Esther Rantzen
Rantzen at the British Academy Television Awards 2009
Born	Esther Louise Rantzen (1940-06-22) 22 June 1940 (age 72) Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England
Occupation	Journalist and television presenter
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Desmond Wilcox (1977-2000; his death)
Children	Emily, Rebecca and Josh Wilcox

Esther Louise Rantzen CBE (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, who is best known for presenting the BBC television series That's Life!, and for her work in various charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine, and also advocates the work of the Burma Campaign UK. In July 2009 she announced that she would stand as a candidate for Parliament of the United Kingdom in Luton South at the 2010 general election;^[1] however, she came fourth behind the three main parties.^[2]

Early life[link]

Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, to Katherine Flora (née Leverson) (1911–2005) and Henry Barnato Rantzen (1902–1992). Rantzen has one younger sister, Priscilla N. Taylor (née Rantzen). She was educated at the North London Collegiate School and Somerville College, Oxford, where she read English, performed with the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), became Secretary of The Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) and joined the Oxford Theatre Group, performing in Oxford and Edinburgh.

Career[link]

Esther Rantzen, Nightingale House, Jan 2011

After training in secretarial skills, Rantzen was recruited by BBC Radio as a trainee studio manager. She began her television career as a clerk in the programme planning department, then obtained her first production job working as a researcher on the BBC One late-night satire programme, BBC3 (1965–66), created by Ned Sherrin. Having worked as a researcher on a number of Current Affairs programmes, she moved to the award-winning BBC Two documentary series Man Alive in the mid-1960s.

In 1968, Rantzen became one of the onscreen presenters of the BBC consumer show Braden's Week, presented by Bernard Braden. In 1972, Braden decided to return to his native Canada to present a similar TV show there, and the following year, the BBC replaced Braden's Week with That's Life! with Rantzen as the main presenter. The format was very similar, although well-loved comedian Cyril Fletcher replaced announcer Ronald Fletcher to read out amusing misprints. Braden had already had a row with the BBC when he appeared in an advertisement for Stork margarine and his wife, Barbara Kelly, remained extremely bitter until her death at the fact that Rantzen and her show replaced his. However, both shows were created and developed by the gifted Welsh producer John Lloyd, who died aged 36.^[3]

That's Life! ran on BBC One for 21 years (1973 to 1994) becoming one of the most popular shows on British television, reaching audiences of more than 18 million. During that time, it expanded the traditional role of the consumer programme from simply exposing faulty washing machines and dodgy salesmen, to investigating life and death issues such as a campaign for more organ donors, featuring Ben Hardwick, a two-year-old dying of liver disease, whose only hope was a transplant, and the investigation of a boarding school owned by a paedophile, who employed two paedophile teachers. The show's various health and safety campaigns resulted in nationwide changes; new laws were even introduced as a result of the show's campaigns, such as playground surfaces being dug up around the country and dangerous tarmac and concrete being replaced with safer surfaces. Another campaign led to a change in the law, enforcing the use of seat belts for children sitting in the backs of cars. Alongside their serious reports, however, the show still maintained more lighthearted features such as talented pets, including Prince, the talking dog, who said "sausages", a table-tennis playing cat and a counting horse. Among the talented viewers the series discovered were Annie Mizen, the show-stopping granny Rantzen met in the North End Road Street Market, a man who tap-danced on his false teeth, and another who played Amazing Grace on his fork-lift truck. The programme popularised the term "Jobsworth" in the United Kingdom by creating "The Jobsworth Award" for any official employee who insisted on applying a daft rule beyond the bounds of reason, such as clamping the car of a woman in labour in a hospital car park (because they would claim that "it's more than my job's worth not to do it").

Rantzen also devised the documentary series The Big Time in 1976, which launched the singing career of Sheena Easton. She also briefly hosted a junior version of That's Life in the 1980s. Rantzen was one of the founders of TV-am, the company selected to launch ITV's breakfast television service. But before the station went on air in 1983, Rantzen dropped out, opting to remain with the BBC. She later briefly took a consumer spot on the BBC's own Breakfast Time. Having made programmes about stillbirth (The Lost Babies), and mental health (Trouble in Mind), in 1985 Rantzen presented a BBC One programme on drug abuse, Drugwatch. In 1986 she produced and presented Childwatch, which alerted the British public to the prevalence of child abuse, and successfully campaigned for a number of legal reforms in this area.

Although the programme was influential in many different ways, not least in the introduction of the videolink for child witnesses in court procedures, it is notable for the launch of ChildLine in 1986, the first national helpline for children in danger or distress. Rantzen had suggested the Childwatch programme to BBC1 Controller Michael Grade after the death of a toddler who had starved to death, locked in a bedroom. The aim of the programme was to find better ways of detecting children at risk of abuse, and to that end, viewers of That's Life! who had themselves experienced cruelty as children were asked to take part in a survey detailing the circumstances of their abuse.

