Esther Rantzen

Dame Esther Rantzen DBE
Esther Rantzen, Nightingale House, January 2011
Born	Esther Louise Rantzen (1940-06-22) 22 June 1940 (age 76) Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England
Occupation	Journalist and television presenter
Spouse(s)	Desmond Wilcox (1977–2000; his death)
Children	Miriam Wilcox Rebecca Wilcox Joshua Wilcox

Dame Esther Louise Rantzen DBE (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, best known for presenting the hit BBC television series That's Life! for 21 years from 1973 until 1994. She is well known for her work with various charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine, which she set up in 1986, and The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness, which she set up in 2012.

Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, to Katherine Flora Rantzen (née Leverson, 1911–2005) and Henry Barnato Rantzen (1902–1992). Rantzen has one younger sister, Priscilla N. Taylor. She attended Buckley Country Day School in New York leaving in 1950. She was educated at North London Collegiate School, and Somerville College, Oxford, where she read English, performed with the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), became Secretary of the Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) and joined the Oxford Theatre Group, performing in Oxford and Edinburgh.

After training in secretarial skills, Rantzen was recruited by BBC Radio as a trainee studio manager. She began her television career as a clerk in the programme planning department, then obtained her first production job working as a researcher on the BBC One late-night satire programme, BBC3 (1965–66), created by Ned Sherrin. Having worked as a researcher on a number of Current Affairs programmes, she moved to the award-winning BBC Two documentary series Man Alive in the mid-1960s.

In 1968, Rantzen, who was a researcher for the programme Braden's Week, became a presenter because the producer of Braden's Week decided to put the researchers into the programme. The programme was hosted by Bernard Braden. In 1972, Braden decided to return to his native Canada to present a similar TV show there, and the following year, the BBC replaced Braden's Week with That's Life! with Rantzen as the main presenter. The format was very similar, although the comedian Cyril Fletcher replaced announcer Ronald Fletcher to read out amusing misprints.