Esther Rantzen

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Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born on June 22, 1940 (1940-06-22) (age 67)) is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for her long stint in That's Life! and her child protection activities as founder of the charity ChildLine.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Scandal and marriage 3 Honours 4 Footnotes

[edit] Biography

Esther Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England into a Jewish family. She was educated at the North London Collegiate School and Somerville College, Oxford, where she read English. She began her television career as a clerk in the programme planning department, then obtained her first production job working as a researcher on the BBC 1late night satire programme, "BBC3", created by Ned Sherrin. Having worked as a researcher on a number of Current Affairs programmes she then moved to the award-winning BBC2 documentary series, Man Alive in the mid-1960s.

In 1968, Esther Rantzen became one of the onscreen researcher/presenters of Bernard Braden’s consumer show Braden's Week. When Braden appeared in margarine advertisements, the BBC decided that this was inconsistent with his image as a consumer advocate, however they agreed he could continue to present the series. In 1972 Braden decided to return to his native Canada to present a similar tv show there. In his absence, in 1973 the BBC replaced Braden’s Week with That's Life!. The format was very similar, including a Fletcher (Cyril not Ronald) to read out amusing misprints. Braden's replacement by Esther Rantzen was deeply resented by his wife Barbara Kelly, who spoke bitterly of it some thirty years later.

"That's Life!" ran on BBC1 for 21 years, (1973 to 1994), reaching audiences of more than 18 million. During that time it moved the traditional role of the consumer programme from simply exposing faulty washing machines and dodgy salesmen, to investigating life and death issues such as a campaign for more organ donors, (featuring Ben Hardwick, the two-year-old dying of liver disease, whose only hope was a transplant), and the investigation of a boarding school owned by a paedophile, who employed two paedophile teachers. Alongside such serious reports, the show also introduced viewers to many extraordinarily talented pets, including Prince, the talking dog who said "sausages", a table-tennis playing cat and a counting horse. Among the talented viewers the series discovered were Annie Mizen, the show-stopping granny Esther met in the North End Road Street Market, a man who tap-danced on his false teeth, and another who played Amazing Grace on his fork-lift truck. The programme added the term "Jobsworth" to the English language by creating The Jobsworth Award, for any official who insisted on applying a daft rule beyond the bounds of reason, such as clamping the car of a woman in labour in a hospital car park. New laws were introduced, such as the law enforcing the use of seat belts for children sitting in the backs of cars, as a result of their campaigns. And playground surfaces were dug up around the country, the dangerous tarmac and concrete being replaced with safe surfaces.

The Central Television series Spitting Image parodied That's Life at least twice. On one occasion they said that Esther Rantzen was unable to present the show as she was recovering from shock after a viewer had sent in his penis because it looked like a carrot (as opposed to a running gag on That's Life itself, which featured viewers sending in suggestive-looking fruits and vegetables). On another occasion her puppet was presenting That's Life And Death. The show featured a totalizer which went up and down according to the number of viewers watching and correspondingly raised money for a girl who needed a liver transplant. When Esther said that the girl would live, the totalizer went down. Esther's final outburst, when it had dropped almost to the bottom, was "That does it! I'm leaving!" at which the red marker shot to the top of the totalizer and flew out towards the ceiling in a cloud of glitter.

Esther Rantzen also invented the documentary series The Big Time in 1976, which launched the singing career of Sheena Easton. She also briefly hosted a junior version of That's Life in the 1980s.

Rantzen was one of the founders of TV-am, the operator selected by ITV to launch its Breakfast Television service. But before the programme went on air in 1983, Rantzen dropped out, remaining with the BBC. She later briefly took a consumer spot on the BBC's own [[Breakfast Time].

Having made programmes about stillbirth, ("The Lost Babies"), and mental health, ("Trouble in Mind"), in 1985 Rantzen presented a BBC1 programme on drug abuse, "Drugwatch". In 1986 she produced and presented "Childwatch", which alerted the British public to the prevalence of child abuse, and successfully campaigned for a number of legal reforms in this area.

