Robert Plant advised DJ Bob Harris over cancer

The broadcaster, dubbed Whispering Bob because of his softly-spoken style, said it was 'devastating' when he was diagnosed with the 'aggressive' illness.

Appearing on Desert Island Discs on Radio 4, he said: "I was fortunate, very, very fortunate to catch it in time and then it was a question of arresting the growth and then treatment".

Harris, famous for presenting The Old Grey Whistle Test on TV, told host Kirsty Young that former Led Zeppelin frontman Plant helped when he started to get ill again.

He said: "Every now and again all the readings will go shooting up, and that happened to me a couple of years ago when it looked as though it really got serious again and I really needed to talk to somebody. . . I phoned Robert Plant and he offers such unbelievably good advice and he really saw me through that moment, and then when we got the all-clear again he said, 'Fine, okay, well I'm not going to be phoning you every single day now.'"

Harris chose a track by Plant as one of his Desert Island Discs – a cover of Gone, Gone, Gone by the Everly Brothers, from the album Raising Sand with Alison Krauss. His other choices included Ben E King's single Stand By Me.