Esther Ranzen

[Catarinabella]

Esther Ranzen has died. So many red arrows on mailonline. Don’t get it.

I never liked her. She always came across as the kind that would step over your dying corpse to get what she wanted, but none of us knew her and she could have been lovely, who knows? She certainly didn’t cover herself in glory with Savile and her affairs though.

Because the Daily Mail is a hate-fueled toxic dumpster fire, especially the BTL comments.

I thought everyone knew she knew but said nothing to protect him.

Wasn't there some big conspiracy theory that alleges child line was created to get vulnerable children to pdfs?

There was, yes. Ridiculous of course but she really didn’t cover herself in glory with the Savile stuff. The again, not many people at the BBC did!

Look at who her friends were and look at who she worked for.

RIP. A sad day, she did so much for children. Founded Childline.

Oh, did all the police who knew die? Are they being talked about in the newspapers?

@Winterhasbeenandgone no but they are central to the case and never listened to anyone reporting him multiple times before? How convenient for the police that they only got criticised at the time and everyone's stopped holding them to account for their utter failures. Meanwhile we'll criticise an elderly woman ad nauseum every time her name is mentioned, especially the minute she dies.

You should start a thread about that then.

This one's about Esther Ranzen.

RIP Esther, Childline was a great achievement.

People always want to find a woman to blame for men's behaviour. She wasn't on the same TV programmes as Jimmy Savile. RIP Esther Ranzen.

Nobody is blaming her very his crimes
She did know about him though and didnt speak up
All of those at the BBC who didnt speak up enabled him to carry on abusing children and vulnerable adults
Its some what hypocritical that she set up childline a charity specifically up to help abused children knowing what she knew.

No, she admitted she had information and she didn’t share it and talked about how she regretted it. She was far from the only one but don’t pretend she’s getting the blame because she’s a woman.

I think there was a fault with the Daily Mail green arrows yesterday - it wasn't just the article about Esther Rantzen's demise - it was every comment on every article - the green votes were all zero.

High profile Jewish woman who asked questions of the establishment in the 70s/80s when women were still supposed to be quiet and look pretty. Hosted one of the most-watched BBC programmes of the era - for over 20 years.

Her achievements weren't just Childline - she also set up Silverline for older people, campaigned for organ donation and seatbelts for kids.

On Saville she said "If anybody had had concrete evidence, I think and hope the police would have been called in. But all they had was gossip – and gossip isn't evidence" and she is 100% correct.

My most vivid memory of her was the show where she showcased the remarkable work of Nicholas Winton who had saved dozens of Jewish children from the holocaust and the audiece was filled with people he had saved and their children. An iconic TV moment.

No but you take concerns to the police and let them investigate to find evidence (not that they probably would ah e to be fair). You won’t just ignore it because it’s inconvenient for your career, not when it comes to kids being harmed.

As a teenager I worked as a waitress, and at a wedding I once served a group of people that included her and Rolf Harris.

Rolf Harris was so charming and sweet, and Esther so rude. She complained about the food when there was nothing wrong with it, sent me back to the kitchen and clearly didn’t want Rolf Harris to talk to me. I thought she was awful!

It was a depressing number of years AFTER everything came out about these men that I realised she’d been trying to protect me …

She definitely had her faults, but blaming her for not speaking up about Saville is not fair. She was a successful woman in sexist times, and we all know if she’d said something her career would have been ruined and it would have been brushed under the carpet.

Correct. Also it didnt "cross the DPPs desk"
Guess who the DPP was back then?
Its possible that Esther had heard rumours, like many others at the Beeb.
So lets not divert the blame away from those who's job it actually was to investigate a profilic paedophile but actually did nothing, ok?

i agree with most of your post except gossip - if you are hearing gossip that someone is a paedophile then the correct response isn't "do nothing". And safeguarding standards today rightly reflect that. Sadly we know that even if she had reported her concerns the police wouldn't have done anything.

Also, if you have an affair with a married man for 8 years then people are going to mention that.

She did this. possibly the most moving/best thing ever on TV. Still makes me bawl even now.

@50Balesofgrey to who?

Did you mean 'to whom'?

We account for our lives, according to our beliefs and traditions.

@50Balesofgrey so not actually being held to account by anyone then?

Yes, she behaved awfully to her friend and their kids.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1323094/Thats-life-Esther-Rantzen-broke-my-mothers-heart.html

I'm shocked she apparently said this a month after her former friend's death : 'She even makes a remarkable claim of insensitivity over an incident during a trivia quiz at TV production company Man Alive shortly after Patsy Wilcox's cremation two years ago. 'One of the obscure questions was "What burned in Richmond?" The moment the question was read out, Esther shrieked: "My husband's ex-wife." The right answer was a shed owned by Man Alive's Mike Johnstone, which burned down.'

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/feb/18/books.booksnews