] The couple had two sons; Andrew, a sports columnist at The Daily Telegraph and James, a television executive at Red Arrow Studios.

[4] Following his death, fellow BBC broadcast journalist John Simpson tweeted: "Richard Baker, who has just died, was one of the finest newsreaders of modern times: highly intelligent, thoughtful, gentle, yet tough in defence of his principles.