FORMER BBC Radio 1 DJ Bruno Brookes was recovering today after suffering a heart attack.

The 47-year-old was treated at St Thomas' Hospital in central London where he appeared on a television documentary yesterday.

Brookes was taken into the hospital by ambulance earlier this week after suffering chest pains.

Doctors took pictures and, after seeing that the right side of his heart was blocked, used a "stent" to open up the artery.

He appeared yesterday on City Hospital, the BBC's fly-on-the-wall documentary about St Thomas', where he said the attack was a "wake up call".

Time

The DJ, who smokes, told presenter Nadia Sawalha: "I suppose I knew it was a question of time before something like this happened."

He added that he would now try hard to kick his smoking habit. "I know that is very much part and parcel of why I am here today," he said.

Brookes presented Radio 1's main top 40 chart show for several years in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as other programmes, until he was axed following a cull of older DJs.

He later set up a successful internet radio station and also established a company that manages presenters and trains broadcasters.