Dame Esther Rantzen Remembered as "Inspirational" Broadcaster and Fearless Campaigner After Death at 86

Dame Esther Rantzen, the veteran British broadcaster who founded Childline and spent much of her life campaigning on behalf of children, older people and the terminally ill, has died at the age of 86, prompting an outpouring of tributes from across broadcasting, politics and charity.

Her death was announced on Wednesday, and by Thursday morning colleagues, friends and public figures were lining up to describe the scale of her influence. Shaun Friel, director of Childline, the children's helpline Dame Esther established in the 1980s, told BBC Breakfast that she was "an inspirational individual" who was "quite a force" when she took up a cause.

"She inspired people, she energised people, she persuaded people," Friel said. "She had a great mind and she had obviously that natural journalistic ability."

Dame Esther was best known to television audiences for presenting the BBC consumer affairs programme That's Life! for 21 years, a show that mixed investigations into rip-offs and malpractice with light entertainment and viewer participation. At its peak it drew more than 20 million viewers. But it was the campaigning work that flowed out of the programme, and continued long after it ended, that defined her public legacy.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham led the political tributes, saying the veteran broadcaster had "changed countless lives". Burnham also said he would "always admire the characteristic courage and openness with which she spoke about her illness, making us all think about the difficult questions we face at the end of life".

BBC director general Matt Brittin described her as a "legend of British broadcasting" whose contribution to public life was "immeasurable". He added: "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."

Childline was set up in 1986 after Dame Esther featured a series of incidents of child abuse and neglect on That's Life! and realised that many children had nowhere to turn for help. The helpline merged with the NSPCC in 2006. Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the NSPCC, which runs Childline, said Dame Esther had gone to "exceptional lengths to ensure children and young people across the UK had somewhere to turn when they were in need of help".

Friel said the creation of Childline had changed society's attitude towards children. "The legacy that Dame Esther created when she created Childline is something quite incredible. She changed how society looked upon children," he said. "When she decided she had a vision or something had to be done or had to be changed, she was quite a force."

In 2013, Dame Esther founded The Silver Line, a helpline for older people suffering from isolation and loneliness, extending her charitable work into a different stage of life. She also led campaigns on safety, organ donation and bullying.

Later in life she became a prominent advocate for the legalisation of assisted dying. She had been terminally ill with lung cancer, and in 2023 revealed she had joined Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying clinic. Last month she said she had become "too physically fragile to make the journey".

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who sponsored the assisted dying bill, told the BBC that Dame Esther was a "wonderful mix of strength and feistiness, but also really deep compassion and kindness", and said she would continue to inspire campaigners.

Baroness Jan Royall, former leader of the House of Lords and a friend of Dame Esther, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she was a "formidable" person. "She was an extraordinary, compassionate woman, a passionate woman, and she brought about such change in our world, change for the better," Baroness Royall said. She added that Dame Esther had "a wicked sense of humour" and a "zest for life", which was what "drove her to try and improve people's lives through Silver Line, Childline etc, but also with the assisted dying bill".

Tributes also came from across the entertainment industry. Martin Lewis, the consumer campaigner and broadcaster, called Dame Esther an "inspiration" and a "pioneer" whose "impact and memory will long continue to shine". Bill Buckley, her co-presenter on That's Life!, told BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme that "nothing would stop her" when it came to campaigning. "She saw the light at the end of the tunnel and followed it doggedly," he said.

Dame Elaine Paige, known for West End roles in productions such as Cats and Evita, paid tribute to a "great broadcaster, journalist and campaigner", noting that Childline had helped many children in distress while The Silver Line was aimed at older people suffering loneliness and isolation.

Anton Du Beke, Dame Esther's partner on Strictly Come Dancing, shared a photograph of the pair dancing together in the 2004 series, writing that they had "remained firm friends" ever since. He praised her "breadth of knowledge and passion" and called her "the ultimate breaker of the glass ceiling", adding: "She will be greatly missed and my sincere thoughts are with her family."

Davina McCall wrote on Instagram that Dame Esther had "made the world a better place, and inspired so many of us to do better and live life to its fullest". The message accompanied a video of the former Big Brother host discussing how Dame Esther was an "inspiration to girls like me when we were growing up". Presenter Amol Rajan said she "changed the course of millions of lives", describing her as "an inspirational, strong woman ahead of her time".

Dame Esther's career and her activism were closely intertwined. The consumer investigations that made That's Life! a national institution gave her a platform, and she used it to press for changes in law and practice that outlasted the programme itself. That combination of journalism and advocacy is now widely seen as her defining contribution, and it is the reason tributes have come from charity leaders, politicians and entertainers alike.

For Childline, the organisation she founded almost four decades ago, the priority now is to carry forward the principle she established: that any child, whatever their circumstances, should have someone to talk to. Friel's assessment, that she "changed how society looked upon children", is likely to stand as one of the most durable judgments on her life. For campaigners on assisted dying, she leaves a different kind of legacy, having forced a difficult national conversation into the open at the end of her own life, as she had done on so many subjects before.