When ITN News started in September 1955 its first editor-in-chief was the former Labour MP Aidan Crawley and the first newscaster was the athlete and future Tory MP Christopher Chataway.

Within the year Geoffrey Cox had joined as news editor and he brought in talented journalists who were to leave their stamp in television news. They included Ludovic Kennedy, Robin Day, Reginald Bosanquet, Alastair Burnett and Huw Thomas.

An exciting new format was created with two people for the Six O’Clock News who were referred to as “newscasters” rather than “newsreaders”. The implication was that they had a very definite input into the news coverage.

Huw Thomas fitted well into this bright, professional line-up: he had a touch of Welsh panache, he was articulate, handsome, invariably polite but with a dogged questioning manner that ensured that questions were answered and not skated around.

Hywel Gruffydd Edwards Thomas was born in 1927. He was a lifelong lover of Wales. He spoke the language fluently, played rugby, in the second row for Roslyn Park, for 20 years and had a good baritone voice. After school at Ellesmere College in Shropshire he read law first at Aberystwyth University and then at Queens’ College, Cambridge (1948-50). While at Aberystwyth Thomas joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve to train as a pilot and after four years became a commissioned officer at the Air Ministry.

While at Cambridge he manifested a keen interest in politics and debating. He was an active member of the Cambridge Union, president of the university’s Liberal Society and of the Queens’ Bench Law Society. In the 1950 general election he stood unsuccessfully in his home town of Llanelli as the Liberal candidate.

After Cambridge Thomas was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn and became a pupil of John Marnan in Melford Stevenson’s Chambers in Hare Court. He practised in London and then on the Wales and Chester circuit after a period as marshal to Mr Justice Croom Johnson and Mr Justice Ben Ormerod. In 1955 he became an assistant director representing the Department of Public Prosecution at the Old Bailey.

In 1956 Thomas answered an advertisement for the new Independent Television’s news programme which was to be produced through Independent Television News (ITN). The less formal style of ITN made an immediate impact and was considered more colourful and “viewer friendly” than the BBC’s more traditional presentation. Thomas and his colleagues questioned correspondents and politicians live, and this added to the up-to-the-minute feel of the news coverage.

ITN introduced new techniques from US television, championing filmed reports and vox pop interviews. The format suited Thomas’s informal but determined style.

The new approach faced hurdles, not least the 14-day rule which banned radio and television from discussing topical political issues for two weeks. But ITN opened when UK politics were in ferment and Anthony Eden’s Government was in turmoil over Suez. News was changing by the hour, and ITN latched on to the concept of breaking news with a vengeance.

Thomas’s friend and colleague Robin Day got an international scoop when he interviewed Colonel Nasser. It was an exciting situation for a news programme, and ITN, by breaking the 14-day rule, had an immediate effect on the reporting of the news in the UK. Thomas and his fellow newscasters were in the forefront of changing the mould of news coverage.

The newscasters were encouraged to create an on-screen personality, and this suited the eloquent Thomas. He had a debonair and gracious on-screen personality, with a fine voice and black swept-back hair. At one stage he was receiving sacks of fan letters and became something of a cult figure. He responded to the challenge of altered schedules and hastily organised live interviews with relish. The value of his legal training was apparent in his questioning, which was always sound, courteous and to the point.

His programmes did not always go to plan, however. Once when announcing, in suitably sonorous voice, the death of “Mr Smith of Smith’s Crisps” Thomas stuttered with the words and came out with “Mr Smimf of Crimps Smimp’s”. As he tried to repeat the phrase correctly he and his co-presenter Ludovic Kennedy slowly dissolved into giggles.

Thomas brought his warm and authoritative screen manner to several other current affairs programmes, of which the most notable was Let’s Go, in 1960, which he co-presented with Bernard Braden. It was a forerunner of the magazine/chat show and went out on a Saturday evening.

The programme was relaxed and focused on current events and interviews with actors and singers. It too was unscripted and the format changed during the show. The rapport between Thomas and Braden proved excellent and the two enjoyed injecting a relaxed, more personal, feel to the programme.

In 1964 Thomas left ITN to set up his own company, Huw Thomas & Associates, making medical and corporate documentaries and acting as a consultant to executives on television presentation. He advised many blue-chip companies (Nestlé, Guinness, Imperial Tobacco etc) on their media affairs and was involved as a consultant in obtaining the franchise for Yorkshire Television. In 1970 he fought Carmarthen unsuccessfully for the Liberals and was the presenter of many of the party’s political broadcasts.

In 2006 Thomas showed that he was still a fighter when he took issue over the matter of a surviving spouse’s pension rights on Radio 4’s Money Box.

Thomas was a committed Christian and a regular at St George’s Campden Hill in Kensington where he was an enthusiastic member of the choir. He was an equally keen sportsman and played golf and tennis.

Thomas’s wife, Anne, whom he married in 1960, died in 2005. He is survived by their three children.

Huw Thomas, television news presenter, was born on September 14, 1927. He died on March 12, 2009, aged 81