Dickie Bird: 'Harry Gration was a great friend, colleague and man'

Harry Gration with his friend Dickie Bird

Tributes continue to pour in for broadcaster Harry Gration who has died aged 71.

Retired cricket umpire Dickie Bird remembered the former Look North presenter, who died on Friday, as a "great friend, colleague and man".

A tearful Bird, 89, recalled how he would "have a good laugh" while staying with Gration and his wife Helen.

"He will be missed. I tell you now, he will be missed," the Yorkshire cricketing legend said.

Bradford-born Gration joined the BBC in 1978 and Look North in 1982. He left in October 2020, a day before his 70th birthday.

During his career had also reported for Match of the Day and Grandstand and commentated on Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

On Saturday, cricket fans at the Headingley Test match joined in a round of applause for the broadcaster.

Yorkshire and England cricketer Jonny Bairstow echoed Mr Bird's sentiments, describing Gration as a "fantastic man".

Harry Gration was appointed MBE in 2013 for services to broadcasting

His Christian faith and philanthropy led to a strong friendship with former Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu, who described him as a man of journalistic integrity who used his celebrity status to help others.

"He didn't wear his faith on his sleeve," he said. "He wanted his charity work to tell people, 'I am actually doing this for someone called Jesus who sent me and people are in poverty'."

Off camera, he was a supportive mentor - something BBC presenter Gabby Logan remembers fondly.

She said: "He let me go to Look North and look around and see what a newsroom was like and see the kind of jobs that people did behind the scenes in TV as well as in front of the camera.

"Without doing things like that for people, someone like me who had no connections at all in television would not have had an opportunity to see what that industry was like."

Former Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu

Former BBC Breakfast host Dan Walker said Gration had a "lovely presence" that meant people "just warmed to him".

He recalled how Gration once stole the show at a golf day in Sheffield.

"There were some big hitters there - Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, Jimmy Anderson, Danny Willett, Matt Fitzpatrick," he said.

"But most people just wanted to talk to Harry Gration because he was a part of so many people's lives - truly loved and truly missed."

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [e-mail] or send video here.