- Published
Dame Esther Rantzen, who has died at the age of 86, was best known for presenting the BBC TV programme That's Life!
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That → publish → programme
Over two decades, what started as a consumer programme with quirky asides became renowned for its high-profile campaigns, notably against child abuse.
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started → start → abuse
It resulted in Dame Esther setting up Childline, a national telephone helpline for children suffering abuse or neglect.
She later became a renowned campaigner for older people and, in the last years of her life, for the legalisation of medically-assisted death.
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She → result → death
Esther Louise Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire on 22 June 1940.
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Rantzen → bear → June
Her father, Henry, who worked as a broadcast engineer for the BBC, had moved the family out of London to escape German bombing.
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who → work → bombing
The family returned to London when the war ended.
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war → return → London
She later recalled she hated the grey streets of the capital after the semi-rural idyll in which she had spent her early childhood.
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she → recall → childhood
After a spell at a private school, run by what she recalled was a sadistic headmistress, she went to the North London Collegiate School in Edgware, and then to Somerville College, Oxford, where she read English.
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she → run → English
She became an enthusiastic member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society and of the Experimental Theatre Group.
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She → become → Group
Rantzen then secured a job as a trainee studio manager with BBC Radio, before moving to television as a researcher on the satirical show BBC3, which had been created by Ned Sherrin.
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which → secure → Sherrin
She met documentary maker Desmond Wilcox when she approached him in a BBC bar and asked him to give a talk to a local youth club.
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she → meet → club
He asked her to dinner and offered her a job on Man Alive, the BBC's current affairs programme.
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He → ask → programme
The pair later began a relationship.
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pair → begin → relationship
The relationship caused huge tensions in her department, not least because Wilcox's wife Patsy, one of Rantzen's best friends, also worked at the BBC.
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relationship → cause → BBC
By 1968, she was working on Braden's Week, a consumer programme fronted by Canadian presenter Bernard Braden.
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she → work → Braden
A decision to allow the researchers a short spot on air gave Rantzen her first on-screen TV experience, where she made a favourable impression on the producers.
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she → allow → producers
In 1972, Braden was sacked by the BBC after he appeared in a commercial for Stork margarine and his show was dropped.
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show → sack → margarine
A year later, the programme was resurrected, given a new title, That's Life! and Rantzen was selected as the main presenter.
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Rantzen → resurrect → presenter
Braden was sanguine about Rantzen's promotion but his wife, TV presenter Barbara Kelly, was publicly contemptuous of the decision and accused Wilcox of being instrumental in her appointment.
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wife → accuse → appointment
Launched in May 1973, That's Life! became an almost instant hit.
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Life → launch → May
Recorded just before transmission on Saturday nights, it was initially a consumer protection programme investigating viewers' complaints about shoddy service and faulty goods.
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it → record → service
Over the years it grew to include more quirky items.
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it → grow → items
It initiated the Jobsworth award for over-zealous bureaucrats and council officials, and Heap of the Week, in which failing domestic appliances would be destroyed on screen in a variety of ingenious ways.
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appliances → initiate → ways
Over the years, Rantzen was joined by a series of co-hosts, including Paul Heiney, Chris Searle and Bob Wellings, while the comedian Cyril Fletcher read his Odd Odes.
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comedian → join → Odes
The show quickly became something of an institution but her relationship with Wilcox was causing problems behind the scenes.
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relationship → become → scenes
Patsy Wilcox had reluctantly agreed to a divorce after Rantzen became pregnant, and Rantzen and Wilcox went on to marry in 1977.
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Rantzen → agree → 1977
But there were accusations from some BBC staff that Wilcox, who was her boss as well as her husband, was furthering her career, pointing out that BBC rules forbade married couples working together.
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couples → be → career
Wilcox resigned in 1980 and set up his own successful production company.
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Wilcox → resign → company
Rantzen also found time to devise a new talent series, The Big Time, which launched the career of singer Sheena Easton.
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which → find → Easton
She became involved with the team behind the new ITV breakfast programme, TV-am, but dropped out before it went to air in 1983 so that she could remain at the BBC.
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she → become → BBC
By the 1980s, That's Life! had expanded its remit away from basic consumer issues to take on the role of campaigner.
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Life → expand → campaigner
The appearance of Ben Hardwick, a child desperately in need of a liver transplant, launched a drive to raise the awareness of the need for organ donors.
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appearance → launch → donors
As a result, Ben received a new liver at the age of two, but died a year later.
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Ben → receive → two
Other campaigns helped introduce the replacement of hard surfaces in children's playgrounds with softer material and a change in the law to enforce the wearing of children's seat belts in the rear of cars.
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campaigns → introduce → cars
Not everyone was happy with the new format and there were complaints that a serious, and sometimes emotionally draining sequence, was followed by a quirky item on, for example, rude-looking vegetables.
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sequence → be → vegetables
The programme continued to maintain its high viewing figures after a move to Sunday nights, but the television landscape was changing.
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landscape → continue → nights
The BBC's show Watchdog and ITV's The Cook Report were bringing a much harder edge to consumer journalism.
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show → bring → journalism
It followed a number of incidents, featured on the programme, including one in which a toddler had starved to death, locked in a bedroom.
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toddler → follow → bedroom
Rantzen persuaded the BBC after the programme was transmitted that a helpline should be set up so that children suffering abuse or neglect could call in confidence.
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children → persuade → confidence
In the 48 hours it was open, it was inundated with calls.
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it → inundate → calls
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