Rantzen suggested that after that edition of That's Life!, the BBC should open a helpline for children, in case any young viewers suffering current abuse wished to ring in to ask for help. The helpline was open for 48 hours, during which it was swamped with calls, mainly from children suffering sexual abuse they had never been able to disclose to anyone else. This gave Rantzen the idea for a specific helpline for children in distress or danger, to be open throughout the year, 24/7, the first line of its kind in the world. The Childwatch team consulted child care professionals, who agreed that children would use such a helpline, but that it would be impossible to create.

Nevertheless the team obtained funding from the Department of Health and the Variety Club of Great Britain, both of whom donated £25,000, and Ian Skipper OBE, (a noted philanthropist who had already helped Rantzen set up a special fund in memory of Ben Hardwick), agreed to underwrite the cost of running the helpline for the first year. Rantzen and the team went to BT to ask for premises for the charity and for a simple freephone number, both of which were provided. The Childwatch programme, based on the results of the survey, launched ChildLine with a specially written jingle (by B. A. Robertson) which featured the free phone number 0800 1111. On that first night in October 1986, fifty thousand attempted calls were made to the helpline. ChildLine now has fourteen bases around the UK, including two in Northern Ireland, three in Scotland, and two in Wales. In 2006 ChildLine merged with the NSPCC, which has enabled it to expand to try to meet demand. The helpline has now been copied in 150 countries around the world. For ten years on BBC1 the Childwatch series continued to campaign for more effective protection for abused children. Rantzen has been accused by some of being the most public face in the creation of a culture of 'hysteria' and 'paranoia' around the issue of child protection. She has therefore been portrayed as being on the extreme conservative wing of the current child protection debate in the UK. However, Rantzen herself has stated that she regrets that the logical extension of some of her campaigns has been such things as schools refusing to allow grandparents to take photos of children.^[4] Policies that she is critical of. Her critics however have noted that she has been much less vociferous in using her media profile to support a scaled back 'common sense' approach to child protection than she was in initially 'building her career' by embracing and sensationalizing cases that led to this cultural shift.^[4]

In 1988, Rantzen created a TV series called Hearts of Gold celebrating people who have performed unsung acts of outstanding kindness or courage. The theme tune for "heats of Gold was written by her friend Lynsey De Paul and was released as a single. After That's Life! finished its 21 year run in 1994, she presented a talk show, Esther, on BBC Two from 1996-2002. The series received two BAFTA nominations. She also presented the ITV campaigning programme, That's Esther, with co-presenters Lara Masters and Heather Mills. In 2004, Rantzen participated in the second series of the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing (later exported to the U.S. as Dancing With The Stars). After an elegant waltz, an eccentric rumba and a disastrous tango with professional partner Anton du Beke, she was voted off, finishing in 8th place.

In 2006, Rantzen took part in the BBC Two programmes Would Like to Meet and Excuse my French, and was selected to present a new consumer affairs show with former Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood, under the title Old Dogs New Tricks. She made a documentary for ITV called Winton's Children about Sir Nicholas Winton who, as was first revealed on That's Life!, had rescued a generation of Czech children from the holocaust and he was later nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. After the death of Rantzen's husband, film-maker Desmond Wilcox, she made a landmark programme, How to Have a Good Death for BBC Two, on palliative care. Recently she has campaigned on behalf of hospice care and better care for the elderly and terminally ill. She has also campaigned to raise awareness of M.E./C.F.S. (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), as her eldest daughter Emily has suffered from the condition. She created the Children of Courage segment for the BBC's Children in Need programme.

In addition to her television career, as a patron or vice-president of fifteen charities, she mainly concentrates on working for children or disabled people. Most of her voluntary effort is for ChildLine as a volunteer counsellor on the helpline, and as a fund-raiser and spokesperson for children's rights. For twenty years she chaired ChildLine's Board of Trustees, and since ChildLine merged with the NSPCC, she has served as a Trustee of the NSPCC, as well as being President of ChildLine. In a 2008 Daily Mail article that was largely critical of "politically correct" rules preventing grandparents from photographing grandchildren in nativity plays, or policewomen giving children lifts to school, Rantzen partially blamed herself: "I was part of the revolution in child protection which created these insidious jobsworths."^[5]

Rantzen also edits the problems page "Ask Esther" in the children's newspaper First News.^[6]

Rantzen appeared on the 2008 series of ITV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. Rantzen was the fifth celebrity to leave the camp. She appeared in Celebrity Cash in the Attic in 2010, raising £1,975 for ChildLine.

She has also been the face of the Accident Advice Helpline since 2003.

