Esther Rantzen, UK Campaigner and TV Host, Dies After Backing Assisted Dying
Life, Legacy, and Final Campaigns of Esther Rantzen
By Sarah Young
Sept 30 (Reuters) - Esther Rantzen, the British television presenter whose show "That's Life!" made her a weekly fixture in living rooms of the 1970s and 1980s, and who was a prominent supporter of a campaign for Britain to legalise assisted dying, died on Wednesday aged 86.
Diagnosis and Advocacy for Assisted Dying
Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in her early 80s, Rantzen returned to the media spotlight in 2023 to lend her support to the assisted dying movement. She praised the "huge positive difference" the End of Life bill would make when the House of Commons voted in favour of it in June 2025.
It was to be the final crusade of her life, one that followed numerous other successful campaigns.
Impact of "That's Life!" and Early Campaigns
With Rantzen at the helm, "That's Life!" was credited with helping to make car seat belts compulsory for children, bringing in safer surfaces to replace concrete in playgrounds, and encouraging more people to sign up for organ donation.
Running from 1973 to 1994 on the BBC, the programme regularly drew audiences of 15 to 20 million people.
Rantzen's death was announced by her family in a statement published by the BBC on Wednesday.
She had said in September 2026 that she was now "too physically fragile" to travel, preventing her from ending her life at an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.
'Making a Difference is Addictive'
Rantzen's show shone a spotlight on issues like stillbirth, addiction and mental health, at a time when they were not frequently discussed.
"Making a difference is addictive, so when so many people contacted me about assisted dying when I mentioned my concern about the current law, I could hardly let them down, could I?" she said of the role she played in her final campaign.
She said that out of the deaths in quick succession of her husband, mother and dog, it was Marmite the dog's that she envied. He was put to sleep after his breakfast and walk.
In November 2025, she said she had stopped receiving treatment for cancer. Her long-held plan had been to travel to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland for an assisted death.
"My great hope for 2026, which I do not expect to survive long enough to witness, is the final passing of the Assisted Dying Bill through all its stages in parliament," she wrote in The Times newspaper.
Assisted dying, which would mark one of the biggest social changes in a generation in Britain, was rejected by parliament earlier this month.
Charity Work and Social Impact
Founding of Childline
Her involvement came after decades of championing other causes.
In 1986, she founded Childline, a free, confidential helpline for children and young people in distress.
That came after she dedicated an episode of her show to child abuse, causing a temporary helpline to be swamped with calls. The charity has since helped hundreds of thousands of people, and its model has been replicated around the world.
Creation of The Silver Line
She later had the idea of a helpline for the elderly. It took encouragement from the late Queen Elizabeth II for Rantzen to realise that ambition. She launched The Silver Line in 2012.
'The Emotion Stopped Me': Notable Moments and Personal Life
Influence of "That's Life!"
'THE EMOTION STOPPED ME'
Elizabeth had been one of the millions who watched "That's Life!", said Rantzen, who in the 1980s was one of Britain's most influential broadcasters.
Beyond the light entertainment, "That's Life!" told true-life stories.
The Story of Nicholas Winton
One of the most famous was the story of Nicholas Winton, the British stockbroker who in 1939 helped 669 children, most of them Jewish, flee German-occupied Czechoslovakia for Britain.
Winton's efforts went unrecognised for almost 50 years until he appeared on the programme. In a television moment still remembered decades later, Winton was told that some of those he had saved were sitting by him in the studio audience.
"It was the only time in my professional life when, as a presenter, the emotion stopped me," Rantzen later said. "I had to break off our recording, leave my chair and take a moment to wipe my eyes."
Family and Early Life
She married Desmond Wilcox, a television producer, in 1977. They had three children: Emily, Rebecca and Joshua. Wilcox died of a heart attack in 2000. She was haunted by the trauma of seeing doctors repeatedly trying to save him when she knew he had already gone.
"The last thing I want is for my family to remember me in pain," she said.
Born in 1940 into a Jewish family in Hertfordshire, north of London, her earliest memory was of standing in her cot listening to the wail of the air-raid sirens.
Her first ambition was to be a schoolteacher, but her headmistress persuaded her to do something else first. She studied English at Oxford, before joining the BBC to work on sound effects. Her father also worked at the public broadcaster, as an electrical engineer.
Final Reflections and Legacy
In November 2025, she wrote that she was planning to celebrate Christmas early, to improve the odds of being alive for the occasion.
"Although I live alone, Rebecca will come and decorate the house beautifully, as she has done every year with all my old baubles and bits of tinsel," she wrote. "Which reminds me, I must ask her to buy a Christmas tree for me."
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(Editing by Olivier Holmey)
