Dame Esther Rantzen: ‘Grenfell fire is what happens when we fail to realise people are vulnerable’

DAME ESTHER RANTZEN is tucking into a late supper of cauliflower cheese when I catch up with her to speak about her “addiction” – Childline.

Our get-together comes hard on the heels of her hectic visits to Aberdeen and Glasgow to promote the charity and recruit vital volunteers.

It might be 23 years since That’s Life, the hit BBC TV series she presented for more than two decades, disappeared from our screens, but Dame Esther has never stopped caring.

Now 77 and a devoted grandmother-of-three, the former journalist is more outspoken than ever before.

Foremost in her mind is last month’s devastating fire in North Kensington, which is thought to have claimed the lives of 80 people. Dame Esther is clearly distressed by the tragedy.

“The terrible event at Grenfell Tower – which is not far from where I live; I see it when I travel – is a symbol of what can happen when people do not take risk seriously enough and fail to recognise how vulnerable people are.”

She is in no doubt how her cherished late husband – documentary maker Desmond Wilcox – would have approached coverage of the tragedy.

“It would be a campaign for us, like our campaign for seatbelts for children and safer playgrounds,” she reveals. “If we had That’s Life now we would talk about the crucial creation of more than one way of escaping.

“You cannot have a single staircase that fills with toxic fumes. And why were they toxic when we have done so much about old furniture to get rid of toxic materials?

“There are so many questions.”

Her campaigning consumer and human rights show made Esther a household name and was the launchpad for Childline.

But she has been tight-lipped about its possible return – until now.

Laying down her fork, she reveals: “That’s Life came off air in 1994. It is probably about now that people are feeling quite nostalgic for it.

“I have been involved in preliminary talks – to help create it again, rather than present. I think it would really suit the times.”

Does social media cause unhappiness?

It is Esther’s inability to switch off, to never stop caring, that has made Childline what it is today.

She says: “We have to deal with new kinds of problems like cyber-bullying, sexting, eating disorders and self-harm, depression and feeling suicidal. If these problems existed in 1986 they were quite rare.

“I am struck by the amount of unhappiness we see.”

Esther adds: “When I ask our volunteers what they think the cause of our callers’ unhappiness is, they say social media.

“These children may have hundreds of ‘friends’ online but they can be terribly lonely.”

Childline began in 1986 after Esther read about a toddler who had been starved to death by her mother and her boyfriend.

She felt something had to be done and approached then-BBC controller Michael Grade with the idea of a child protection programme.

He ran with it and it was announced on That’s Life. The report on child abuse introduced a 48-hour helpline.

She says: “It became more important to me than my career in TV.

“After 30 years I have begun to meet people who say they owe their lives to Childline and would not be here without it.”

Her visit to the charity’s two centres in Scotland gave her the opportunity to witness the tireless commitment and devotion of its volunteer counsellors.

“We see the counsellor focused on unlocking what is making the kids feel so bad and making them realise that they are cared about.

“Seeing that work, and the child finally discuss the secret that they have not been able to talk about, is wonderful. It is like a little miracle.”

In between forkfuls she also mentions another of her “passions”: Silverline, a support service for lonely senior citizens.

“My doctor son (Joshua) says ‘for God’s sake mother, slow down’. But I can’t. He threatens me with intervention when he sees me doing things like flying up to Aberdeen and taking the train to Glasgow. But I love it.

“I had the most amazing journey down the wonderful east coast from Aberdeen.

“Scotland is so warm to children and young people.”

Esther only has to look at her grandchildren Benjamin, Alexander and Teddy to know how precious our young people are.

And she beams: “I have two more grandchildren on the way in August – twins!”

But right now it’s late and she has an early start in the morning. She’s off to another primary school where she will be greeted by a crowd of kids bellowing the Childline number they all know by heart: 0800 1111.

She’s been a dab hand at multi-tasking as we chat. But there are drawbacks. She chuckles: “I finished my cauliflower cheese but I’ve thrown some of it down my front!”