Esther Rantzen - Biography

Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for presenting the BBC television series That's Life!, and for her work in various charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine, and also advocates the work of the Burma Campaign UK. In July 2009 she announced that she would stand as a candidate for Parliament in Luton South at the 2010 general election; however, she came fourth behind the three main parties.

Early life

Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, to Katherine Flora (née Leverson) (1911–2005) and Henry Barnato Rantzen (1902–1992). Rantzen has one younger sister, Priscilla N. Taylor (née Rantzen). She was educated at the North London Collegiate School and Somerville College, Oxford, where she read English, performed with the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), became Secretary of The Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) and joined the Oxford Theatre Group, performing in Oxford and Edinburgh.

Career

After training in secretarial skills, Rantzen was recruited by BBC Radio as a trainee studio manager. 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 One late-night satire programme, BBC3 (1965–66), created by Ned Sherrin. Having worked as a researcher on a number of Current Affairs programmes, she moved to the award-winning BBC Two documentary series Man Alive in the mid-1960s.

In 1968, Rantzen became one of the onscreen presenters of the BBC consumer show Braden's Week, presented by Bernard Braden. In 1972, Braden decided to return to his native Canada to present a similar TV show there, and the following year, the BBC replaced Braden's Week with That's Life! with Rantzen as the main presenter. The format was very similar, although well-loved comedian Cyril Fletcher replaced announcer Ronald Fletcher to read out amusing misprints. Braden had already had a row with the BBC when he appeared in an advertisement for Stork margarine and his wife, Barbara Kelly, remained extremely bitter until her death at the fact that Rantzen and her show replaced his. However, both shows were created and developed by the gifted Welsh producer John Lloyd, who died aged 36.

That's Life! ran on BBC One for 21 years (1973 to 1994) becoming one of the most popular shows on British television, reaching audiences of more than 18 million. During that time, it expanded 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, a 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. The show's various health and safety campaigns resulted in nationwide changes; new laws were even introduced as a result of the show's campaigns, such as playground surfaces being dug up around the country and dangerous tarmac and concrete being replaced with safer surfaces. Another campaign led to a change in the law, enforcing the use of seat belts for children sitting in the backs of cars. Alongside their serious reports, however, the show still maintained more lighthearted features such as 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 Rantzen 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 popularised the term "Jobsworth" in England by creating "The Jobsworth Award" for any official employee 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 (because they would claim that "it's more than my job's worth not to do it").

Rantzen also devised 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 company selected to launch ITV's breakfast television service. But before the station went on air in 1983, Rantzen dropped out, opting to remain 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 BBC One 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 in court procedures, it is notable for the launch of ChildLine in 1986, the first national helpline for children in danger or distress. Rantzen had suggested the Childwatch programme to BBC1 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 fourteen bases around the UK, including two in Northern Ireland, three in Scotland, and two in Wales. In 2006 ChildLine merged with the NSPCC, which has enabled it to expand to try to meet demand. The helpline has now been copied in 150 countries around the world. For ten years on BBC1 the Childwatch series continued to campaign for more effective protection for abused children. Rantzen has been accused by some of being the most public face in the creation of a culture of 'hysteria' and 'paranoia' around the issue of child protection. She has therefore been portrayed as being on the extreme conservative wing of the current child protection debate in the UK. However, Rantzen herself has stated that she regrets that the logical extension of some of her campaigns has been such things as schools refusing to allow grandparents to take photos of children. Policies that she is critical of. Her critics however have noted that she has been much less vociferous in using her media profile to support a scaled back 'common sense' approach to child protection than she was in initially 'building her career' by embracing and sensationalizing cases that led to this cultural shift.