Although the programme was influential in many different ways, not least in the introduction of the videolink for child witnesses, it is notable for the launch of the first national helpline for children in danger or distress, ChildLine. Rantzen had suggested the Childwatch programme to Channel One Controller Michael Grade after the death of a toddler who had starved to death, locked in a bedroom. The aim of the programme was to find better ways of detecting children at risk of abuse, and to that end, viewers of That's Life! who had themselves experienced cruelty as children were asked to take part in a survey detailing the circumstances of their abuse. Rantzen suggested that after that edition of That's Life!, the BBC should open a helpline for children, in case any young viewers suffering current abuse wished to ring in to ask for help. The helpline was open for 48 hours, during which it was swamped with calls, mainly from children suffering sexual abuse they had never been able to disclose to anyone else. This gave Rantzen the idea for a specific helpline for children in distress or danger, to be open throughout the year, 24/7, the first line of its kind in the world. The Childwatch team consulted child care professionals, who agreed that children would use such a helpline, but that it would be impossible to create. Nevertheless the team obtained funding from the Department of Health and the Variety Club of Great Britain, both of whom donated £25,000, and Ian Skipper OBE,(a noted philanthropist who had already helped Rantzen set up a special fund in memory of Ben Hardwick),agreed to underwrite the cost of running the helpline for the first year. Rantzen and the team went to BT to ask for premises for the charity and for a simple freephone number, both of which were provided. The Childwatch programme, based on the results of the survey, launched ChildLine with a specially written jingle (by B.A. Robertson) which featured the free phone number 0800 1111. On that first night in October 1986, fifty thousand attempted calls were made to the helpline. ChildLine now has twelve bases around the UK, including two in Northern Ireland, two in Scotland, and two in Wales. Since 1986 hundreds of thousands of children with serious problems, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse, have been counselled. Children have been protected from pain, children's lives have been saved, paedophile rings have been broken. For example, a child rang from a school classroom having taken an overdose, and an ambulance was sent, and her life saved. Another was abducted by a paedophile who had groomed her over the internet, but she continued to contact her ChildLine counsellor, and was rescued. Many children find the help they need from a single phone call, as one child wrote, "the kind, caring voice on the telephone is all it took to transform my life." However some need several years' counselling, and where necessary, with their consent, they are referred to an outside agency for further support. The revolutionary aspect of ChildLine's work is that children themselves make the decision to seek help, the vast majority of them never having approached any other agency, and unless their lives are in imminent danger, calls are confidential, (otherwise, of course, children would fear the consequences, and would not dare to ring). Numerically the three most common problems they call about are bullying, serious family problems, and abuse. Eight children a day call because they are suicidal. Around three thousand children a day attempt to ring ChildLine, but the charity only has sufficient resources to counsel around half of them. The counsellors who listen to the children are volunteers, specially trained by the charity. ChildLine has now merged with the NSPCC, which has enabled it to expand to try to meet the demand. The helpline has now been copied in 150 countries around the world.

In 1988 Esther Rantzen devised a TV series called "Hearts of Gold" celebrating people who have performed unsung acts of outstanding kindness or courage. The uplifting theme tune was composed by Lynsey De Paul.

In the 1990s, Esther Rantzen presented a talk show, Esther, on BBC2, which received two BAFTA nominations. She also presented the ITV campaigning programme, "That's Esther", with co-presenters Lara Masters and Heather Mills.

In 2004, Esther Rantzen participated in the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing (later exported to the U.S. as Dancing With The Stars).

In 2006, Esther Rantzen took part in the BBC 2 programme "Would Like to Meet'and 'Excuse my French, and was selected to present a new consumer affairs show with former Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood, under the title Old Dogs New Tricks. She made a documentary for ITV called "Winton's Children" about Sir Nicholas Winton who, as was first revealed on "That's Life!", had rescued a generation of Czech children from the holocaust and was later nominated for the Nobel Peace prize. After the death of Rantzen's husband, film-maker Desmond Wilcox, she made a landmark programme, "How to Have a Good Death" for BBC2, on palliative care. Recently she has campaigned on behalf of hospice care and better care for the elderly and terminally ill.

