Back in the 1980s, the story went that there were three properly powerful women in Britain: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Queen, and Esther Rantzen.
asserted
story → go → Britain
Only one of them, as far as we know, celebrated her 50th birthday by running stark naked around the garden, save for a large hat.
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we → know → hat
And only one would openly delight in being a thorn in the side of the Establishment.
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one → delight → Establishment
Dame Esther Rantzen, who died yesterday at the age of 86 after a long battle with cancer, had planned to end her life at Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying clinic.
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who → die → Dignitas
She announced she had joined Dignitas in December 2023, about a year after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer but last month revealed that she was 'too physically fragile' to travel.
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she → announce → cancer
She spent much of her final years at her country home in the New Forest and the timing of her passing was particularly poignant because it came just under three weeks after the assisted dying bill, for which she had been a doughty campaigner, was defeated in the House of Commons.
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she → spend → Commons
She was always rather proud of the fact that she was once arrested for wilful obstruction and loved to tell the story of how she was apprehended by police while doing one of her beloved vox pops on the street.
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she → arrest → street
There she was, back in 1980, handing out bat soup to unsuspecting members of the public ('bit gamey' one woman concluded), when a policeman, objecting to the amount of pavement she and the That's Life film crew were taking up, stepped up to have a quiet word.
As if.
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crew → hand → word
With the cameras still rolling, Esther argued that she was obstructing no one, showing off a vast expanse of pavement to prove her point.
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she → roll → point
She was promptly escorted to a waiting police van.
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She → escort → van
Back in the 1980s, the story went that there were three properly powerful women in Britain: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Queen, and Esther Rantzen
Esther Rantzen last appeared in public in June this year while celebrating her 85th birthday
As a broadcaster and campaigner, Dame Esther was a fearless force of nature throughout life
'
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Esther → go → life
Inexperienced at being arrested, I climbed into the passenger seat,' she recalled, gleefully, in her autobiography.
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she → arrest → autobiography
She waved regally as she was driven away.
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she → wave → ?
No cloak of shame either, when she was found guilty at Horseferry Magistrates' Court and fined £15.
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she → find → 15
She wore a fur coat.
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She → wear → coat
She dined out on the pure, well, battiness of the escapade for years, as did the arresting officer, who made an entrance as a surprise guest when she was honoured on This Is Your Life.
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This → din → guest
Dame Esther will be remembered for many things – her myriad campaigns, her extraordinary broadcasting career, her teeth – but this was vintage Esther.
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this → remember → things
The woman was mischievous, principled, and never one to be easily moved on, once she'd dug her heels in.
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she → move → heels
And she made TV in her likeness.
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she → make → likeness
This was a woman who presided – often in a ridiculous evening dress too – over arguably the most successful light entertainment show the BBC has ever produced.
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BBC → preside → show
In its heyday, That's Life was required Sunday evening viewing, commanding audiences of up to 22.5 million – unthinkable to today's broadcasters.
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Life → require → broadcasters
The show offered a unique catalogue of life in Britain – the funny, the tragic, the wicked, the weird.
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show → offer → Britain
In between celebrating the daftness of vegetables shaped as genitals or dogs that said 'sausages', Esther fed us genuinely game-changing public service broadcasting, exposing health and safety issues, scandals in prisons, councils, schools.
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Esther → celebrate → schools
She held conmen to account, shamed 'jobsworths' and got laws (and attitudes) changed.
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laws → hold → jobsworths
She said herself that, just as in Shakespeare's day, audiences wanted 'to laugh AND to cry'.
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audiences → say → day
Dame Esther Rantzen fronted That's Life from 1973 until the show came off air in 1994
Dame Esther Rantzen with her husband, Desmond Wilcox, and their children Emily, Joshua and Rebecca in 1986
Dame Esther at home in Hampshire in recent months with her children and grandchildren
Esther Rantzen recording an episode of Wagoners' Walk in 1977
Esther's passing marks the end of an entire era in British broadcasting, one where a single presenter could be part of the furniture of nearly every living room in the land.
uncertain
presenter → front → land
Extraordinary when you think that she grew up in a house that didn't even have a TV in the living room.
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that → think → room
Although the Rantzens were one of the first in their street to have a television set (by dint of her dad, an electrical engineer, working for the BBC), Esther's parents were so concerned that the television might stifle conversation that they placed it permanently in the hallway.
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they → have → hallway
She once recalled the postman peeking through the letterbox to watch.
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postman → recall → letterbox
Yet by the mid-1980s she had smashed through the glass ceiling supposedly in place to stop women rising too far, and been offered a million pounds by ITV to leave That's Life and present a nightly news programme for them.
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women → smash → them
She turned it down.
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She → turn → it
She also turned down the chance to be the first female Controller of BBC1.
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She → turn → BBC1
There were few regrets in her life, but she always did wonder if she should have said yes to that one.
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she → be → one
She claimed she turned up to the meeting to discuss the offer with two letters in her handbag – one accepting the role, one turning it down.
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she → claim → it
In the lift on the way up, she still hadn't decided which one she would hand over.
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she → decide → one
Why did she ultimately say no?
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she → say → ?
She knew that 'the vultures would circle me ready to pick out my eyes at the first misjudgment'.
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vultures → know → misjudgment
This was a woman who knew the BBC, and all its failings.
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who → know → BBC
'Life at the top of the BBC's pyramid, in its state of civil war, would be unpleasant and destructive,' she said.
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she → say → war
Ultimately, though, she realised that taking the top job would remove her from her audience, and engagement with an audience was Esther Rantzen's raison d'etre.
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engagement → realise → audience
…and 117 more, not listed.
The Aporia
