{"id":788302,"date":"2026-10-01T07:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788302\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T07:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:32:13","slug":"dame-esther-rantzen-tributes-paid-to-inspirational-presenter-and-campaigner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788302\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Esther Rantzen: Tributes paid to &#8216;inspirational&#8217; presenter and campaigner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">BBC director general Matt Brittin also paid tribute to Dame Esther, describing her as a &#8220;legend of British broadcasting&#8221; whose contribution to public life was &#8220;immeasurable&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Her warmth, spirit and fight for justice and action that we saw on our screens continued long after the programme ended, with a lifetime of campaigning where she changed the lives of millions,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Fellow broadcaster and money saving expert Martin Lewis called Dame Esther an &#8220;inspiration&#8221; and a &#8220;pioneer&#8221; whose &#8220;impact and memory will long continue to shine&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the NSPCC, which runs Childline, said Dame Esther had gone to &#8220;exceptional lengths to ensure children and young people across the UK had somewhere to turn when they were in need of help&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Dame Esther set up the telephone helpline in 1986 after featuring a number of incidents of child abuse and neglect on That&#8217;s Life! and realising that many children had nowhere to turn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Friel said: &#8220;The legacy that Dame Esther created when she created Childline is something quite incredible. She changed how society looked upon children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added: &#8220;When she decided she had a vision or something had to be done or had to be changed, she was quite a force.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC director general Matt Brittin also paid tribute to Dame Esther, describing her as a &#8220;legend of British&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-788302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}