37 Facts About Esther Rantzen

Esther Rantzen was awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting in 1991 and a CBE for services to children in 2006, and in the 2015 New Year Honours was made a Dame for services to children and older people through Childline and The Silver Line.

Esther Rantzen is patron for a number of charities, including the charity Operation Encompass, and is a trustee for the charity Silver Stories.

Esther Rantzen attended Buckley Country Day School in New York, leaving in 1950.

Esther Rantzen was educated at North London Collegiate School, an all-girls independent school in Edgware, North London.

Esther Rantzen studied English at Somerville College, Oxford, where the Principal was Dame Janet Vaughan and one of her tutors was Mary Lascelles.

Esther Rantzen is related to Ada Leverson, a British writer and friend of Oscar Wilde, who was portrayed by Zoe Wanamaker in the 1997 film Wilde.

Esther Rantzen is first cousin once removed of the novelist and translator Michael Meyer.

Esther Rantzen began her television career as a clerk in the programme planning department, then obtained her first production job working as a researcher on the BBC1 late-night satire programme BBC-3.

In 1976, Esther Rantzen devised the documentary series The Big Time, which launched Sheena Easton's singing career.

Esther 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.

Ian Skipper OBE, a noted philanthropist who had already helped Esther Rantzen set up a special fund in memory of Ben Hardwick, agreed to underwrite the helpline's running costs for the first year.

In 2013, Esther Rantzen set up The Silver Line, a charity to benefit elderly people, by combating isolation and loneliness, to provide information and advice and to offer a free confidential helpline.

In 1988, Esther Rantzen created a BBC One television series called Hearts of Gold, celebrating people who had performed unsung acts of outstanding kindness or courage that became a prime time ratings hit Its theme tune was written by her close friend Lynsey de Paul, and was released as a single on the CBS record label.

In 2004, Esther Rantzen was a contestant on the second series of the BBC celebrity dance competition Strictly Come Dancing.

Esther Rantzen was paired with Anton Du Beke, and they were the third couple to be eliminated.

In 2006, Esther 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.

Esther Rantzen made a documentary for ITV called Winton's Children about Sir Nicholas Winton, who had rescued a generation of Czech children from The Holocaust and was later nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Esther Rantzen created the 'Children of Courage' segment for the BBC's Children in Need programme, and the series The Big Time which discovered singer Sheena Easton.

Esther Rantzen was for a time a director of That's Media, which provides local TV programmes.

Esther Rantzen chaired Childline's board of trustees for twenty years, and since Childline merged with the NSPCC in 2006, she served as a Trustee of the NSPCC, as well as being President of Childline.

Esther Rantzen is patron of Erosh, a national charity which promotes good quality sheltered and retirement housing and provides resources for its members who support older people.

Esther Rantzen appeared in the 2008 series of ITV show I'm a Celebrity.

On 26 May 2009, on Stephen Rhodes's BBC Three Counties Breakfast Show, Esther Rantzen announced her intention to stand as an independent candidate for Parliament, if the incumbent Labour MP Margaret Moran stood for Luton South again.

Two days later, Moran announced she would not stand at the next general election, but Esther Rantzen said she was still considering standing herself and confirmed her candidacy on 28 July 2009.

Esther Rantzen stood for election in Luton South against eleven other candidates, of whom four were independent.

In Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, broadcast on 3 October 2012, Esther Rantzen, after seeing the interviews the programme contains, supported the women abused by the BBC broadcaster Jimmy Savile.

Esther Rantzen has denied hearing specific allegations and said she had no recollection of a conversation with Keenan.

Pete Saunders, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, at Keenan's request, temporarily asked for all references to Esther Rantzen to be removed from the charity's website, but subsequently defended Esther Rantzen and said she would continue as a patron.

In 1966, at the age of 26, Esther Rantzen had an affair with the Scottish politician Nicholas Fairbairn.

In 1968, Esther Rantzen started an affair with Desmond Wilcox, who was the head of her department and married to Esther Rantzen's friend Patsy who worked at the BBC.

In 2001, Patsy's daughter Cassandra Wilcox gave an interview in response to comments Esther Rantzen had made about Patsy in her autobiography, alleging amongst other things that Esther Rantzen had long harboured animosity towards Patsy.

In January 2023, Esther Rantzen announced that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

In May 2023, Esther Rantzen announced that her lung cancer had reached stage IV and that she was on a new form of medication.

Esther Rantzen was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1991 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2006 Birthday Honours for services to children and young people, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to children and older people through Childline and The Silver Line.

Esther Rantzen has received a number of professional awards, including a 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.

Esther Rantzen was the first woman to receive a Dimbleby Award from BAFTA for factual presentation.

Esther Rantzen received the Snowdon Award for services to disabled people.