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| Kenneth Kendall | |
|---|---|
| File:BBC Nine O'Clock News 1973.jpg Kenneth Kendall presenting The Nine O'Clock News in 1973 |
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| Born | 7 August 1924 British India |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | White British |
| Occupation | Journalist, TV presenter |
| Years active | 1948-present |
| Notable credit(s) | BBC Nine O'Clock News |
| Partner | Mark Fear |
Kenneth Kendall (born 7 August 1924) is a retired British broadcaster. He was a contemporary of Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. Although he worked for many years as a newsreader for the BBC, he is perhaps better remembered as the host of the game show Treasure Hunt (1982–89).
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Early life [link]
Kendall was born in India, where his father, Frederic William Kendall (d. 30 May 1945)[1] worked, and was brought up in Cornwall.
Education [link]
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This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2011) |
Kendall was educated at Felsted School, an independent school in the village of Felsted near Great Dunmow in Essex, followed by Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford, where he studied Modern Languages.
Career [link]
Kendall served as a schoolmaster and later as a Captain in the Coldstream Guards during World War II and was injured on D-Day. He joined the BBC in 1948 as a radio newsreader and transferred to television in 1954. Though he was not the first person to read the news on BBC television, Kendall was the first newsreader to appear in vision (1955). 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 Austin Reed in Regent Street, where he met actor John Inman and offered him a job in the Crewe company.[2]
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. From 1961 to 1969 he 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" where he is kidnapped and impersonated. He appeared in a cameo role as a newsreader in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as in the Doctor Who serial The War Machines.
He rejoined the BBC in 1969 and finally retired from newsreading in 1981, allowing him to work on the very popular Channel Four programme Treasure Hunt throughout its first run (1982–1989), which featured Anneka Rice as a "skyrunner". He has also presented the television programme Songs of Praise.
Soon after retirement from newsreading, Kendall lent his voice to the BBC Micro as part of Acorn Computers' hardware speech synthesis solution.[3]
In 2010 he took part in BBC's The Young Ones, in which six celebrities in their 70s and 80s attempt to overcome some of the problems of ageing by harking back to the 1970s.[4]
Personal life [link]
Kendall lives in Cowes on the Isle of Wight with his partner Mark Fear,[5] where he is the owner of a marine art gallery, and is a keen beekeeper. Before owning the art gallery, he co-ran a restaurant: this was revealed in an interview in Radio Times in 1996.
During the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011, Richard Herring had a daily podcast (Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast) where he ended each show with a 'True or False' competition. Nearly every day, for 25 shows, he used the fact the Kenneth Kendall had died while the podcast was being recorded, which was of course false every time. He would change the fact on odd days to include Kenneth Kendall's educational history and his professional career.
References [link]
- ^ "Ancestry.com. England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790-1976 [database on-line. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010."]. https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=andrewsindex&h=235953&ti=5538&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t16495506_p382361185_kpidz0q3d382361185z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgPLz0q3dpid&ppvhash=ea5c4d41053e9416561d116c2d4e6d59000039b3e331ca8f. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
- ^ Obituary of John Inman - 'The Independent' newspaper
- ^ Acorn Speech Synthesiser upgrade at retro-kit.co.uk
- ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tq4d3
- ^ Kay, Richard (10 August 2004). "Daily Mail Online "Cowes Week Yarns"". London. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-313469/Mortgage-misery-Andrew.html. Retrieved 2010-11-26.