Parliamentary candidate[link]

On 26 May 2009, Rantzen announced her intention to stand as an independent candidate for Parliament, if the incumbent Labour MP Margaret Moran stood for Luton South again, on Stephen Rhodes BBC Three Counties Breakfast Show. Rantzen's decision was made against the backdrop of the Parliamentary expenses scandal and Moran's expense claims for dry rot in her second home in Southampton. Two days later, Moran announced she would not be standing at the next General Election, but Rantzen said she was still considering standing herself. Her candidacy was confirmed on 28 July 2009.^[7] Rantzen stood for election in Luton South against eleven other candidates, of whom four were independent, including Stephen Rhodes, as well as Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP candidates. Rantzen has been in contact with the Independent Network, an organisation which seeks to support independent candidates, and attended a workshop in Birmingham in January 2010.^[8] Bookmakers were offering odds of her winning at around 6 to 1 with the Conservatives favourites to win the seat.^[9] Her political progress was documented in an online blog she wrote.^[10] At the May 2010 election, Rantzen came top of the independent candidates, but the Labour Party candidate Gavin Shuker won the seat. In accordance with UK Parliamentary electoral process,^[11] she lost her deposit coming fourth (behind the three main parties) with a 4.4% share of the vote as only candidates who receive over 5% of the total votes cast have their deposit returned, (Labour won with 34.9%, the Conservatives scored 29.4%, and the Liberal Democrats scored 22.7%).^[2]

Personal life[link]

In 1968 Rantzen fell in love with Desmond Wilcox, who was the head of her department and was married at the time to her friend Patsy who also worked at the BBC.^[12] After several years they decided to live together, and informed BBC management of their relationship.^[13] Management's solution was to move the entire production team of That's Life! out of Wilcox's department. What they didn't consider was that the new arrangement meant that Rantzen and Patsy were now working in the same department, causing both women concern.^[13] Patsy Wilcox had always refused to divorce her husband, but agreed when Rantzen became pregnant.^[14] After Rantzen and Wilcox married in December 1977,^[15] BBC management moved her back into General Features department run by him.

By that time, however, That's Life! was achieving huge audiences ratings, and reaching the number one position, gaining more viewers than Coronation Street. This created tension among colleagues in General Features,^[16] who ascribed the success of the programme to Wilcox's relationship with Rantzen.^[13] They complained to management, quoting the BBC's regulation that husbands and wives should not work in the same department.^[17] As a result Desmond Wilcox resigned,^[17] and set up his own independent production company, making documentaries such as The Visit, which included a series of programmes about The Boy David. For these, as well as previous films, he received many international awards, including the Grierson Life-Time Achievement Award in 2001. Wilcox and Rantzen had three children — Miriam Emily (now known as Emily, b. 1978), Rebecca (b. 1980), and Joshua (b. 20 October 1981). Currently, Emily is studying psychology, Rebecca is a television producer/journalist, and Joshua is a medical student at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry.

Having suffered coronary heart disease for 15 years, Desmond Wilcox died in 2000, aged 69. After his conversion to Judaism (Rantzen is Jewish), the couple had a second wedding ceremony in 1999 in the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, which was covered by Hello! magazine. Wilcox's last words to Rantzen before he died in 2000 were "I adore you."^[18] She created a memorial service for him (as he had stipulated in St Martin's in the Fields), at which the eulogy was given by David Jackson (aka "The Boy David"). In 2007, Rantzen opened the Desmond Wilcox Media Centre in Rainhill High School, Merseyside. Each year Rantzen presents the Desmond Wilcox Award to volunteers working for the Hearing Dogs for the Deaf charity, he having raised a large amount of funds for them.

In 1981, Rantzen gained national media attention when, whilst filming interviews with the general public for That's Life! in London's North End Road, she attracted the attention of Police Constable A. Herbert who felt that she was obstructing the pavement while handing out bat stew. After warning her to move on, the police officer arrested Rantzen for causing obstruction and she was taken away in a police van. The entire incident was filmed and shown during the next episode of the series to delighted audience response. The case later went to court and Rantzen was convicted and fined £15.^[19]

In 2009, Rantzen responded to a spate of attacks on Roma Gipsies in Northern Ireland by teenagers from loyalist areas of Belfast by commenting that violence can be addictive. The controversial statements made on the BBC's Question Time programme were widely discussed. Responding to the attacks and Rantzen's comments, Barbara Muldoon of the Anti-Racism Network told a rally of some 500 people in Belfast that "The people of Northern Ireland – unlike in England – did not recently elect two neo-Nazis to the European parliament."

She writes regularly for the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express on social issues. She is the author of several books including an autobiography, Esther, a book on growing old disgracefully, If Not Now When, and a novel A Secret Life.

Honours[link]

In 1991, Rantzen was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to broadcasting, and has received honorary doctorates from five universities (including the Southampton Institute, the London South Bank University and the University of Portsmouth) for her humanitarian work and her career as a broadcaster. She is an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, and Liverpool John Moores University. She was raised to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 2006 for services to children.

