Dame Esther Rantzen Dies Aged 86 — That's Life! Presenter, Childline Founder and Assisted‑Dying Campaigner

Dame Esther Rantzen, the broadcaster best known for fronting the BBC consumer programme That’s Life! for more than two decades and the founder of the child support helpline Childline, has died aged 86 after a battle with terminal lung cancer.

Her family announced her death on Wednesday, paying tribute to “the most wonderful mother” and a “cherished grandmother,” and saying her compassion would live on through the charities she started. “We hope the humour, ingenuity and audacity she brought to her work may continue to inspire you as it will do us,” they added.

Broadcasting Career

Rantzen joined the BBC as a sound-effects assistant before moving into television research and training as a producer and director in 1968. She worked as a reporter on consumer programmes, including Bernard Braden’s Braden’s Week, before becoming the public face of That’s Life! when the show launched in 1973. She presented and produced the programme until 1994; the magazine-format series mixed serious consumer investigations with lighter features and regularly drew around 20 million viewers.

The programme ran memorable campaigns on behalf of abused children, organ transplant access, safer playgrounds and wider consumer justice. One of the most-watched episodes featured Sir Nicholas Winton meeting, for the first time on television, survivors he had rescued from the Holocaust in 1988.

Charitable Work

In 1986 Rantzen founded Childline, a counselling helpline for children and young people across the UK. In 2013 she launched The Silver Line, a service offering support and friendship to older people facing loneliness and isolation. Both charities remain central elements of her legacy.

Campaigning for Assisted Dying

Dame Esther met some Childline volunteers when she visited its Belfast office in 2009 [PA]

Later in life, Rantzen became a prominent campaigner for legal change on assisted dying. She publicly revealed a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer in January 2023 and later said she had joined Dignitas in Switzerland. She told the Press Association that, although she had “spent the money and made the plans” to travel, she became “too physically fragile to make the journey.”

She renewed calls for reform ahead of parliamentary debates on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which failed to pass the Commons. Rantzen described the ongoing campaign as driven by compassion for those facing unbearable suffering at the end of life.

Personal Life and Tributes

Rantzen was married to documentary filmmaker Desmond Wilcox from 1977 until his death in 2000; they had three children. She was appointed a Dame in 2015 for services to children and older people.

Political leaders, broadcasters and charity figures paid tribute to her contribution. The prime minister praised her “characteristic courage and openness” in speaking about her illness and the difficult questions it raises about end-of-life care. BBC leaders and charity chiefs described her as a campaigning broadcaster whose work had changed millions of lives.

Co-presenters and colleagues recalled her campaigning determination and warm personality. The chief executive of the NSPCC, which runs Childline, thanked her for the exceptional lengths she went to ensure children had somewhere to turn in times of need.

Legacy

Dame Esther’s broadcasting, campaigning and charitable work established a long-lasting public legacy: from the campaigning journalism of That’s Life! to helplines that continue to support vulnerable people today. A half-hour BBC special, Esther!, produced by Katie Razzall, will be available on iPlayer and broadcast on BBC One on Friday, 2 October, at 19:30 BST.