James died "peacefully and at home, surrounded by his family and his books" in Cambridge, eastern England, on Sunday, United Agents said in a statement. A private funeral attended by family and close friends took place on Wednesday in the chapel at Pembroke College in Cambridge University, where he read English literature as a student in the 1960s.

The charismatic and erudite broadcaster, who left Sydney for England in late 1961 and made his career in Britain, had fought a long battle with leukaemia.

"Clive died almost 10 years after his first terminal diagnosis and one month after he laid down his pen for the last time," UA said. He first made his name as The Observer newspaper's television critic for a decade from 1972, where he turned the TV review into somewhat of an art form.

His own hit TV show, "Clive James on Television", fronted with his wise-cracking presenting style, put some the world's most bizarre programmes under the spotlight - notably clips of the Japanese game show "Endurance".

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019