In 1988, Rantzen created a TV series called Hearts of Gold celebrating people who have performed unsung acts of outstanding kindness or courage. The theme tune for "heats of Gold was written by her friend Lynsey De Paul and was released as a single. After That's Life! finished its 21 year run in 1994, she presented a talk show, Esther, on BBC Two from 1996-2002. The series received two BAFTA nominations. She also presented the ITV campaigning programme, That's Esther, with co-presenters Lara Masters and Heather Mills. In 2004, Rantzen participated in the second series of the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing (later exported to the U.S. as Dancing With The Stars). After an elegant waltz, an eccentric rumba and a disastrous tango with professional partner Anton du Beke, she was voted off, finishing in 8th place.

In 2006, Rantzen took part in the BBC Two programmes 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 he 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 BBC Two, on palliative care. Recently she has campaigned on behalf of hospice care and better care for the elderly and terminally ill. She has also campaigned to raise awareness of M.E./C.F.S. (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), as her eldest daughter Emily has suffered from the condition. She created the Children of Courage segment for the BBC's Children in Need programme.

In addition to her television career, as a patron or vice-president of fifteen charities, she mainly concentrates on working for children or disabled people. Most of her voluntary effort is for ChildLine as a volunteer counsellor on the helpline, and as a fund-raiser and spokesperson for children's rights. For twenty years she chaired ChildLine's Board of Trustees, and since ChildLine merged with the NSPCC, she has served as a Trustee of the NSPCC, as well as being President of ChildLine. In a 2008 Daily Mail article that was largely critical of "politically correct" rules preventing grandparents from photographing grandchildren in nativity plays, or policewomen giving children lifts to school, Rantzen partially blamed herself: "I was part of the revolution in child protection which created these insidious jobsworths."

Rantzen also edits the problems page "Ask Esther" in the children's newspaper First News.

Rantzen appeared on the 2008 series of ITV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. Rantzen was the fifth celebrity to leave the camp. She appeared in Celebrity Cash in the Attic in 2010, raising £1,975 for ChildLine.

She has also been the face of the Accident Advice Helpline since 2003.

Parliamentary candidate

On 26 May 2009, Rantzen announced her intention to stand as an independent candidate for Parliament, if the incumbent Labour MP Margaret Moran stood for Luton South again, on Stephen Rhodes BBC Three Counties Breakfast Show. Rantzen's decision was made against the backdrop of the Parliamentary expenses scandal and Moran's expense claims for dry rot in her second home in Southampton. Two days later, Moran announced she would not be standing at the next General Election, but Rantzen said she was still considering standing herself. Her candidacy was confirmed on 28 July 2009. Rantzen stood for election in Luton South against eleven other candidates, of whom four were independent, including Stephen Rhodes, as well as Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP candidates. Rantzen has been in contact with the Independent Network, an organisation which seeks to support independent candidates, and attended a workshop in Birmingham in January 2010. Bookmakers were offering odds of her winning at around 6 to 1 with the Conservatives favourites to win the seat. Her political progress was documented in an online blog she wrote. At the May 2010 election, Rantzen came top of the independent candidates, but the Labour Party candidate Gavin Shuker won the seat. In accordance with UK Parliamentary electoral process, she lost her deposit coming fourth (behind the three main parties) with a 4.4% share of the vote as only candidates who receive over 5% of the total votes cast have their deposit returned, (Labour won with 34.9%, the Conservatives scored 29.4%, and the Liberal Democrats scored 22.7%).

Personal life

In 1968 Rantzen fell in love with Desmond Wilcox, who was the head of her department and was married at the time to her friend Patsy who also worked at the BBC. 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 Rantzen and Patsy were now working in the same department, causing both women concern. Patsy Wilcox had always refused to divorce her husband, but agreed when Rantzen became pregnant. After Rantzen and Wilcox married in December 1977, BBC management moved her back into General Features department run by him.

By that time, however, That's Life! was achieving huge audiences ratings, and reaching the number one position, gaining more viewers than Coronation Street. This created tension 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 documentaries such as The Visit, which included a series of programmes about The Boy David. For these, as well as previous films, he received many international awards, including the Grierson Life-Time Achievement Award in 2001. Wilcox and Rantzen had three children — Miriam Emily (now known as Emily, b. 1978), Rebecca (b. 1980), and Joshua (b. 1981). Currently, Emily is studying psychology, Rebecca is a television producer/journalist, and Joshua is a medical student at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry.

