Dame Esther Rantzen: That's Life! presenter, Childline founder and campaigner for assisted dying
Dame Esther Rantzen, the iconic British television presenter and founder of the Childline charity, has passed away at age 86. Her career spanned decades of influential consumer advocacy, child protection campaigning, and later, public activism for assisted dying.
Why it matters
She was a transformative figure in British media and social welfare, leaving a lasting legacy through the establishment of the UK's primary child protection helpline.
Image source, Getty Images Published 4 minutes ago 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.
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.
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