Dick Hatch obituary

Dick Hatch at BBC Radio Wigan
Dick Hatch at BBC Radio Wigan. He was a familiar figure in the town, clomping around in his Lancashire clogs, cloth cap and red braces. Photograph: BBC

When my friend Dick Hatch, eccentric BBC broadcaster, Anglican vicar, lover of John Smith's bitter, Wigan and the Muppet Show, went to meet his maker, his coffin was transported in the back of a VW camper van (his preferred mode of transport) stuffed with helium-filled Kermit the Frog balloons. It was a fitting send-off for Dick, who has died aged 75. He was a flamboyant character, whose religious and secular broadcasts, not to mention his extravagant sideburns, earned him a following in the north-west in the 1970s and 80s.

The son of the Rev Raymond Hatch, and his wife, May, Dick was born in the rectory of St George's Cathedral, Kingstown, on the Caribbean island of St Vincent. The Hatches moved to the UK during Dick's childhood. His father served as vicar in a number of northern parishes and Dick was sent to various schools before undertaking national service in the York and Lancaster Regiment. He studied divinity at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he met his wife, Gill, and worked enthusiastically as an Anglican priest around Manchester for many years.

Then, in 1973, he became the Bishop of Manchester's radio and TV officer. In this role he persuaded BBC Radio Manchester to let him run a hymn request show, Ever Singing, which proved hugely popular. There were regular Ever Singing concerts in Manchester's Free Trade Hall where listeners and choirs joined together to sing their favourite hymns, and Dick was invited to open schools and shows, with fans asking for his autograph. In 1978 Dick resigned from the ministry and became a full-time producer with BBC Manchester, where I met him, and where he worked first as a presenter and later as a news reporter.

He was then seconded to become part of the experimental BBC Radio Wigan. It was only on the air for two months, but was so successful that a post of BBC Wigan reporter was created for Dick. From 1983 to 1992 he was a familiar figure in the town, clomping around in his trademark Lancashire clogs, cloth cap and red braces. An avid supporter of the rugby league team, he went with them on many trips to Wembley. In 1992 Dick became public relations officer for Wigan council, staying there until his retirement in 2001.

Dick was badly affected by the death of Gill in 2005, and in 2007 suffered a severe stroke which left him unable to speak or walk. From then until his death he was cared for in a nursing home, in Chorlton, Manchester. He is survived by three daughters, Elizabeth, Juliet and Veronica.

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