She has received a number of professional awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women in Film and Television organisation, the Royal Television Society's Special Judges' Award for Journalism, their Fellowship, and Membership of their Hall of Fame. She also was the first woman to receive a Dimbleby Award from BAFTA for factual presentation. She received the Snowdon Award for services to disabled people.^[20]

Rantzen is President of ChildLine, and of the Association for Young People with M.E. (AYME). She is a Patron of various hospices and charities for children and disabled people, including the Red Balloon for bullied children, the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, the Hillingdon Manor School for autistic children, the North London Hospice, and the Campaign for Courtesy. She has also served on a number of government committees, including the National Consumer Council, the Health Education Authority and the Campaign for Quality Television.

Rantzen was also honoured in the BBC Comedy series Bottom when she had a cocktail named after her. The cocktail consisted of Ouzo, Pernod, marmalade and salt.

Family origins[link]

Rantzen was the subject of an episode of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast on 3 September 2008. Her paternal line was traced back, as far as the 1760s, to an established Jewish neighbourhood in Warsaw. Tracing Rantzen's forebears was greatly helped by the rarity of the surname "Rantzen" (even in Warsaw) and the survival of records in Warsaw. In the late 1850s, her great-great-grandfather emigrated to England and settled, as a cap-maker, in Spitalfields, a slum district of London's East End. Rantzen's great-grandfather moved to a more comfortable neighbourhood with the help of his brother-in-law, Barney Barnato (born Barnett Isaacs), who had become extremely wealthy as a diamond merchant in South Africa. Her father's middle name was Barnato.^[21]

Barnato died relatively young in unusual circumstances, being lost at sea, but left a generous legacy to his sister Sarah (née Isaacs) Rantzen. In the BBC programme Rantzen professed her gratitude for the comfortable upbringing she had enjoyed in Hampstead but also, having visited the site of the family home in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw later destroyed by the Nazis after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, she was moved by "survivor guilt".

On her wealthy maternal side Rantzen's great-grandfather, Montague Richard Leverson, at the age of 18 accidentally fatally shot the parlour maid Priscilla Fitzpatrick at the family home in fashionable Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London. Later, in his 30s and working as a solicitor, Montague disappeared with a very large sum of money belonging to his clients, fleeing to Paris and abandoning Rantzen's great-grandmother. She having divorced him, he then moved to the USA. He later returned to England, in his 80s, took back his nationality, and married again at the age of 82.^[22] Montague Leverson was the maternal grandfather of British composer Gerald Finzi.^[23] Rantzen is also related to Ada Leverson, "The Sphinx", the novelist, Yellow Book contributor and friend of Oscar Wilde, portrayed in the film by Zoe Wanamaker.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rantzen's Luton election campaign blog
• Esther speaks to the Totally Chappers webcast about her time on That's Life
• Esther presents the Ad for Accident Advice Helpline

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

Queen Esther (1878) as imagined by Edwin Long.

Esther ( /ˈɛstər/; Hebrew: אֶסְתֵּר, Modern Ester Tiberian ʼEstēr), born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther. According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus is traditionally identified with Xerxes I during the time of the Achaemenid empire. Her story is the basis for the celebration of Purim in Jewish tradition.

Biblical story[link]

King Xerxes held a 180-day feast in Susa (Shoushan). While in "high spirits" from the wine, he ordered his queen, Vashti, to appear before him and his guests to display her beauty. But when the attendants delivered the king's command to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. Furious at her refusal to obey, the king asked his wise men what should be done. One of them said that all the women in the empire would hear that "The King Xerxes commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not." Then the women of the empire would despise their husbands. And this would cause many problems in the kingdom. Therefore it would be good to depose her.^[1]

To find a new queen suitable to King Xerxes, it was decreed that beautiful young virgins be gathered to the palace from every province of his kingdom. Each woman underwent twelve months of beautification in his harem, after which she would go to the king. When the woman's turn came, she was given anything she wanted to take with her from the harem to the king's palace. She would then go to the king in the evening, and in the morning go to the harem where the concubines stayed. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased enough with her to summon her again by name.^[2]

For his wife and queen, King Xerxes chose Esther, an orphan raised by her cousin^[3] Mordecai, to replace the recalcitrant Queen Vashti. Esther was originally named Hadassah, meaning myrtle.

"Esther 2:7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter." Esther was the daughter of a Benjamite, Abihail. When Cyrus gave permission for the exiles to return unto Jerusalem she stayed with Mordecai.

Shortly, when Mordecai was sitting at the king's gates, he overheard two of the king's officers guarding the gates plotting to assassinate the king. Mordecai let Esther know, and she warned the king about it, and Mordecai was given credit. The two conspirators were hanged on a gallows.

