Ludovic Kennedy, 1919-2009

Ludovic Kennedy, whose death at the age of 89 was announced today, will be remembered for many achievements beyond his contribution to broadcasting. But for those who grew up when there were only three channels to choose from, he informed a generation’s idea of what a broadcaster ought to be.

Whether such a patrician figure would have had the same career nowadays is open to doubt. He would have been deemed rather too plummy to read the news on ITV, or present Panorama, both of which he did with distinction. And if Did You See..? still existed, it’s hard to imagine Kennedy finding anything to his taste in the contemporary broadcasting environment. He was a campaigning journalist who became part of the national furniture. He played himself as a political interviewer in Yes, Minister (pictured right). In Til Death Us Do Part the ever tolerant Alf Garnett referred to him as a "Russian Mick", on account of the implied miscegenation of his name, while Private Eye dubbed him "Ludicrous Kennedy". As a broadcaster he was anything but. There follow a few reminders why...

In this clip from a special edition of Did You See...? Kennedy presides in matchless style a discussion of BSB as it was subsumed into Sky in 1990.

Also from 1990, A Life in Pieces finds Kennedy being an extremely good sport, and brilliant at keeping a straight face, as he interviews the international poultry tycoon Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling, played by Peter Cook. This is the first of 12 parts.

This clip from a special debate about Northern Ireland in 1976 gives a glimpse of Kennedy's effortless aura of non-confrontational authority as a political broadcaster, from a time when Jeremy Paxman was still a twinkle in some as yet unappointed controller’s eye.

And finally, for ballet fans, a clip from his wedding in 1950. When the young Kennedy married Moira Shearer, the star of Red Shoes, he was widely considered the luckiest man in the land.