Infamous chat show host Jerry Springer has died aged 79, his agent has confirmed.

A pioneer of confrontational television talk shows, he was born in 1944 in Highgate tube station, which was being used as a bomb shelter during the Second World War.

His parents, Margot, 32, from Berlin and Richard, a shoe merchant from Landsberg, arrived in England one month before the war broke out with the help of the charity World Jewish Relief.

Mr Springer reportedly grew up in Chandos Road, East Finchley, and Belvedere Court in Hampstead Garden Suburb.

His family took their chance at a new future, moving to Ellis Island in America when he was five.

In a talk at a World Jewish Relief fundraising event in 2017 he described to BBC journalist Emily Maitliss how the charity signed the visa for his parents’ safe passage on the Kindertransport to the UK in 1939.

Visibly moved, the then 73-year-old said: “My grandparents said to their kids, as we would all say to our kids – you go first.

"And so they got their visas and that’s the reason I’m here tonight.”

Mr Springer’s parents arrived safely, although 27 members of his family died in the Holocaust.

The US talk show host was best known for The Jerry Springer Show, which ran from 1991 until 2018 in the US.

He always ended it with the catch phrase: "Take care of yourself and each other".

His series inspired the UK’s The Jeremy Kyle Show, which ran on ITV between 2005 and 2019.

Prior to Springer’s broadcasting career, which included roles as a political reporter and commentator, he was the mayor of Cincinnati and a political campaign adviser to Robert F Kennedy.

He was an outspoken crititic of former US President Donald Trump.