Soon after this, the king granted Haman the Agagite,^[4] one of the most prominent princes of the realm, special honours. All the people were to bow down to Haman when he rode his horse through the streets. All complied except for Mordecai, a Jew, who would bow to no one but his God. This enraged Haman, who, with his wife and advisers, plotted against the Jews, making a plan to kill and extirpate all Jews throughout the Persian empire, selecting the date for this act by the drawing of lots (Esther 3:7). After laying charges of sedition against the Jews, Haman gained the king's approval to write a decree for their destruction; offering ten thousand silver talents to the king for approval of this plan, but the king refused to take them (Esther 3:9-11).

Mordecai tore his robes and put ash on his head (signs of mourning or grieving/anguish) on hearing this news. Esther sent clean clothes to him, but he refused them, explaining that deliverance for the Jews would come from some other place, but that Esther would be killed if she did not do what she could to stop this genocide — by talking to the king. Esther was not permitted to see the king unless he had asked for her, otherwise she could be put to death. Esther was terrified of this (she had not been called to the king in 30 days), so she and her maid-servants and her people the Jews of Persia fasted earnestly for three days before she built up the courage to enter the king's presence. When King Xerxes saw Esther, he was pleased and held out his scepter to her, showing that he accepted her visit. He then asked Esther what she wished of from him, promising to grant even up to half his kingdom should she ask. Esther requested a banquet with the king and Haman. During the banquet, she requested another banquet with the king and Haman the following day.

"Ahasuerus and Haman at Esther's Feast," by Rembrandt

After the banquet Haman ordered a gallows constructed, 75 feet (23 m) high, on which to hang Mordecai. Meanwhile, the king was having trouble sleeping, and had some histories read to him. From the reading the king remembered that Mordecai had saved him from an assassination attempt, and had received no reward in return. Early the next morning, Haman came to the king to ask permission to hang Mordecai, but before he could, the king asked him "What should be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?" Haman thought the king meant himself, so he said that the man should wear a royal robe and be led on one of the king's horses through the city streets proclaiming before him, "This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!" The king thought this well, then asked Haman to lead Mordecai through the streets in this way, to honor him for previously telling the king of a plot against him. After doing this, Haman rushed home, full of grief. His wife said to him, "You will surely come to ruin!"

That night, during the banquet, Esther told the king of Haman's plan to massacre all Jews in the Persian Empire, and acknowledged her own Jewish ethnicity. Haman then pleaded with Esther to save his life. Seeing Haman on Esther's couch begging, the king became further enraged and had him hung on the gallows built for Mordecai. The king then appointed Mordecai as his prime minister, and gave the Jews the right to defend themselves against any enemy. The king also issued a second edict allowing the Jews to arm themselves, and kill not only their enemies but also their enemies' wives and children, as well as partake of the plunder (Esther 8:11). This precipitated a series of reprisals by the Jews against their enemies. This fight began on the 13th of Adar, the date the Jews were originally slated to be exterminated. The Jews went on to kill only their would-be executioners, and not their wives and children^{[citation needed]}, altogether eight hundred killed in Susa alone, 75,000 in the rest of the empire. The Jews also took no plunder (Esther 9:10,9:15-16).

Jews established an annual feast, the feast of Purim, in memory of their deliverance. According to traditional rabbinic dating, this took place about fifty-two years after the start of the Babylonian Exile.^{[citation needed]}

Origin and meaning[link]

According to Esther 2:7, Esther was originally named Hadassah. Hadassah means "myrtle" in Hebrew. It has been conjectured that the name Esther is derived from a reconstructed Median word astra meaning myrtle.^[5]

An alternative view is that Esther is derived from the theonym Ishtar. The Book of Daniel provides accounts of Jews in exile being assigned names relating to Babylonian gods and "Mordecai" is understood to mean servant of Marduk, a Babylonian god. "Esther" may have been a different Hebrew interpretation from the Proto-Semitic root "*?aθtar- 'morning/evening star'",^[6] which descended with the /th/ into the Ugaritic Athtiratu^[7] and Arabian Athtar.^[8] The derivation must then have been secondary for the initial ayin to be confused with an aleph (both represented by vowels in Akkadian), and the second consonant descended as a /s/ (like in the Aramaic asthr "bright star"), rather than a /sh/ as in Hebrew and most commonly in Akkadian.

Wilson, who identified Ahasuerus with Xerxes I and Vashti with Amestris, suggested that both "Amestris" and "Esther" derived from Akkadian Ammi-Ishtar or Ummi-Ishtar.^[9] Hoschander alternatively suggested Ishtar-udda-sha ("Ishtar is her light") as the origin with the possibility of -udda-sha being connected with the similarly sounding Hebrew name Hadassah. These names however remain unattested in sources, and come from the original Babylonian Empire from 2000 BCE,^{[citation needed]} not the Chaldean Empire or Persian Empire of the Book of Esther.^{[citation needed]}

The Targum^[10] connects the name with the Persian word for "star", ستاره setareh, explaining that Esther was so named for being as beautiful as the Morning Star. In the Talmud (Tractate Yoma 29a), Esther is compared to the "morning star", and is considered the subject of Psalm 22, because its introduction is a "song for the morning star".

