Henry Kelly, the Irish journalist and presenter best known for hosting UK TV shows such as Going for Gold and Game for a Laugh, has died aged 78.

His family said he “died peacefully” on Tuesday “after a period of ill health”.

Their statement said: “Henry will be sorely missed by his friends and family, including his partner Karolyn Shindler, their son, Alexander, Henry’s daughter, Siobhan and her mother, Marjorie.”

Kelly, who was born in Athlone, started his career as a journalist on the Irish Times going on to become the paper’s northern editor in 1970 at the height of the Troubles.

But 10 years and several books later, he made a career switch into light entertainment and followed other Irish stars including Terry Wogan and Eamonn Andrews across the Irish Sea to London.

There he landed a job co-hosting Game for Laugh, made by London Weekend Television, which was then the powerhouse of Saturday night entertainment and a springboard for many TV and political figures including Peter Mandelson, Greg Dyke and John Birt, who went on to be BBC director generals, and the veteran political interviewer David Frost.

He then got the opportunity to join the new breakfast TV show, TV-am, taking over Michael Parkinson’s weekend duties in early 1983.

After four years he left TV-am and returned to gameshows, hosting Going for Gold, a lunchtime quizshow on the BBC, where he remained for almost a decade.

During the 1990s he was one of the stalwarts of the radio station Classic FM and later LBC, where he presented the drivetime show, one of the most listened-to slots in a radio station’s schedule.

He lived in Hampstead, in north London, with his partner, Karolyn, a historian, and loved the life strolling in the heath and imbibing in his local Bull and Bush pub.

His sense of humour was one of his hallmarks, along with his sense of place and modesty. When an interviewer in the Ham & High newspaper asked him what he would say if he had to write his own epitaph, he responded: “Who was he?”