Esther Rantzen, TV presenter and Childline founder, dies aged 86<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Esther Rantzen: from That\u2019s Life! to Childline \u2013 in pictures<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Esther Rantzen\u2019s early CV reads like a chronicle of the world working as the 1960s thought it should. A smart young woman, privately educated in north London from the age of 10 (the Rantzens had previously lived in New York), then at Somerville College, Oxford, she started on the bottom rung and had exactly the right mixture of graft and luck. Having trained as a radio studio manager, she got her first TV production job as a researcher for BBC-3, Ned Sherrin\u2019s satirical show in the mid-60s. From there, she went to Braden\u2019s Week, a magazine show hosted by Bernard Braden, a serendipitous connection for two reasons \u2013 first, he put his researchers on screen, then he decided to return to his native Canada. From there, That\u2019s Life! was born, with Rantzen as the main presenter. It was 1973, and it was conceived as a new, revamped Braden\u2019s Week. In reality, it was nothing like it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s Life! ebbed and flowed over its 21 years, but at its various peaks, it would draw in audiences of more than 22 million. It definitely became more searching and serious as it went on, but even from the start, it would have bizarre and audacious gear changes, from an item about funny-shaped vegetables to another on lethal patio doors without skipping a beat. That is not to cast shade on the lighter material: there was a dog called Prince that could say \u201csausages\u201d<\/a>, and a generation of us have not been able to eat sausages without saying \u201csausages\u201d in Prince\u2019s voice at least once<\/em> since. It was delightful to watch partly because there was so much texture to the studio audience\u2019s laughter: there\u2019s one part affection for the dog, one part affection for the owner, five parts, dude, your dog is not saying \u201cAnthony\u201d, <\/em>and then this wild overflow of excitement when the Yorkie says something that definitely sounds like \u201csausages\u201d. Then, wham, the next story would be a toddler with life-changing injuries from a poorly surfaced playground, then Victoria Wood would come on and be funny.<\/p>\n
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