Tributes are paid as BBC broadcast great who launched breakfast TV in Britain after decades as the face of Grandstand dies in care home aged 87

Former Grandstand presenter Frank Bough has died at the age of 87. 

The TV sports personality died on Wednesday in a care home, a family friend confirmed.

Frank is credited with pioneering breakfast television, launching BBC's Breakfast Time in 1983 alongside Selina Scott and Nick Ross - and later becoming one of the highest paid presenters on TV.   

In the days where TV programming began abruptly at 9am, Frank's voice was the first to be broadcast out to the nation as part of a breakfast TV show at 6.30am on January 17, 1983.

Adored by viewers, Frank became known for his smooth, unflappable broadcast style and was one of the best-known TV hosts in the 1970s and 1980s.  

The TV sports personality died on Wednesday in a care home, a family friend told the BBC. Pictured in 2001

The sportsman began his presenting career on Home at Six (later renamed Look North), moving to Sportsview in 1964 - taking over from Peter Dimmock - where he charmed viewers for four years before moving to the BBC's flagship sports programme, Grandstand. 

During his career he anchored six World Cups, six Olympics and at least a dozen Five Nations championships for the BBC. 

Frank was born in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, to an upholsterer father and working mother and was the first of his family to attend higher education. 

He had a childhood full of 'very happy days' growing up with his sister, he told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. 

He won an all-rounder scholarship to Merton College at Oxford University and was awarded funds from the county of Shropshire.

Frank is credited with pioneering breakfast television, launching BBC's Breakfast Time in 1983, alongside Selina Scott (pictured together) and Nick Ross

The presenter, adored by viewers, became known for his smooth, unflappable and in control broadcast style

His enthusiasm for football came to a forefront while at the university - where he was an Oxford soccer Blue, playing 'stop and centre half' at Wembley Stadium in a Varsity match against Cambridge as his parents watched.  

Frank married Nesta Howells in 1959 after leaving the army - where he did his national service in the Royal Tank Regiment - the couple had three sons together; David, Stephen and Andrew.

For the best part of 20 years, Frank chose to live in reclusive obscurity with his wife at home in Berkshire after the shame of two very public sex and drug scandals that brought his career to a premature end.  

One of the country's highest-paid broadcasters - on a reputed £200,000 salary - he was sacked by the Corporation after a red-top Sunday newspaper revealed he had taken cocaine with prostitutes at a Mayfair brothel.

Frank married Nesta Howells (pictured together) in 1959 after he left the army, the couple had three sons together - David, Stephen and Andrew. Pictured: Nesta and Frank in 1993

Frank Bough and Chris Bonnington in a group picture from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment

Frank Bough and his wife Nesta at a dinner in London

Amid a torrent of more damaging revelations, he attempted to stem the tide by giving an ill-advised interview to the now defunct News of the World in a bid to protect his marriage and spare his three sons humiliation. 

It ran the story with the front page headline: 'Frank Bough: I Took Drugs with Vice Girls'. 

In a grovelling mea culpa, he confessed to snorting cocaine with escort girls and drug-pushers and to watching couples have sex at wild parties, though he insisted the drug made him unable to have sex himself. 

Early start: The first episode of Breakfast Time, pictured in 1983, included a champagne celebration. Bough is pictured centre, surrounded by his team

Talented: Frank Bough delivers a segment on the Breakfast programme

Co-hosts: Bough pictured with co-hosts Debbie Rix, left, and Selina Scott, right, in 1983

Frank Bough and Selina Scott, the hosts of Breakfast Time

He said he'd been lured into the world of high-class prostitutes after being introduced to a French-born vice queen.

While he later went on to work for other broadcasters including Sky and London's LBC radio, his career never fully recovered from the News of the World scandal and he retired in 1998. 

In 2001 he had to undergo a transplant after doctors found he had liver cancer. 

He insisted: 'I'm not a wicked man, nor do I mean any harm or evil to people. I've made mistakes, but everyone's entitled to do that. No one suffered but my wife, my family and myself.

'It was a brief but appalling period in my life. Don't condemn my entire career for a brief episode I regret.'

He then claimed a therapist had cured him of his cocaine habit and his 'other life' - 'for good'.  

Television Presenter and former Beauty Queen Debbie Greenwood with Frank Bough at BBC TV Breakfast Xmas Party

Grandstand presenters (left to right) Steve Ryder, David Coleman, Peter Dimmock, Des Lynam and Frank Bough during a celebration transmission to mark the 40th anniversary of the sports programme

Frank fronting a special exhibition stand at Waterloo Station in London where commuters were given a glimpse of programmes on offer from Sky Television, the satellite broadcasting station

Piers Morgan paid tribute, tweeting: 'RIP Frank Bough, 87. Star of Grandstand, Nationwide and Breakfast Time.

'His career was ruined by scandal, but he was one of the great live TV presenters. Sad news.' 

TV astrologer Russell Grant, who presented the Your Stars section of BBC's Breakfast Time, said: 'I am deeply saddened at the loss of an old television friend: Frank Bough was a great man to work with. We launched BBC Breakfast Time in January 1983. Always there for advice and support. 'They' said we wouldn't get on but we absolutely did - chalk n cheese! See you, Frank.' 

Jeff Stelling, who presents Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday, tweeted: 'I met Frank Bough when I was a young reporter. He was kind, helpful and generous with his time. His brilliant career was blighted by scandal but I hope people will remember how fine a broadcaster he was. One of the very best in the business.'

A BBC spokesperson said: 'Frank excelled as a live presenter with the BBC for many years and we are very sorry to hear of his passing.

'We send our condolences to his family and friends.'