Cliff Michelmore at Aberfan

Cliff Michelmore belonged to the generation that pioneered television presentation and still possessed a certain decency and an innocence about the medium.

His heyday fell just before the point where my memories of television begin, but I do recall people like his Tonight colleague Fyfe Robertson. He gave the impression that he did not realise he was on television or at least that he was constantly surprised to find he was.

The 50th anniversary of Aberfan, the disaster in which a coal waste tip slid down the hillside and engulfed a primary school, falls on 21 October this year. In many ways it was the first televised disaster, and I do just remember it.

This is Cliff Michelmore's report from the scene on the evening of that dreadful day.