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Esther Rantzen

b. 1941

Born in Hertfordshire, Rantzen, 83, was educated at Oxford University. In 1973, she began presenting That’s Life!, a popular BBC show which ran for 21 years. In 1986, she founded Childline, and later the Silver Line, which is now part of Age UK. In 2023, she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and joined Dignitas. She supports the UK campaign for Dignity in Dying, which has launched a petition for assisted dying to be debated in parliament. She lives in the New Forest and has three children with her late husband, the documentary maker Desmond Wilcox.

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Question What is the worst job you have done?
When I started as a researcher in the BBC, I was working for an editor who was a self-confessed misogynist. He used to practise shooting by aiming his air gun at an aerosol can balanced just over my head. I made it a matter of pride not to flinch as the pellets whizzed by.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 February 2024 source ↗

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