Interpretations[link]

Esther is considered a prophet in Judaism. She is also commemorated as a matriarch in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod on May 24.

Dianne Tidball argues that while Vashti is a "feminist icon", Esther is a post-feminist icon.^[11]

Abraham Kuyper notes some "disagreeable aspects" to her character — that she should not have agreed to take Vashti's place, that she refrained from saving her nation until her own life was threatened, and that she carries out bloodthirsty vengeance.^[12]

Persian culture[link]

The Shrine of Esther and Mordechai in Hamedan, Iran

Tomb of Ester and Mordechai

Given the great historical link between Persian and Jewish history, modern day Persian Jews are called "Esther's Children". A building known as the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai is located in Hamadan, Iran,^[13][14] although the village of Kfar Bar'am in northern Israel also claims to be the burial place of Queen Esther.^[15]

Modern retelling[link]

• The Italian Renaissance poet Lucrezia Tornabuoni chose Esther as one of biblical figures on which she wrote poetry.^[16]
• In 1689, Jean Baptiste Racine wrote Esther, a tragedy, at the request of Louis XIV's wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon.
• In 1718, Handel wrote the oratorio Esther based on Racine's play.
• In 1958, a book entitled "Behold Your Queen!", was written by Gladys Malvern, and illustrated by her sister, Corinne Malvern. It was chosen as a selection of the Junior Literary Guild.
• The play entitled Esther (1960), written by Welsh dramatist Saunders Lewis, is a retelling of the story in Welsh.
• A movie about the story, Esther and the King
• 1962 musical entitled Swan Esther was written by J. Edward Oliver and Nick Munns and has been performed by the Young Vic and some amateur groups.
• A 1978 miniseries entitled The Greatest Heroes of the Bible starred Victoria Principal as Esther, Robert Mandan as Xerxes, and Michael Ansara as Haman.
• Episode 25 of the 1981 anime series Superbook involves this story.
• The novel 'Hadassah' by J. Francis Hudson (Lion Publishing 1996) integrates the Biblical narrative with ancient Greek accounts of the reign of Xerxes (Ahasuerus).
• A 1986 Israeli film directed by Amos Gitai entitled Esther.
• A 1999 TV movie from the Bible Collection that follows the biblical account very closely, Esther, starred Louise Lombard in the title role and F. Murray Abraham as Mordecai.
• In 2000, VeggieTales released "Esther... The Girl Who Became Queen."
• In May 2005 the musical Luv Esther was first shown. It is written by Ray Goudie.
• A 2006 movie about Esther and Ahasuerus, entitled One Night with the King, stars Tiffany Dupont and Luke Goss. It was based on the novel Hadassah: One Night with the King by Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen.
• In the 2006 Melbourne Fringe Festival, The Backyard Bard toured a Biblical Storytelling production of 'Esther', featuring four women storytellers telling the story word-for-word from the Biblical account.
• In the anime Trinity Blood Esther is the main character, a nun with a star on her side. She is prophesied to be "the morning star" who will lead the people to peace.
• In the 2008 HBO television movie Recount, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (portrayed by Laura Dern) compares herself to Queen Esther, of whom she says "was willing to sacrifice herself to save the lovely Jewish people."
• Esther is one of the five heroines of the Order of the Eastern Star.
• Esther (opera) was composed by Hugo Weisgall.
• Debra Spark's 2009 Novel, Good for the Jews is a modern day retelling of Esther set in Madison, Wisconsin.
• On March 8, 2011, the Maccabeats released a music video called "Purim Song"^[17]
• "A Reluctant Queen" by Joan Wolf is a fictionalized re-telling of Esther's story.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Beal, Timothy K. The Book of Hiding: Gender, Ethnicity, Annihilation, and Esther. NY: Routledge, 1997. Postmodern theoretical apparatus, e.g., Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas
• Michael V. Fox Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmanns, 2001. 333 pp.
• Robin, Diana Maury, Larsen, Anne R. and Levin, Carole (2007). Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 
• Sasson, Jack M. "Esther" in Alter and Kermode, pp. 335–341, literary
• Webberley, Helen The Book of Esther in C17th Dutch Art, AAANZ National Conference, Art Gallery NSW, 2002
• Webberley, Helen Rembrandt and The Purim Story, in The Jewish Magazine, Feb 2008, [1]
• White, Sidnie Ann. "Esther: A Feminine Model for Jewish Diaspora" in Newsom

