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Kenneth Kendall (7 August 1924 – 14 December 2012) was a British broadcaster. He worked for many years as a newsreader for the

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, where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders Richard Baker and Robert Dougall. He is also remembered as the host of the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

game show '' Treasure Hunt'', which ran between 1982 and 1989, as well as the host of ''

The World Tonight ''The World Tonight'' is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10 pm news. It is produced by BBC News and features news, analysis and comment on domes ...

'' in the 1968 science fiction film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''.

Early life

Kendall was born in India where his father, Frederic William Kendall (d. 30 May 1945), worked. He was brought up in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. Kendall was educated at

Felsted School (Keep your Faith) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Chris Townsend , r_head_l ...

in Essex, England. He read Modern Languages at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12t ...

, for one year before being called up to the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Military service

Kendall joined the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

where he was commissioned as a lieutenant. He arrived in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

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

After 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. 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 Frederick John Inman (28 June 1935 – 8 March 2007) was an English actor and singer best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in '' Are You Being Served?'', a British sitcom between 1972 and 1985, and was the only actor from that series to featu ...

and offered him a job in the Crewe theatre company. Kendall became known for his elegant dress sense and was voted best-dressed newsreader by ''Style International'' and No.1 newscaster by ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'' 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 ''The War Machines'' is the ninth and final serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966. The serial is set in 1960s London ...

''. He rejoined the BBC in 1969 and finally retired from newsreading on 23 December 1981. Kendall's retirement allowed him to work on the popular

programme '' Treasure Hunt'' throughout its first run (1982–1989), which featured

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a Welsh-born television and radio presenter, broadcaster, journalist and painter. Early life and education Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wale ...

as a "skyrunner". He also presented the television programme '' Songs of Praise''.

Later life

Soon after retirement from news reading, Kendall lent his voice to the

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

as part of

Acorn Computers Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK, including the Acorn Electron and the Acorn Archimedes. Acorn's ...

' hardware speech synthesis system. 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.

Personal life

Kendall lived in Cowes on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

with his partner Mark Fear, whom he had been with since 1989. Fear was the owner of a marine art gallery and a beekeeper. The couple entered into a civil partnership in 2006.

Death

Kendall died on 14 December 2012, following a stroke a few weeks previously. 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".

Filmography

*''

The Reckless Moment ''The Reckless Moment'' is a 1949 American film noir melodrama directed by Max Ophüls, produced by Walter Wanger, and released by Columbia Pictures with Burnett Guffey as cinematographer. It starred James Mason and Joan Bennett. The film is based ...

'' (1949) – Man (uncredited) *'' Scotland Yard Evidence in Concrete (1961)'' TV news reader on Decca television screen *''

The Brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ i ...

'' (1962) – TV Newscaster (uncredited) *'' Doctor Who:

(1966) – Himself (Credited, TV cameo) *''

They Came from Beyond Space ''They Came from Beyond Space'' is a 1967 British Eastman Color science fiction film produced by Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, and directed by Freddie Francis. The screenplay was written by Subotsky, based on the 1941 novel '' The Go ...

'' (1967) – Commentator *''The Exorcism'' – from the ''

Dead of Night ''Dead of Night'' is a 1945 black and white British anthology horror film, made by Ealing Studios. The individual segments were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie W ...

'' BBC TV series. (1972) (Credited) *'' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) – BBC-12 Announcer (uncredited)

References

External links

*
Interview with Kenneth Kendall in 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Kenneth 1924 births 2012 deaths Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford BBC newsreaders and journalists British Army personnel of World War II British game show hosts British male journalists Coldstream Guards officers LGBT broadcasters from the United Kingdom LGBT journalists from the United Kingdom People educated at Felsted School Television personalities from Cornwall Gay military personnel British people in colonial India