Sir Michael Terence Wogan was an Irish–British radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme Wake Up to Wogan regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe.
Shaun Anthony Woodward is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2010.
Childline is a British counselling service for children and young people under 19 in the United Kingdom provided by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. They deal with any issues which cause distress or concern; some of the most common issues include child abuse, bullying, mental illness, parental separation and or divorce, teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, neglect, and psychological abuse.
Dame Esther Louise Rantzen is an English journalist and television presenter who presented the BBC television series That's Life! for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes and founded the charities Childline, a helpline for children, which she set up in 1986, and The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness in older people's lives, which she set up in November 2012.
Sir Richard Henry Simpson Stilgoe is a British songwriter, lyricist and musician, and broadcaster who is best known for his humorous songs and frequent television appearances. His output includes collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Peter Skellern. He is also a keen puzzler who has hosted several quiz shows and written several books on the subject.
Cyril Fletcher was an English comedian, broadcaster, pantomime impresario, actor, gardener and businessman. His catchphrase was 'Pin back your lugholes'. He was best known for his "Odd Odes", which later formed a section of the television show That's Life! a role he excelled in. So successful was he that he stayed on the show from 1973 to 1981. He only left then because Alan Hart, the Controller of BBC1, wanted him to be replaced, although Esther Rantzen, the producer and presenter who had hired him when they met on the Radio 4 programme Start the Week with Richard Baker, very much wanted him to stay. Besides reading humorous cuttings and reciting his Odd Odes on the programme, Fletcher also took a great interest in the campaigning consumer journalism, which was the basis of the programme. He also took part in films such as a lawn mower race in full racing driver costume.
Bernard Chastey Braden was a Canadian-born British actor and comedian, who is best known for his appearances in UK television and radio shows.
Sir Nicholas George Winton was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had immigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he helped compile a list of children in danger and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport.
Adrian Mills is a British television presenter and actor. He appeared on That's Life! with Esther Rantzen for seven years until 1994. The programme regularly attracted 20 million viewers. Since then, he has presented talk show Central Weekend Live, reported for BBC viewer feedback programme Bite Back and appeared as a location reporter on the TV series Surprise, Surprise. He was later a host on TV Travel Shop and Sky Travel, having become the new face of the BBC's daytime schedule, hosting Daytime UK and People today. He is currently the consumer expert on Talk TV.
Christopher Ryan Hardwick is an American comedian, actor, television and podcast host, writer, and producer. He hosted Talking Dead, an hourlong aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, as well as Talking with Chris Hardwick, a show in which Hardwick interviews prominent pop culture figures, and The Wall, a plinko-inspired gameshow on NBC, Hardwick created Nerdist Industries, operator of the Nerdist Podcast Network and home of his podcast The Nerdist Podcast, which later left the network and was renamed to ID10T with Chris Hardwick. His podcast had broadcast 1,000 episodes as of December 2019.
Barbara Kelly was a Canadian-British actress, best known for her television roles in the United Kingdom opposite her husband Bernard Braden in the 1950s and 1960s, and for many appearances as a panelist on the British version of What's My Line?
Anthony Paul Beke, known professionally as Anton Du Beke, is a British ballroom and Latin dancer, author and television presenter, best known for being a professional dancer and a judge on the BBC One celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing. His professional dance partner since 1997 has been Erin Boag.
Desmond John Wilcox was a British television producer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and television executive. He worked at the BBC and ITV during his career and was producer of series such as This Week, Man Alive, and That's Life!.
Benjamyn Paul Hardwick was Britain's youngest liver transplant patient. He became a celebrity through appearing on the BBC television programme That's Life! after his parents appealed for more awareness of organ donation when their son, who suffered from biliary atresia, urgently needed a transplant. While he also became the first child in the country to receive a liver transplant, the initial transplant failed. After a second transplant the following year, he died of complications at the age of 3. Following this event, at least £10,000 was raised in Hardwick's name to support other seriously ill children.
Anna Williamson is an English television presenter and dating agent. She is the former co-presenter of children's programmes Rescue RobotsToonattik and Action Stations! on CITV. In 2019, Williamson began appearing as a dating agent on the E4 reality dating series Celebs Go Dating.
John Pitman was an English journalist, television producer and documentary filmmaker. He began his on-screen career as a researcher on Braden's Week but later became known for his reporting work on the BBC2 documentary series Man Alive.
Sarah Patricia Ann Caplin is a British producer and television executive, formerly at ITV, and before that Deputy Secretary of the BBC, who has helped create two national charities, one for children and one for older people. She was a founder of Childline, together with her cousin Esther Rantzen and also The Silver Line. She was educated at the University of York and has been married to TV presenter Nick Ross for more than twenty-five years.
The Silver Line is a free confidential telephone helpline offering information, friendship and advice to older people in the United Kingdom, available 24 hours a day. As of 1 October 2019 The Silver Line joined forces with Age UK to help more of the older people who are struggling with loneliness and isolation. The Silver Line is a subsidiary of Age UK.
Esther Louise Rantzen v Mirror Group Newspapers (1986) Ltd., Brian Radford, Richard Stott and Mirror Group Newspapers plc. [1993] EWCA Civ 16, [1993] 4 All ER 975, also shortened to Rantzen v Mirror Group Newspapers by legal analysts, is a 1993 English defamation court case. The case was brought by the television presenter Esther Rantzen against Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of The People which had alleged that Rantzen had protected a child abuser after he had given information about child abuse in a school.
One Life is a 2023 biographical drama film directed by James Hawes. Based on the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, the film alternates between following Anthony Hopkins as a 79-year old Winton reminiscing on his past, and Johnny Flynn as a 29-year old Winton who successfully helps 669 predominantly Jewish children in German-occupied Czechoslovakia to hide and flee in 1938–39, just before the beginning of World War II. Helena Bonham Carter, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp and Jonathan Pryce co-star in supporting roles.
