Kenneth Kendall (7 August 1924 – 14 December 2012)[1] was a British broadcaster. He worked for many years as a newsreader for the BBC, where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. He is also remembered as the host of the Channel 4 game show Treasure Hunt, which ran between 1982 and 1989, as well as the host of The World Tonight in the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Kenneth Kendall | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 August 1924 |
| Died | 14 December 2012 (aged 88) Cowes, Isle of Wight, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, television presenter |
| Years active | 1948–2012 |
| Notable credit(s) | BBC News Treasure Hunt |
| Partner | Mark Fear |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Service |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1942–1946 |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Coldstream Guards |
Early life
editKendall was born in India where his father, Frederic William Kendall (d. 30 May 1945), worked.[2] He was brought up in Cornwall. Kendall was educated at Felsted School in Essex, England. He read Modern Languages at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, for one year before being called up to the British Army.
Military service
editKendall joined the Coldstream Guards where he was commissioned as a lieutenant. He arrived in Normandy ten days after D-Day but was wounded about a month later. In 1945, he was among 100,000 British military personnel sent to Palestine. In 1946, he was demobilised from the Guards as a captain.
Broadcasting career
editAfter leaving the army, Kendall returned to Oxford to complete his Modern Language degree. He hoped to join the Foreign Office but instead joined the BBC in 1948 as a radio newsreader. In 1954, he transferred to television. Although he was not the first newsreader on BBC television, Kendall was the first to appear in front of a camera reading the news in 1955.[3] As he was employed on a freelance basis by the BBC, he also worked as an actor for a repertory company based in Crewe, and briefly at the menswear retailer Austin Reed in Regent Street, where he met actor John Inman and offered him a job in the Crewe theatre company.[4]
Kendall became known for his elegant dress sense and was voted best-dressed newsreader by Style International and No.1 newscaster by Daily Mirror readers in 1979. He left the BBC in 1961, and from 1961 to 1969 was a freelance newsreader, working occasionally for ITN and presenting Southern Television's Day By Day. He appeared as himself in the Adam Adamant episode "The Doomsday Plan", in which he is kidnapped and impersonated. He also appeared in the Doctor Who serial The War Machines.
He rejoined the BBC in 1969 and finally retired from newsreading on 23 December 1981;[5] Kendall was unable to read his final news bulletin because he slipped on ice and broke his arm.[6] Kendall's retirement allowed him to work on the popular Channel 4 programme Treasure Hunt throughout its first run (1982–1989), which featured Anneka Rice as a "skyrunner". He also presented the television programme Songs of Praise.
Later life
editSoon after retirement from news reading, Kendall lent his voice to the BBC Micro as part of Acorn Computers' hardware speech synthesis system.[7]
In 2010 he took part in BBC's series The Young Ones in which six well-known people in their 70s and 80s attempt to overcome some of the problems of ageing by harking back to the 1970s.[8]
Personal life
editKendall lived in Cowes on the Isle of Wight with his partner Mark Fear, with whom he had been since 1989. Fear was the owner of a marine art gallery and a beekeeper. The couple entered into a civil partnership in 2006.[9]
Death
editKendall died on 14 December 2012, following a stroke a few weeks previously.[1] On 29 April 2013, his partner Mark Fear was found hanged aged 55. An inquest concluded that he had died by suicide because he was "overcome by grief".[10]
Filmography
edit- The Reckless Moment (1949) – Man (uncredited)
- The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) – TV Newscaster (uncredited)
- Scotland Yard Evidence in Concrete (1961) – TV news reader on Decca television screen
- The Brain (1962) – TV Newscaster (uncredited)
- Doctor Who: The War Machines (1966) – Himself (Credited, TV cameo)
- They Came from Beyond Space (1967) – Commentator
- The Exorcism – from the Dead of Night BBC TV series. (1972) (Credited)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – BBC-12 Announcer (uncredited)
References
edit- ^ a b "Kenneth Kendall, former broadcaster, dies". BBC. 14 December 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
- ^ "Ancestry.com. England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790–1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010". Retrieved 27 June 2011.
- ^ Dennis Barker Obituary: Kenneth Kendall, The Guardian, 14 December 2012
- ^ "John Inman - Obituaries, News - The Independent". web.archive.org. 11 February 2009.
- ^ "Kenneth Kendall quits in anger". The Herald. Glasgow. 22 December 1981. p. 1.
- ^ Rushbridger, Alan (24 December 1981). "Kendall misses his last news". The Guardian. p. 24. Retrieved 11 October 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Acorn Speech Synthesiser upgrade at". Retro-kit.co.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
- ^ "BBC One – The Young Ones". BBC. 22 December 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
- ^ "Kenneth Kendall". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023.
- ^ "Kenneth Kendall's partner committed suicide 'overcome by grief'". BBC News. 29 October 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.