Many national newspaper hacks are described as “Fleet Street legends” when they finally shuffle off this mortal coil to prop up the bar in that boozer-that-never-closes in the sky.

But few deserve that moniker more than John Stead, who made his name in both Manchester and London and died last month aged 77.

And while most “legends” were rather Marmite characters, who you either loved or hated, Steady was the exception. For everybody liked John.