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Esther

v t e Purim / פּוּרִים Overview Gragger Purim spiel Purim Torah Purim foods Hamantash Fazuelos Kreplach Mishloach manot Historical Book of Esther Esther (rl) Haman (rl) Mordecai Ahasuerus Vashti Zeresh Religious Fast of Esther Shushan Purim Purim HaMeshulash Purim Katan

Sir Jimmy Savile OBE, KCSG
Savile in 2006
Born	James Wilson Vincent Savile (1926-10-31)31 October 1926 Leeds, England
Died	29 October 2011(2011-10-29) (aged 84) Roundhay, Leeds, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	DJ, actor, columnist, television and radio personality
Years active	1958–2011
Television	Jim'll Fix It, Top of the Pops
Religion	Roman Catholic

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE KCSG (31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops. He was also known for his fundraising and support of various charities, particularly Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was widely described as a philanthropist and was honoured for his efforts.^[1][2]

Early life[link]

Savile was born in Leeds, the youngest of seven children (Mary, Marjory, Vincent, John, Joan, Christina and James) born to Agnes Monica (née Kelly) and Vincent Joseph Marie Savile, a bookmaker's clerk and insurance agent.^[3] Savile almost died of pneumonia at the age of five months.

He was a Bevin Boy, conscripted during World War II to work as a coal miner at South Kirkby Colliery, West Yorkshire, England. He suffered serious spinal injuries in a mine explosion and spent a long period in recuperation.^[4] Having started playing records in dance halls in the early 1940s, Savile claimed to be the first ever disc jockey. According to his autobiography, he was the first person to use two turntables and a microphone, at the Grand Records Ball at the Guardbridge Hotel in 1947.^[5] Savile is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of twin turntables for continuous play of music,^[6] though his claim has been disputed. (Twin turntables had been illustrated in the BBC Handbook in 1929 and were advertised for sale in Gramophone magazine in 1931.^[7])

He became a semi-professional sportsman, competing in the 1951 Tour of Britain cycle race^[8] and working as a professional wrestler.^[9] He said:

If you look at the athletics of it, I've done over 300 professional bike races, 212 marathons and 107 pro fights. [He proudly announces that he lost all of his first 35 fights.] No wrestler wanted to go back home and say a long-haired disc jockey had put him down. So from start to finish I got a good hiding. I've broken every bone in my body. I loved it.^[10]

Savile later lived in Salford, and worked as manager of the Plaza Ballroom in Oxford Road, Manchester, in the mid-fifties. He lived in Great Clowes Street in Higher Broughton, Salford, and was often seen sitting on his front door steps. He also managed the Mecca Locarno ballroom in Leeds around the late 1950s and early 1960s.^[11] Mecca also owned the Palais, a dance hall in Ilford, Essex, and Savile did a stint as manager there between 1955 and 1956. His Monday evening records-only dance sessions (admission one shilling) were a huge favourite with local teens.^[12]

Radio[link]

Savile started his radio career working as a Radio Luxembourg DJ from 1958 to 1967. He ran the Teen and Twenty Disc Club (TTDC),^[13] membership for life, on Radio Luxembourg. For a small fee listeners received a certificate and a small bracelet with a disc on it, inscribed with the show's name. He stated on the BBC television series Inside Out that the title Teen and Twenty Disc Club had been rejected by the BBC in favour of Top of the Pops as too long; also that he introduced dancing to records, so that he was the originator of the discothèque.

In 1968 he joined BBC Radio 1, where he initially presented Savile's Travels and the discussion show Speakeasy. His best-remembered contribution to Radio 1, however, is the Sunday lunchtime show Jimmy Savile's Old Record Club, where entire top tens from years gone by were played. This was the first show to feature old charts. It began in 1973 as The Double Top Ten Show and ended in 1987 as The Triple Top Ten Show, at which point he left Radio 1 after 19 years, although he could be heard presenting The Vintage Chart Show on BBC World Service between March 1987 and October 1989, playing top tens from the years 1957 to 1987.

From March 1989 to August 1997 he was heard on various stations around the UK (mostly taking the Gold format, such as the West Midlands' Xtra AM and the original Classic Gold network in Yorkshire) where he revived his Radio 1 shows.

In 1994, satirist Chris Morris gave a fake obituary on BBC Radio 1 (as a joke), saying that Savile had collapsed and died, which allegedly drew threats of legal action from Savile and forced an apology from Morris.

On 25 December 2005, and 1 January 2007, Savile presented shows on the Real Radio network. The Christmas 2005 show counted down the festive Top 10s of 10, 20 and 30 years previously, while the New Year 2007 show (also taken by Century Radio following its acquisition by GMG) featured Savile recounting anecdotes from his past and playing associated records, mostly from the 1960s although some were from the 1970s.

