Desmond Wilcox, who died on September 6th aged 69, was a key innovator in what might be called the humanisation of current affairs on television, dwelling on the joys, fears and problems of ordinary people rather than on the politicians and pundits who shape or meddle with such circumstances. Which said, he and his wife and professional partner, Esther Rantzen, cannot be altogether cleared from a shred of blame for the later debasement of this branch of television, when compassion turns into exploitation.
Born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, in 1931, Desmond Wilcox was a pupil at Cheltenham Grammar School. He once said he was "the most beaten boy there", owing to his claims that attempts were made to beat his stammering out of him. The problem ended at the age of 13, but he never forgot his experiences and went on to help charities aimed at sufferers. He began his working career as a deckhand in the merchant marine. He then moved on to his first media role as a journalist on a weekly newspaper.
After two years of National Service, he secured a position on the Daily Mirror, where he became a foreign correspondent in the New York bureau.
In 1960, he crossed into television as a reporter on ITV's current affairs programme This Week, where he remained for five years before joining the BBC.
In 1965, he moved to the BBC's newly-established second channel to present and edit, with Bill Morton, the current affairs series, Man Alive, avowedly devoted to such human predicaments as agoraphobia or the search for an ideal partner. "They wheel a plague cart through the world," a colleague wrote at the time, "crying `Bring out your dread'." From 1972 to 1980 he held the position of head of general features at the BBC. His programme-making credits there included The Americans, The Visit, Black in Blue and A Day in the Life. But it was in The Visit, a series of documentaries about David Jackson - the boy without a face - that won him five international awards. The television documentary followed the story of a baby rescued in the Amazonian jungle by a charity worker and taken to Britain, where his features were restored by the Scottish surgeon Ian Jackson, who adopted him.
Esther Rantzen first came into his life as a production assistant on Man Alive. They married in 1977, following his divorce from his first wife, Patsy, and had three children.
He produced a continuing strand of light-hearted, consumer watchdog programmes of which That's Life was the best-known and most durable, running from 1973 to 1994, with Rantzen at the helm as presenter.
In 1984, That's Life temporarily renamed itself That's Family Life in order to pass on the unique secrets of bringing up children. Two editions were devoted to particularly grave topics: one was the special problems of bringing up a handicapped child, the other about parents who had suffered the death of a child.
While it was recognised that talking about the ordeal might be of comfort and that a popular entertainment programme was probably a useful means of letting other people share their feelings, it seemed unforgivable to close proceedings with the bereaved couple standing on the stage with Esther, while the studio audience applauded. Behind the scenes, Desmond Wilcox remained an able and creative broadcaster, and the head of his own production company. Over the years he also won a number of Bafta awards .
He published several books related to his TV series, including Americans and Return Visit, and, with Esther Rantzen, Kill the Chocolate Biscuit, a light-hearted collection of mostly funny things that had happened to them on their way to becoming one of television's most celebrated and most durable husband-and-wife teams.
Desmond Wilcox is survived by his wife, Esther Rantzen, and their three children; and three children from his first marriage.
Desmond John Wilcox: born 1931; died, September 2000