Having suffered coronary heart disease for 15 years, Desmond Wilcox died in 2000, aged 69. After his conversion to Judaism (Rantzen is Jewish), the couple had a second wedding ceremony in 1999 in the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, which was covered by Hello! magazine. 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 (aka "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.

In 1981, Rantzen gained national media attention when, whilst filming interviews with the general public for That's Life! in London's North End Road, she attracted the attention of Police Constable A Herbert who felt that she was obstructing the pavement while handing out bat stew. After warning her to move on, the police officer arrested Rantzen for causing obstruction and she was taken away in a police van. The entire incident was filmed and shown during the next episode of the series to delighted audience response. The case later went to court and Rantzen was convicted and fined £15.

In 2009, Rantzen responded to a spate of attacks on Roma Gypsies by teenagers from loyalist areas of Belfast by commenting that violence can be addictive. The controversial statements made on the BBC's Question Time programme were widely discussed. Responding to the attacks and Rantzen's comments, Barbara Muldoon of the Anti-Racism Network told a rally of some 500 people in Belfast that "The people of Northern Ireland - unlike in England - did not recently elect two neo-Nazis to the European parliament."

She writes regularly for the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express on social issues. She is the author of several books including an autobiography, Esther, a book on growing old disgracefully, If Not Now When, and a novel A Secret Life.

Honours

In 1991, Rantzen was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to broadcasting, and has received honorary doctorates from five universities (including the Southampton Institute, the London South Bank University and the University of Portsmouth) for her humanitarian work and her career as a broadcaster. She is an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, and Liverpool John Moores University. She was raised to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 2006 for services to children.

She has received a number of professional awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women in Film and Television organisation, 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.

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

Rantzen was also honoured in the BBC Comedy series Bottom when she had a cocktail named after her. The cocktail consisted of Ouzo, Pernod, marmalade and salt.

Family origins

Rantzen was the subject of an episode of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast on 3 September 2008. Her paternal line was traced back, as far as the 1760s, to an established Jewish neighbourhood in Warsaw. Tracing Rantzen's forebears was greatly helped by the rarity of the surname "Rantzen" (even in Warsaw) and the survival of records in Warsaw. In the late 1850s, her great-great-grandfather emigrated to England and settled, as a cap-maker, in Spitalfields, a slum district of London's East End. Rantzen's great-grandfather moved to a more comfortable neighbourhood with the help of his brother-in-law, Barney Barnato (born Barnett Isaacs), who had become extremely wealthy as a diamond merchant in South Africa. Her father's middle name was Barnato.

Barnato died relatively young in unusual circumstances, being lost at sea, but left a generous legacy to his sister Sarah (nee Isaacs) Rantzen. In the BBC programme Rantzen professed her gratitude for the comfortable upbringing she had enjoyed in Hampstead but also, having visited the site of the family home in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw later destroyed by the Nazis after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, she was moved by "survivor guilt".

On her wealthy maternal side Rantzen's great-grandfather, Montague Richard Leverson, at the age of 18 accidentally fatally shot the parlour maid Priscilla Fitzpatrick at the family home in fashionable Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London. Later, in his 30s and working as a solicitor, Montague disappeared with a very large sum of money belonging to his clients, fleeing to Paris and abandoning Rantzen's great-grandmother. She having divorced him, he then moved to the USA. He later returned to England, in his 80s, took back his nationality, and married again at the age of 82. Montague Leverson was the maternal grandfather of British composer Gerald Finzi. Rantzen is also related to Ada Leverson, "The Sphinx", the novelist, Yellow Book contributor and friend of Oscar Wilde, portrayed in the film by Zoe Wannamaker.

Footnotes

• Who's Who

External links

• Rantzen's Luton election campaign blog
• Esther speaks to the Totally Chappers webcast about her time on That's Life
• Esther presents the Ad for Accident Advice Helpline