Television[link]

In 1960 he presented Tyne Tees Television's music programme Young at Heart. Although the show was broadcast in black and white, Savile dyed his hair a different colour every week.^[14]

On New Year's Day, 1964, he presented the first edition of the BBC music chart television programme Top of the Pops from a television studio – a converted church (now demolished) – in Dickenson Road Rusholme, Manchester. On 30 July 2006 he also co-hosted the final edition, ending the show with the words "It's number one, it's still Top of the Pops", before being shown turning off the studio lights after the closing credits. When interviewed by the BBC on 20 November 2008 and asked about the revival of Top of The Pops for a Christmas comeback, he commented that he would welcome a "cameo role" in the programme.^[15]

During the early 1960s he co-hosted (with Pete Murray) New Musical Express Poll Winners' Concert, annually held at Empire Pool, Wembley, with acts such as The Beatles, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, The Who, and many others. These were filmed and recorded and later broadcast on television. On 31 December 1969, Savile hosted the BBC/ZDF co-production Pop Go The Sixties, shown across Western Europe, celebrating the hits of the 1960s.

Savile is also remembered for a series of Public Information Films promoting road safety, notably "Clunk Click Every Trip" which was promoted the use of the car seatbelts, the clunk representing the sound of the door and the click the sound of the seatbelt fastening. This led to Savile's hosting his own Saturday night chat/variety show on BBC1 from 1973 entitled Clunk, Click, which in 1974 featured the UK heats for the Eurovision Song Contest featuring Olivia Newton-John. He also fronted a long-running series of advertisements in the early 1980s for British Rail's InterCity 125, in which he declared "This is the age of the train". After two series, Clunk, Click was replaced by Jim'll Fix It which he presented from 1975 to 1994.

He was interviewed by Dr. Anthony Clare for the radio series In the Psychiatrist's Chair, where Savile appeared to be "a man without feelings."^[16] In 1995 he was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil for the TV series Is This Your Life? (made by Open Media for Channel 4).^[17] In April 2000, he was the subject of an in depth documentary by Louis Theroux, in the When Louis Met… documentary series. "When Louis Met...Jimmy" was voted one of the top fifty documentaries of all time in a survey by Britain's Channel Four.^[18]

Savile visited the Celebrity Big Brother house on 14 and 15 January 2006. During these visits he "fixed it" for some of the housemates to have their wishes granted; for example, Pete Burns received a message from his significant other and friend while Dennis Rodman was able to trade Savile's offering for a supply of cigarettes for other housemates.

In 2007 Savile returned to television with Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again, in which he showed some of the most popular 'fixits' ever, recreating them with the same people, as well as making new dreams come true.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Savile was famous for his yodel^[20] and his catchphrases included "how's about that, then?", "now then, now then, now then", "goodness gracious", "as it 'appens" and "guys and gals". Savile was frequently spoofed for his distinctive appearance, which almost always consisted of a track suit or shell suit, along with gold jewellery. A range of licensed fancy dress costumes were released with his consent in 2009. Savile was also very well known as a heavy cigar smoker, and often smoked them for the public eye.^[21] In July 2005 he was named as one of the Radio Times "Top 40 most eccentric TV presenters of all time".

He was a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists^[22] and drove a Rolls-Royce.^[23] He was also a member of Mensa.^[24] He was chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games for many years, and owned a house in Glen Coe. His appearance on the final edition of Top of the Pops in 2006 was pre-recorded as it clashed with the games.^[25] While still alive he arranged for a bench, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, to be dedicated to his memory, with the words 'Jimmy Savile – but not just yet!' added as an inscription.^[26][27]

A bachelor, Savile lived with his mother (whom he referred to as "The Duchess") and kept her bedroom and wardrobe exactly as it was when she died. Every year he had her clothes dry cleaned. Savile's personal relationships were rarely the subject of media report or comment during his lifetime. He claimed in his autobiography that he had had many intimate relations with members of the opposite sex, describing his first introduction to women in detail and then adding: ".. there have been trains and, with apologies to the hit parade, boats and planes (I am a member of the 40,000 ft club) and bushes and fields, corridors, doorways, floors, chairs, slag heaps, desks and probably everything except the celebrated chandelier and ironing board."^[28] Savile claimed that the key to his success on Jim'll Fix It had been that he disliked children, although he later admitted to saying this to deflect scrutiny of his personal life. He did not own a computer, explaining that he did not want anybody to think that he was downloading child pornography.^[29]

In November 2007 Savile was robbed by a fan who made off with his glasses whilst in a Leeds hotel. According to Savile, he was walking down a corridor of the Queens Hotel at around midnight after attending a function at the hotel when he became aware of a woman walking beside him. He assumed the woman was going to hug him but she instead reached for his glasses before sprinting off down the corridor. He later said "I thought it was marvellous, it was just like old times!". Savile promised his 'assailant' a box of chocolates for giving him a "1960s thrill in 2007".^[30]