Frank Fitter and Dennis Savage

So the curtain has finally come down on the “Twilight Twits” – 85 Fleet Street’s evening economic news editing desk. Under the command of Frank Fitter, Dennis Savage, Frank Nunnay-Elam and Peter Perllman ran one of the most laid back professional news operations I have ever worked for. I cannot believe they are all gone: they were all at my wedding. I guess I spent a third of my time on the evening shift. The sub who drew the short straw had to write the “market trends” report for the late news on Radio 4, filling in the blanks at the last minute as Wall Street closed, so the BBC messenger could collect it from Frank. We used to try and slip in some difficult phrasing to try and trip up the reader!

Confirming Colin Mooney’s comments, they were hands-on journalists of the old school: the knowledge and technique they passed on to downtable subs was immeasurable.

Dennis was always going on about Madam Binh’s (the Soup Kitchen down the side of the Express in Shoe Lane), supposedly frequented by the team but I never saw anyone I recognised in there. One side of Dennis not generally known was he was quite an expert on antique and vintage playing cards.

Frank was an avid Spurs fan. He even organised a Reuters cricket team that played a couple of matches against sides like the Fuller’s Brewery (they must have been on a liquid lunch as that game was over almost as soon as it started!).

It has been an honour and a privilege to know and work with these wonderful guys. Loads of laughs and happy memories. ■