‘He was Mr ABC’: Richard Morecroft remembered as a trusted voice and consummate professional

A gentleman, a true friend, loyal, humble, collegial, a trusted voice and one of the nicest blokes in television: such is how the late ABC news presenter Richard Morecroft is remembered by those who worked with him.

Friends and colleagues of the long-time journalist spoke about his character, professionalism and career at the helm of one of television’s most coveted roles following his death on Tuesday, aged 70.

Morecroft was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and died peacefully with his partner of 36 years, Alison Mackay, by his side and at a time of his choosing, said a post on his Instagram account.

To generations of Australians, Morecroft was a beloved and widely respected presenter of the ABC News nightly bulletin, taking over from legendary TV newsreader James Dibble in 1983.

“When you grew up in Australia when the 7pm news bulletin was an event, it was what people watched, and to have someone presenting that for so many years made him part of people’s sense of family. You never forget that face, and people felt like they knew him,” said former colleague Monica Attard.

“I was never aware of him having a bad word to say about anybody, which is extraordinary in an industry where everyone is having a go at everyone.”

Fellow ABC presenter Leigh Sales, who first met Morecroft when she moved from Brisbane to work in the Sydney newsroom when she was 22, said that despite being a big deal in the ABC in that era, he took time to check if she was going OK and if there was anything he could do to help.

More recently, when Morecroft was confronted with his illness, Sales said he was the same dignified person, taking an interest in the people around him. “And I think all those things came through the television, and that’s why Sydneysiders feel so deeply connected to him.”

Geraldine Doogue met Morecroft in the mid-1980s when her late husband, Ian Carroll, brought them together to co-host The National, which combined news and current affairs in a way not done before in Australia.

“He was the embodiment of very good ABC values,” said Doogue. “A good Adelaide boy, very conduct-becoming, who knew exactly what authority meant.

“He was a beautiful reader, but it was much more than a voice. He was well-read himself. And I always think good newsreaders have to be well-read, otherwise they sound like a sort of parrot.”

The National was a short-lived venture, however. “What we hadn’t fully grasped, I would say, was the fury of the die-hard 7pm types who didn’t get home in time or were mightily aggrieved at both the change in time and focus,” said Doogue.

British-born Morecroft returned to front the ABC News after The National’s short time on air, where his gravitas, stability and authority as a presenter made him an indomitable figure in the news until 2002.

“He was Mr ABC,” said former head of TV news at the ABC Peter Munckton. “I regard him as a friend and as one of the nicest people in the world.

“He sat in a period of Australian television news history in which there was a paradigm shift underway about the type of person and the way the news was being presented. Most news organisations, particularly the ABC, were beginning to move more towards a senior reporter-presenter role, [such as] someone who was a reporter on the road, in a war zone or covering social issues.

“There was a lot of pressure on me as head of news at that time from a lot of my senior colleagues who coveted that role, who were coming back and forth saying, ‘look, you need to put me in there. I should be doing that, and you need someone who is a much more active, on-the-road reporter’,” Munckton said.

Despite that, Morecroft maintained the role until 2002, long after Monckton had left.

Former ABC presenter Tony Eastley, who took over from Morecroft in the 7pm slot, said Morecroft had the temperament to put up with all the vagaries of television news. “His articulation and pronunciation were second to none.”

Morecroft’s environmental advocacy took prominence after he stepped away from the news desk, presenting the nature program Richard Morecroft Goes Wild, and moving to SBS in 2010 to host the Letters and Numbers quiz show with mathematician Lily Serna.

“Richard being such a trusted and familiar face, having been the ABC news anchor for so long, meant that audiences trusted and welcomed him into their living rooms at 6pm as the SBS News lead in,” said former SBS chief executive Michael Ebeid.

“After several years, the decision was made to not produce more episodes. The rusted-on audiences were upset and vocal when we started running the UK version, Countdown, so we brought the gang back together to produce another season.

“Richard, and Letters and Numbers, was so successful for SBS that it continued to have a renewed life through re-runs of old seasons for the best part of a decade.”

Like Doogue, some of Morecroft’s colleagues were surprised at how well he took to his life post television: pursuing his environmental activism, landscape photography, and as a long-time trustee for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a governor of the Taronga Foundation and a director of the Zoological Parks Board of NSW.

“Some people become very hardened working in news and never drop that persona, but not Richard,” said Attard. “It speaks to his character that after he stepped away from the news he was involved in those softer pursuits and living on the South Coast.”

Sales said Morecroft’s authenticity and kindness came through on the many social media posts in the wake of his death.

“The same words come up all the time whether it’s from the most junior person in the newsroom or whether from senior producers who were putting the news to air when he was at the helm, he was just universally respected for his kindness, for his generosity, and because he was a consummate professional,” Sales said.