Jasmine Bligh

Jasmine Lydia Bligh (20 May 1913 – 21 July 1991) was an English broadcaster and television announcer for the

Prior to joining the BBC, she appeared in revues and films. Bligh left the BBC in 1946 to become a farmer in the Republic of Ireland but returned in the 1950s to present programming for deaf children and announce on BBC Radio. She presented the Thames Television daily magazine show Good Afternoon in 1973 and ran a second-hand mobile clothing business from 1967 until 1976.

Early life and career

Bligh was born to an upper class family in London on 20 May 1913 to Noel Bligh.^[1][2] She was the niece of Esme Ivo Bligh, the 9th Earl of Darnley^[3] and was a descendent of Captain William Bligh, the commander usurped during the Mutiny on the Bounty in the 18th century.^[2][4] Her sister, Susan, was a model.^[5] Bligh participated in school amateur theatricals and evensong.^[6]

Bligh's mother was opposed to her plans to become an actor. She did, however, become a Charlot showgirl at the

In 1936, Bligh was struggling as an actress and responded to a BBC advertisement for female television 'hostess-announcers' - unmarried and without red hair. Both Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell were chosen from a pool of 1,122 applicants throughout the British Empire.^[13] On 18 May 1936, she began a six-month trial with the BBC's television department,^[11][14] making her BBC Radio debut, announcing halfway through Geraldo's light entertainment orchestral concert Romance in Rhythm for around 15 seconds in St. George's Hall, London on the evening of 26 May 1936.^[15][16][17] Bligh was included in the programme because television director Gerald Cock needed her to get experience.^[18] She did a microphone training course with musical comedy and opera producer Gordon McConnel,^[19] and was formally employed as a BBC television announcer in July 1936.^[20] Bligh was one of three BBC television test broadcast announcers.^[21]

On 7 July of that year, she made her BBC Radio début as part of a team with Cowell and Leslie Mitchell.^[22] From late June to early July 1936, Bligh worked as one of the BBC's evening hostesses at Broadcasting House for a week.^[23] She was the first woman to announce on the BBC's regular television broadcast, which debuted on 2 November 1936.^[2][24] In an era before autocues or prompting systems, Bligh was obliged to learn 400 words per day that she said straight into the camera.^[7][25]

She also worked as a roving reporter for BBC Outside Broadcasting.

Later, in the 1950s, she presented the BBC's ''Television for Deaf Children'' and the lunchtime programme ''About the Home''. Bligh compered fashion shows on and off television,[30] became a BBC Radio announcer,^[25] and narrated the Noddy television series of books.^[7][21] When her third husband became ill in 1967, she set up the one-person mobile second-hand clothing shop Bargains to earn some money and toured the Berkshire countryside in a red van,^[24][7] doing business at agricultural and dog shows, Women's Institute meetings, military camp quarters and housing estates.^[35] In September 1973, Bligh returned to television, presenting the daily magazine programme Good Afternoon for Thames Television, which explored emotional and physical disabilities.^[25][31][36] She closed down Bargains in 1976.^[7]

Personal life and death

She was married three times.^[9][25] Bligh was first married to Sir John Paley Johnson, 6th Bt from 1940 to 1947. They had a daughter.^[2] She married secondly in 1948, Frank Fox;^[25] they divorced in October 1953 on cruelty grounds by her husband.^[37] She was later married to broadcaster Howard Marshall from 1954 to his death in 1973. In 1981, a severe stroke left Bligh with a speech impairment and she was cared for at Denville Hall in Northwood, London.^[24] She died of undisclosed causes in London on 21 July 1991.^[2]

See also

• Olga Edwardes

References