Kenneth Kendall

2019-01-26T16:41:02Z

SJS114: /* Later life */

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kenneth Kendall
| image =
| caption =
| birthname =
| birth_date = {{birth date |1924|8|7|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2012|12|14|1924|8|7|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Cowes]], [[Isle of Wight]], England
| education =
| occupation = Journalist, television presenter
| alias =
| title =
| family =
| spouse =
| domestic_partner = Mark Fear
| children =
| relatives =
| nationality = British
| religion =
| years_active = 1948–2012
| salary =
| credits = ''[[BBC News]]''<br>''[[Treasure Hunt (UK game show)|Treasure Hunt]]
| module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
| allegiance = {{Flagu|United Kingdom|size=23px}}
| branch = {{Nowrap|{{Army|United Kingdom}}}}
| serviceyears = 1942–46
| unit = [[Coldstream Guards]]
| rank = [[File:UK Army OF2-2.png|25px]] [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]]
| awards =
}}
}}

'''Kenneth Kendall''' (7 August 1924 – 14 December 2012)<ref name=bbc141212>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20730869 |title=Kenneth Kendall, former broadcaster, dies |publisher=BBC |date=14 December 2012 |accessdate=2012-12-14}}</ref> was a British broadcaster. He worked for many years as a [[News presenter|newsreader]] for the [[BBC]], where he was a contemporary of fellow newsreaders [[Richard Baker (broadcaster)|Richard Baker]] and [[Robert Dougall]]. He is also remembered as the host of the [[Channel 4]] game show ''[[Treasure Hunt (UK 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 (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]''.

==Early life ==
Kendall was born in India where his father, Frederic William Kendall (d. 30 May 1945), worked.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ancestry.com. England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.|url=http://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|accessdate=27 June 2011}}</ref> 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==
Kendall joined the [[Coldstream Guards]] where he was commissioned as a lieutenant. He arrived in [[Invasion of Normandy|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 [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]]. In 1946 he was demobilised from the Guards as a [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|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.<ref>Dennis Barker [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/dec/14/kenneth-kendall Obituary: Kenneth Kendall], ''The Guardian'', 14 December 2012</ref> As he was employed on a freelance basis by the BBC, he also worked as an actor for a [[Repertory theatre|repertory company]] based in [[Crewe]], and briefly at the menswear retailer [[Austin Reed (retailer)|Austin Reed]] in [[Regent Street]], where he met actor [[John Inman]] and offered him a job in the Crewe theatre company.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-inman-439428.html Obituary of John Inman - 'The Independent' newspaper]</ref>

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 news reading on 23 December 1981.<ref>{{cite news|title=Kenneth Kendall quits in anger|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dMBAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1qUMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5386,3672969&dq=kenneth+kendall&hl=en|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=22 December 1981|page=1}}</ref> Kendall's retirement allowed him to work on the popular [[Channel Four]] programme ''[[Treasure Hunt (UK game show)|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==
Soon after retirement from news reading, Kendall lent his voice to the [[BBC Micro]] as part of [[Acorn Computers]]' hardware speech synthesis system.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.retro-kit.co.uk/page.cfm/content/Acorn-Speech-Synthesiser-Upgrade/ |title=Acorn Speech Synthesiser upgrade at |publisher=Retro-kit.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2012-12-17}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|author=|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tq4d3 |title=BBC One - The Young Ones |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=22 December 2010 |accessdate=2012-12-15}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Kendall lived in [[Cowes]] on the [[Isle of Wight]] 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 the United Kingdom|civil partnership]] in 2006.<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/9745610/Kenneth-Kendall.html Telegraph obituary]</ref>

==Death==
Kendall died on 14 December 2012, following a [[stroke]] a few weeks previously.<ref name=bbc141212/> On 29 April 2013, his partner Mark Fear was found hanged. An inquest concluded that he had committed suicide because he was "overcome by grief".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-24730922|title=Kenneth Kendall's partner committed suicide 'overcome by grief'|date=29 October 2013|accessdate=30 October 2013|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

==Filmography==
*''[[The Reckless Moment]]'' (1949) - Man (uncredited)
*''[[The Brain (1962 film)|The Brain]]'' (1962) - TV Newscaster (uncredited)
*''[[They Came from Beyond Space]]'' (1967) - Commentator
*''The Exorcism'' - from the ''[[Dead of Night (TV series)|Dead of Night]]'' BBC TV series. (1972) (Credited)
*''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' (1968) - BBC-12 Announcer (uncredited)

==References==
<references />

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0447611|Kenneth Kendall}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121219024059/http://www.visitislandlife.com/sections/articles_interviews/kenneth-kendall-island-life-augsep-2011/ Interview with Kenneth Kendall in 2011]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Kenneth}}
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford]]
[[Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:British game show hosts]]
[[Category:British male journalists]]
[[Category:Coldstream Guards officers]]
[[Category:Gay men]]
[[Category:LGBT broadcasters from the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:LGBT journalists from the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People educated at Felsted School]]
[[Category:Television personalities from Cornwall]]

Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Kenneth Kendall