BBC correspondent who reported on the Iranian revolution, Olof Palme’s assassination and Mobutu’s last days in Zaire

“Incandescent with rage”, was a recurring self-description by Stephen Jessel, the former BBC foreign correspondent, as he encountered the uncooperative in the far corners of the earth and back at Broadcasting House. This was, however, the cover not the book. Stephen tempered his worldview with a warm heart, a self-deprecating sense of humour and a sly way of turning a critical piece on its head.

Just as it seemed the new EuroDisney experience in Marne-la-Vallée near Paris, in 1992, was in for a nightmare review – “humour without wit”, he snarled, “light without shadow, the present without a past, sound without echo”, the soi-disant Mr Grumpy hinted in closing that he might be tempted to admit he had rather enjoyed it.