Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2006 | Page 32

JOHN HANNAM

Kenneth Kendall
25 years on...
John

Hannam

talks to Kenneth Kendall and gets

Kenneth’s take on modern TV, “I do not like all the
swearing on TV nowadays, and I feel that some BBC
presenters are not worth the colossal money they are
being paid...”
Here is the latest news! It’s now 25
years since Kenneth Kendall retired
from his role as a BBC Television
newscaster. For many years he was
a member of the station’s big three,
alongside his other highly acclaimed
contemporaries – Richard Baker and
Robert Dougal.
These days, as a partner in
Kendall’s Fine Art in Cowes, he is
still constantly recognized by the

32

more mature buyers and browsers.
Some give him a double take and
then realize it really is the man
who read the nine o’clock news and
was described by Anna Ford as the
newscaster’s newscaster.
Kenneth Kendall, who was born
in India, had a fascinating early life
which included Oxford, being a
captain in the Coldstream Guards
during the Normandy landings and

then joining the BBC Home Service
in 1948. At the time he would have
preferred a career as a diplomat in
the Foreign Office.
It was probably the moment,
back in 1953, when he commented
on the Queen’s Coronation, high
above the ceremony in Westminster
Abbey, which finally shaped the
direction of his long and successful
media career.
Kenneth was the first person to
be seen reading the BBC Television
news.
“They were not used to writing
for TV news and so it was just like
reading radio bulletins. So often
they were difficult to read and you
were constantly looking down at

your papers. There were no auto
cues in those days.
“Eventually we had tele-prompts,
which we pedalled under the desk.
If we forgot to pedal, the screen
story didn’t change,” revealed
Kenneth.
The television news service has
now changed so dramatically.
Newscasters
can
now
get
instructions from their TV monitors,
which are beside them. The auto
cues are now so much a part of their
job. There are also so many more
choices for news, with many 24
hour stations.
Have the standards dropped with
so many more programmes to staff?
“I think the standards today are

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