A BELOVED radio broadcaster for BBC Essex has retired after 35 years of being on air.

Tim Gillett, from Shoebury, has been breaking news to the county since 1986, when his journey first began.

He was taken on by Essex Radio as a junior reporter where he reported on famous cases such as that of Jeremy Bamber, who was found guilty in October 1986 of the murders of his parents, his sister and her six-year-old twin sons.

The 59-year-old said: “I arrived at Radio House in Southend from working as a radio reporter on Humberside, just as the Jeremy Bamber trial was getting under way.

“Within months I was reporting on the great hurricane of 1987 and interviewing Margaret Thatcher on the 1987 general election trail.”

From there, Tim went on to broadcast live from the Queen’s opening of the Queen Elizabeth II bridge, which took place in 1991. He then became Essex Radio and Breeze AM’s news editor.

In 1994, Tim was appointed a senior broadcast journalist at BBC Essex in Chelmsford, where he became an assistant editor, news editor, programmes editor, a presenter and in recent years, a weekend editor. Tim was also responsible for putting together Pirate BBC Essex in 2004, 2007 and 2009.

He added: “Those celebrations of sixties offshore pirate radio were by far the pinnacle in listener terms of my time in radio.”

Over the last 35 years, Tim has reported on seven general elections, countless local elections and had the privilege to presented BBC Essex’s 2014 Clacton by-election programme coverage.

Tim is retiring just weeks after popular presenter Peter Holmes, from Leigh, left the station and is one of few broadcasters who has worked for both commercial and BBC radio in Essex.

He added: “I feel so privileged to have broken so much news for the people of Essex over the years and to try to offer some entertaining and informative radio programmes.”