At 83, globetrotter Alan Whicker is packing his bags to see the world again

He is the man who brought far-flung corners of the world and the rich and famous into our living rooms in the days before mass travel.

Now, at the age of 83, Alan Whicker is to resume his globetrotting ways for a new documentary series.

The four-part BBC2 series, called Alan Whicker's Journey Of A Lifetime, will feature the best clips and memories from Whicker's World, where he famously caught his often extraordinary subjects off guard.

The presenter, who became well known for his immaculate dress sense, combined travelogues and social commentary during three decades of Whicker's World.

An insider on the show said: 'He's a national icon and is the originator of the great travel documentary. We see him at his best even though he is in his eighties. He opened up the world to the British public.'

The series, to be shown next year, will feature Whicker's interview with Peter Sellers in Beverly Hills in 1979, in which the actor predicted he was about to die.

Other iconic moments will include his encounter with Haiti dictator Papa Doc Duvalier, when Whicker was presented with a book of poems, and a rare interview with billionaire Paul Getty.

Among the places he will visit will be London, Venice, Hong Kong, Bali, Palm Beach, San Francisco and Beverly Hills.

Whicker will return to see Hollywood plastic surgeon Kurt Wagner, who practised his profession on his wife Kathy.

The presenter also goes back to see a group of women police officers in San Francisco, whom he first interviewed in 1979.

Whicker's World made its debut in 1959 and was last broadcast in the early 1990s. In 2004 he fronted a two-part documentary series, Whicker's War.

The presenter's popularity was such that an Alan Whicker Appreciation Society was formed, and he was impersonated by the Monty Python team in a 'Whicker Island' sketch in the 1970s.