Alongside her television career she continues her work with ChildLine as a volunteer counsellor on the helpline, and fund-raiser and spokesperson for children's rights. For twenty years she chaired the Board of Trustees, and since ChildLine merged with the NSPCC, she has served as a Trustee of the NSPCC, and President of ChildLine.

[edit] Scandal and marriage

In 1968 Esther Rantzen met and fell in love with Desmond Wilcox, who was her Department Head (boss, essentially) and was married to Esther's friend Patsy. After several years they decided to live together, and informed BBC management of their relationship. Management's solution was to move the entire production team of That's Life! out of Wilcox's department. What they didn't consider was that the new arrangement meant that Esther and Patsy were now working in the same department, causing both women concern. When Rantzen and Wilcox got married in 1977, BBC Management moved her back into his department, General Features. However, by that time That's Life! was achieving huge audiences, reaching the number one position in the top ten programmes, even out-rating Coronation Street. This caused jealousy among colleagues in General Features, who ascribed the success of the programme to Wilcox's relationship with Rantzen. They complained to Management, quoting the BBC's regulation that husbands and wives should not work in the same department. As a result Desmond Wilcox resigned, and set up his own independent production company, making ground-breaking documentaries such as "The Visit", which included a series of programmes about The Boy David. For these, as well as previous films, in 2001 he received the Grierson Life-Time Achievement Award. Wilcox and Rantzen had three children,Emily, born in 1978, Rebecca born in 1980 and Joshua in 1981. Currently Emily works for a children's charity and Rebecca is a television journalist.

Having suffered coronary heart disease for 15 years, Desmond died in 2000, aged 69. He and Rantzen had enjoyed a very happy marriage, their first wedding having taken place in a register office in Kingston in 1977. After his conversion to Judaism, their second wedding was celebrated in 1999 in the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, covered by Hello!. Wilcox's last words to Rantzen before he died in 2000 were "I adore you." She created a memorial service for him, (as he had stipulated in St Martin's in the Fields), at which the eulogy was given by David Jackson, "The Boy David". In 2007 Rantzen opened the Desmond Wilcox Media Centre in Rainhill High School, Merseyside. Each year Rantzen presents the Desmond Wilcox Award to volunteers working for the Hearing Dogs for the Deaf charity, he having raised a large amount of funds for them. She remains single.

Further scandal was created during the run of That's Life! when Rantzen was arrested for obstruction while handing out bat stew to the public in London's North End Road, was convicted, and fined £15.

^[1]: Who's Who

[edit] Honours

In 1991, Esther Rantzen was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire: (OBE) for services to broadcasting, and has received honorary doctorates from the Southampton Institute, the London South Bank University and Portsmouth University, for the creation of ChildLine and her career as a broadcaster. She was raised to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on June 17, 2006 for services to children.

She has received a number of professional awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Film and Television, the Royal Television Society's Special Judges' Award for Journalism, their Fellowship, and Membership of their Hall of Fame. She also was the first woman to receive a Dimbleby Award from BAFTA for factual presentation. She received the Snowdon Award for services to disabled people. And she was presented with a Gotcha by Noel Edmunds.

She is President of ChildLine and the Association for Young People with M.E. (AYME), and is a Patron of various hospices and charities for disabled people, including the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, the Hillingdon Manor School for autistic children, the North London Hospice, and the Campaign for Courtesy, and she has served on a number of government committees, including the National Consumer Council, the Health Education Authority and the Campaign for Quality Television.

In June 2007, Esther Rantzen visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to promote the use of the Liverpool Care of the Dying Pathway for terminally ill patients.

[edit] Footnotes