Broadcasting legend Sir Robin Day, has died at the age of 76, it was announced today. Sir Robin, best known for his many years on BBC1's Question Time and Panorama, died last night at the Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood, London after a short illness.His close friend Sir Ronald Waterhouse said Sir Robin, who was feared by politicians for his no-holds-barred interrogations, had suffered a blackout but doctors had been unable to find the cause of the problem.Michael Stroud, chief executive of the Wellington Hospital, said that Sir Robin died last night at 9pm.He said: "Sir Robin died here last night. He had been in for a few days for an investigation into a cardiac condition He died very peacefully at 9pm. His family weren't with him but his consultant was."He said Sir Robin had been in and out of the hospital several times over the last year for treatment.. A bid to save Britain's oldest surviving clipper from destruction has been launched by a small group of maritime history experts and enthusiasts. A bid to save Britain's oldest surviving clipper from destruction has been launched by a small group of maritime history experts and enthusiasts. The Carrick, built in 1864 from teak and iron, once broke world speed records carrying affluent Victorian émigrés to south Australia. It now faces demolition because its owners, the Scottish Maritime Museum, have been unable to raise money to preserve its weather-beaten hull or pay the rent for its slipway.The museum, based at Irvine on the Clyde, has been forced to apply to North Ayrshire Council, the local authority, for consent to demolish the Grade I listed vessel. Along with its younger sister ship, the Cutty Sark, it is one of only two ships with the highest level of protection in Britain.The museum's proposal has provoked an international outcry, led by descendants of the vessel's original commander and co-owner, David Bruce, and of its first passengers in Australia, putting the council under intense pressure to reject the demolition application.The council's planning department has received nearly 100 written objections from members of the Scottish parliament, British maritime societies, a retired rear admiral and enthusiasts in the United States, Canada and Sweden.After reading about its plight in The Independent, a small group of enthusiasts based in London, and supported by the Scottish museum, is to mount a bid to buy and restore the vessel, known to maritime historians by its original name, The City of Adelaide.The group, which includes Fred Walker, former chief naval architect at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, south London, plans to restore the vessel to its original state.

It would then be relaunched as a floating museum to rival its sister ship, the Cutty Sark, or as a charter vessel.Nigel Calvert, a City-based arts and entertainments lawyer who is co-ordinating the bid, said they needed to raise £50,000 for a feasibility study on the prospects for rebuilding the vessel, raising the necessary finance and its commercial potential.If the bid is viable, Mr Calvert expects to get financial support from showbusiness "household names". Early estimates put the costs of rebuilding The Carrick's hull, decking, cabins and rigging to museum standardat about £5m. Equipping it as a sea-worthy vessel would, it is thought, cost up to £15m.Mr Walker helped salvage The Carrick, after it sank on the Clyde in 1989, for the Scottish Maritime Museum. He said the 195ft-long ship is the only surviving example of a "composite" wooden clipper built around iron ribs, with copper sheathing the hull under the water line.. Britain's lack of appreciation for its industrial heritage is being blamed for the crash of a celebration of the nation's railways which would have been one of the largest outdoor events in Europe this year.

Britain's lack of appreciation for its industrial heritage is being blamed for the crash of a celebration of the nation's railways which would have been one of the largest outdoor events in Europe this year. The Millennium Cavalcade of Steam was to have brought 40 of the world's finest locomotives, such as Stephenson's Rocket, Flying Scotsman and Mallard, to the North-east.The £3m, August Bank Holiday cavalcade, to mark the 175th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway - Britain's first passenger line - took three years to plan and needed to attract 160,000 people to break even. In the event only 20,000 tickets were sold before an investor withdrew an offer of £150,000. The Rail 2000 company set up to stage the event has since crashed with losses of £700,000 and is currently being liquidated.Amid severe recriminations, some financial backers are now privately accusing Rail 2000 and its chairman David Champion of overpricing tickets. Mr Champion has accused two local councils of failing to offer adequate financial support and undermining the event by planning alternative celebrations.On the basis of the last cavalcade, 25 years ago, Rail 2000's visitor projections were conservative. Around 350,000 attended that event and as many as 240,000 had been anticipated this time.Robin Jones, editor of Railway Heritage magazine, said: "Steam engines were more of a attraction in 1975. Now there is a whole generation of people whose only associations with steam are Thomas the Tank Engine.