Dame Esther Rantzen: That's Life! presenter, Childline founder and campaigner for assisted dying

Dame Esther Rantzen: That's Life! presenter, Childline founder and assisted dying campaigner - BBC News

Dame Esther Rantzen, who has died at the age of 86, was best known for presenting the BBC TV programme That's Life!

Over two decades, what started as a consumer programme with quirky asides became renowned for its high-profile campaigns, notably against child 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.

How That's Life! gave Esther Rantzen a career-defining moment

Esther Louise Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire on 22 June 1940. Her paternal ancestors were Polish Jews.

Her father, Henry, who worked as a broadcast engineer for the BBC, had moved the family out of London to escape German bombing during World War Two.

本文の著作権はBBCにあります。