Former Essex TV and radio presenter James Whale has died at the age of 74, his employers have announced. His colleague and friend Mike Graham read an obituary on air and paid tribute to Whale, who had been battling stage four kidney cancer.

Known for being outspoken and often controversial, more recently Whale went on to front his own podcast and night-time weekly radio show on TalkRadio. Whale was first diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2000 and then,