Everything about Leslie Mitchell Broadcaster totally explained
» For the historian, see Leslie Mitchell.
Leslie Mitchell (born
October 4,
1905 in
Edinburgh, died
November 23,
1985 in
London) was famous in the
United Kingdom as the first voice heard on
BBC Television at its inception on
November 2,
1936, and also for making the first announcement on
Associated-Rediffusion, the first
ITV company, on
September 22,
1955. His voice was perhaps most recognised, however, from his long association with
British Movietone News, for whose
newsreels he was commentator during the
Second World War and for many years afterwards.
Educated at
The King's School, Canterbury, he was prevented from joining the
Royal Navy by ill health, which also prevented him from serving in the Second World War. He began as a
stage and
film actor, but suffered from multiple injuries in a road accident, which kept him out of work for over a year, as the play he was appearing in was about to transfer to the
West End.
He began appearing on
BBC Radio in
1932 and joined the Corporation's staff in
1934, working as a general announcer and a producer of variety programmes. In 1936 he became one of the three announcers for the BBC's fledgling
Television Service, along with
Jasmine Bligh and
Elizabeth Cowell, which was then available only in London.
During the
war he provided the commentary for the
Movietone News and appeared as himself in the comedy film
The Black Sheep of Whitehall in which comedian
Will Hay drives him to a nervous breakdown.
In
1946, suspecting that commercial broadcasting would eventually come to the
United Kingdom, he travelled to the
United States and gained experience of the methods of publicity used there. In the post-war years he'd a stint as Sir
Alexander Korda's director of publicity, but was mainly a freelance writer, commentator and producer.
In 1955 he joined Associated-Rediffusion, where he became senior announcer, and was also in charge of Talks and chairman of discussion programmes. He went freelance again in
1958. Much of his later work was on programmes concerning the early days of
British television, such as a celebration of 25 years of BBC TV which he jointly narrated with
Richard Dimbleby in
1961, and a 40th anniversary documentary in
1976. He also presented the nostalgic
Tyne Tees Television series
Those Wonderful TV Times (1976–1978).
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