My good friend and neighbour Toby Murcott, who has died all of the sudden aged 60, was a person of many presents however he was above all a zestful explainer of adverse topics. He was a BBC science information reporter and producer on each Radio 4 and the World Service and, even after leaving the company workers, ran a number of of radio’s hottest scientific programmes.
He produced many editions of House Planet, which for 12 years (till 2012) used a panel to reply listeners’ environmental questions with the identical good-natured erudition that epitomised Toby. He additionally helped launch and produced The Human Zoo (2013), on psychology, and in addition labored on Join (2007), which explored folks’s relationship with know-how.
“He might unpick complexities for lesser mortals like me in a really accessible method,” mentioned Peter Hoare, the founding father of Pier Productions, which made the programmes. “However at all times with due diligence and rigour. He had a masterful contact in separating the true science from the woowoo.” For a number of years he additionally wrote a column within the Occasions evaluating complementary remedies such because the therapeutic properties of ginger and whether or not marigold paste cures bunions.
Toby was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Wales, the elder son of Kenneth, a instructor, and Anne (nee Latutin), a sociologist. He studied biochemistry on the College of York, did a PhD within the topic at Bristol and had a spell as a TV researcher earlier than becoming a member of the BBC.
In 2008 he married Sian Howells they usually moved to a cottage in south Herefordshire shortly earlier than the delivery of their daughter, Dilys. The household revelled within the panorama and every thing in it; Toby was particularly keen on fungi. His mission to clarify discovered an outlet educating science at Monmouth college for women and he additionally made himself indispensable to the group.
He turned chairman of the Abbeydore & Bacton parish council and was often called an skilled on broadband. He was a campaigner for bettering the service throughout the Golden Valley, the place many houses nonetheless endure primeval speeds after years of damaged guarantees. His experience was a match for any official and small skirmishes have been received, however he died with the battle removed from over.
Nevertheless, his dedication on this subject gave him a repute in native political circles. And after the dying of the vet turned ward councillor Peter Jinman, Toby was invited to defend his seat on behalf of the pinky-green Independents for Herefordshire.
On the doorstep, he impressed voters along with his allure and apparent integrity. However within the midst of the marketing campaign he fell ailing, and died unexpectedly in hospital. His conscientiousness and tenacity would have made him a wonderful councillor.
He’s survived by Sian, Dilys, his mom and his brother, Dominic.
