WOMEN WHO EMPOWERED A GENERATION...

Lynn Faulds Wood’s death saw Britain lose one of its most tireless TV consumer champions. Alongside Esther Rantzen and Anne Robinson, Watchdog presenter Lynn fought for justice every inch of the way. This Morning Consumer Editor

ALICE BEER, below, had the privilege of being mentored by all three and reveals the debt that we all owe them

IN 1985, I was dispatched from the BBC Production Trainee Unit to my first proper job: production secretary, That’s Life. Every Sunday night some 20 million people tuned in their TV to be entertained by a melee of skateboarding or talking dogs, street interviews with opinionated people, exposés of the biggest jobsworth of the week and theatrically-presented tales of injustice.

At the helm of this magnificently successful vessel was a petite journalist with a bouffant hairdo and prominent teeth.

Esther Rantzen held court over “her boys” – fellow presenters – on stage and the entire production office. My first job was to “pop” to the canteen for her breakfast: two milky teas, an egg and cress sandwich and a green apple.

I did this on day one and every day after until I left two years later.

Esther taught me my first lesson in consumer journalism. If people had the energy, humility or bravery to write to the show, they deserved to be heard.

The miscarriages of justice, the retail frustrations, the terrible accounts of suffering were out there.

She showed me that if you were privileged enough to have a voice, you had to use it to speak on behalf of others.

The stories came in twice daily in huge mail sacks. Researchers would pull out envelopes and judge whether the scrawly biro disclosed a story that needed to be told. Every letter was read, each of them a problem to that viewer big enough to warrant writing the whole tale out and posting it to Television Centre.

If anyone could help with the gas bills that kept coming to the tenant with no gas supply, or fight the conmen taking money for snake oil, Esther could and did.

She could almost spot a story before the envelope had even been opened.

The audience loved and admired her, the “men in suits” respected her and, with the weight of 20 million viewers behind her, she got results.

The importance of children wearing seatbelts in the back of cars got pushed to the top of the political agenda and eventually became law.

She has since brought attention to the need for organ donation for children. Esther didn’t shirk from uncomfortable subjects. She was drawn to them.

While I was working on That’s Life, children’s welfare charity Childline was founded. I witnessed its birth, learning all the time. Her desk was some 3ft away from mine.

Sometimes Esther’s exuberance reached unbelievable decibels, but the times I learnt the most was when she was quiet, sometimes hours at a time on the phone, just listening to someone who needed help.

That a child being abused or bullied could go to a phone box and call a freephone number or call from home and the number not appear on the bill, to speak to someone trained to help, was a huge breakthrough.

It seems incredible that such emotional and wrenching campaigns could sit in a script punctuated by vegetables resembling male genitalia, but Esther knew how to entertain.

When I was promoted to programme researcher, I joined the BBC’S flagship hard-hitting consumer programme Watchdog.

“Och, mullions and mullions of wee kiddies could choke on that,” mocked my friends.

The impressions of Lynn Faulds Wood were unmistakable.

But with journalist husband John Stapleton by her side, Watchdog changed our world for the better week by week.

I worked with Lynn for five years as she identified problems and worked relentlessly to effect change. She persisted until laws got altered.

Did you know it was Lynn that changed laws banning the supply of electrical goods without fitted plugs, thermal cut-outs in irons, shorter leads on kettles and holes in pen tops to minimise the choking hazard to children?

The focus on health and safety led to regular parodies by comedians