FORMER television presenter Frank Bough has died at the age of 87.

Bough, who was one of the highest-profile presenters on BBC at the height of his career, helped launch the corporation’s Breakfast Time TV programme in 1983.

He also hosted the BBC’s flagship sports show, Grandstand, as well as its Nationwide news programme.

His family said last night that Bough died last Wednesday in a care home.

He was one of the country’s highest-paid broadcasters  – on a reputed £200,000 salary – but was sacked by the BBC in 1988 after revelations in a Sunday newspaper that he had taken cocaine with prostitutes at a Mayfair brothel, destroying his clean-cut image.

Amid a raft of more damaging revelations, he gave an interview to the News of the World to try and salvage his reputation, but his further confessions merely added to the scandal.

Last night, tributes were paid on social media.

TV presenter Piers Morgan tweeted: “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.”

Author Martin Knight added: “Sad to say goodbye to kindly #FrankBough. Him perched on 
a desk, presenting Grandstand, as teleprinter chattered away behind him the backdrop to childhood Saturday afternoons.”