After a wonderful dry spell of stiffs let me have a week off, Dame Esther Rantzen goes and ruins it by becoming the twelfth Drop 40 hit, and the Number 1 pick at that.
She started out her media and television career behind the scenes, working in various technical and research departments for the BBC in the 60’s. She moved over to presenting on Braden’s Week before the BBC launched That’s Life! in 1973, choosing Esther as the host. Said program focused on various problems the everyday Brit was having at the time, anything from rogue tradesmen ripping off pensioners, to carrots that looked a bit like a willy. That’s Life! managed to find just the right balance between serious and silly and became an absolute mega hit for the BBC, running for over twenty years and hitting viewership figures of up to twenty million viewers, making Esther a huge personality.
She later went on to set up the Childline telephone counselling service for distressed children to contact if they needed help and became well known for both philanthropic campaigning and celebrity reality shows. Alas however, she was not without a few controversies along the way. Her career trajectory took her well into the orbit of those with unfortunate links to Jimmy Savile, and her affair with her boss and early DDP hit Desmond Wilcox caused an awful lot of friction at the BBC given he was married to Esther’s friend and fellow colleague at the time. Workplace love-triangles never end well kids!
On to the macabre reason we’re all here for then. She first graced the DDP in 2012 though it was her 2023 lung cancer announcement that shot her on to the Drop 40. Her final years were marked for both prominent campaigning for assisted dying, and continuing to defy her fans on here who stood to benefit if she got her wish. She went straight in at No. 3 in 2024 and then lived to see another two years where she held the top spot, finally scoring 9/18 points for a whopping 196 teams. It makes her the seventh biggest hit in the competitions history and turfs fellow 2026 Drop 40 hit James Van Der Beek back out of the rankings after a short spell. Such a big name makes for little change to the main leaderboard though, with most of the top ten having picked her. She does however return the increasingly controversial Nature’s Way to the top of the theme league, presumably for Esther Mountain. Stay tuned on that one is all I’ll say for now.
Fare thee well Esther! And thanks for all the phallic vegetables!
It is our life. It is our death. It should be our choice.
Esther Rantzen, Drop 40 #1
June 22 1940 โ September 30 2026
162 Teams ๐๐๐๐๐๐+40 = 9 Points
34 Teams ๐ = 18 Points