The show, which she helped devise, was a ground-breaking mix of hard-hitting consumer investigations interspersed with humorous skits and songs and jokey vox pops.
asserted
she → devise → skits
Its investigations ran the gamut from dodgy sales reps and faulty washing machines to child sex abuse by staff at a boys’ boarding school, which led to it being shut down.
asserted
it → run → school
It provided the platform from which Rantzen launched ChildLine – the confidential counselling service for young people in distress – after she issued an appeal to viewers for help with a survey on child abuse, only to be overwhelmed by the response.
asserted
she → provide → response
At the same time, it was the programme that gave the world odd odes, talented tots, suggestively-shaped vegetables and a dog that said “sausages”.
asserted
that → give → sausages
It was not, as she recalled, an easy combination to pull off.
asserted
she → recall → ?
“We had to learn how to change gear,” she later said.
asserted
she → have → gear
“When you are talking about the life and death of a toddler who could only be saved by a transplant, you couldn’t immediately then go into a song and dance, or a talking dog.
uncertain
you → talk → song
It’s quite difficult.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
It was, however, a feat that she managed with rare aplomb.
asserted
she → manage → aplomb
When the show finally ended in 1994, she continued to broadcast and campaign prolifically with her own chat show and appearances on the reality shows Strictly Come Dancing and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.
asserted
I → end → Me
In 2012 – 26 years after she founded ChildLine – she launched The Silver Line, a similar service aimed at older people suffering loneliness and isolation, in part inspired by her own experiences following the death of her husband, Desmond Wilcox.
asserted
she → found → husband
After being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023, she became an impassioned supporter of the campaign to legalise assisted dying for people who are terminally ill.
asserted
who → diagnose → people
She herself signed up for the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland but had to abandon her plan to end her life there after she became too ill to travel.
asserted
she → sign → life
When a private member’s bill to change the law in England and Wales was finally defeated in September 2026, she said it was a “tragic day”, which would deny people the choice open to those in other countries around the world to end their suffering.
asserted
which → change → suffering
Esther Louise Rantzen was born on June 22 1940 in Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, the older of two daughters in a Jewish family.
asserted
Rantzen → bear → family
Her father was an electrical engineer and she was sent to the North London Collegiate School, an all-girls independent school, from where she won a place to read English at Somerville College, Oxford.
asserted
she → send → College
At Oxford, she indulged her enthusiasm for acting, performing with the university dramatic society, becoming secretary of the experimental theatre club as well as joining the local theatre group.
asserted
she → indulge → group
Having worked as a researcher on a number of current affairs programmes, her breakthrough came when she joined the consumer affairs programme Braden’s Week and the producer decided to put the researchers working on its stories on screen.
asserted
producer → work → screen
When presenter Bernard Braden returned to his native Canada in 1972, Rantzen was picked to host and produce a new programme along similar lines – and so That’s Life! was born.
asserted
picked → return → lines
While it continued with Braden’s mix of serious and humorous items, it took the formula to a new level, building a huge following and establishing Rantzen as one of the most familiar faces on British television.
asserted
it → continue → television
One of the programme’s most memorable episodes came in 1988 when it reunited 79-year-old Nicholas Winton with a roomful of some of the 669 mainly Jewish children whose escape from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia he had engineered 50 years earlier.
asserted
he → come → Czechoslovakia
Mr Winton was reduced to tears after Rantzen asked first if anyone in the audience owed their lives to him and around two dozen stood up, and then if anyone was a child or grandchild of someone who owed their lives to him, and the rest rose to their feet.
He was subsequently knighted for his achievements.
asserted
He → reduce → achievements
The programme’s campaigns led to the introduction of safe playground surfaces, a legal requirement for seat belts for children in cars and an upsurge in organ donations after it highlighted the case of two-year-old Ben Hardwick, who was dying of liver disease.
asserted
who → lead → disease
After the murder of toddler Heidi Koseda, who was left to starve in a locked bedroom, Rantzen urged BBC bosses to run a special edition inviting viewers to participate in a survey if they had suffered abuse as a child.
asserted
they → leave → child
A temporary helpline opened after the show had aired was swamped with calls – more than 50,000 attempted to get through on that night alone – mostly from children who were being sexually abused.
asserted
who → open → children
“I will never forget walking into my office the morning after the programme to meet the social workers who had been running the helpline,” Rantzen recalled.
asserted
Rantzen → forget → helpline
“I knew in that moment that working to help protect abused children was more important to me than any of my previous work.
asserted
working → know → work
As I heard about these hidden children, all guarding a terrible secret, I passionately wanted to be able to help them.
asserted
I → hear → them
“And I realised that if we could keep our lines open throughout the year, we might be able to help hundreds, maybe thousands more children.”
uncertain
we → realise → children
The result was the creation of ChildLine with the Variety Club and the Department of Health each stumping up £25,000 while BT provided a freephone number – 0800 1111 – that would not show up on phone bills.
asserted
that → stump → bills
Staffed by volunteer counsellors – Rantzen among them – it went on to provide confidential support to more than 4 million young people, eventually merging with the NSPCC in 2005.
asserted
it → staff → 2005
In 1968, she had begun an affair with the documentary maker Desmond Wilcox, who was the head of her department.
asserted
who → begin → department
He was also married to her close friend, Patsy, with whom he had a child.
asserted
he → have → child
The ensuing scandal came to a head in 1977 – just as That’s Life! was hitting its peak viewing figures – when Rantzen became pregnant and Patsy finally agreed to a divorce.
asserted
Patsy → ensue → divorce
The fallout led to Wilcox resigning from the BBC while Patsy never forgave her former friend for what she regarded as her betrayal.
asserted
she → lead → betrayal
Rantzen and Wilcox married a month before their first child was born.
asserted
child → marry → ?
Looking back years later, Rantzen said: “Our marriage lasted and we have three wonderful children, so I don’t regret it.
asserted
I → look → it
But I wish it had happened differently.”
asserted
it → wish → ?
Away from That’s Life!, she was involved in producing the reality series Hearts Of Gold and The Big Time, which discovered the Scottish singer Sheena Easton.
asserted
which → involve → singer
She was hit hard by Wilcox’s death in 2000, writing movingly about her experience of loneliness, which eventually fed into the creation of The Silver Line.
asserted
which → hit → Line
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
