Isobel Barnett

Lady Isobel Barnett (30 June 1918 – 20 October 1980) was a British radio and television personality, popular during the 1950s and 1960s.

Isobel Barnett was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the daughter of a doctor. She went to the independent Mount School on "Dalton Terrace" (A59) in York and, following in her father's footsteps, studied medicine at Glasgow University. She qualified as a doctor in 1940, and, the following year, married solicitor and company director Sir Geoffrey Barnett, who was knighted for political and public services to the city of Leicester in 1953.

Lady Barnett gave up her medical career in 1948 and for the next twenty years was a Justice of the Peace. In 1953 she arrived on BBC television as one of the original panel of "What's My Line?" which made her a household name. She continued to appear on the programme for ten years.

Elegant and witty, she was regarded by audiences as the epitome of the British aristocracy (although her title actually came from the fact that her solicitor husband had been knighted; she was not an aristocrat, nor had she married into the aristocracy). She also made regular appearances on the long-running (1948 to date) BBC radio series "Any Questions?", on the radio panel game "Many a Slip" and on the women's discussion series "The Petticoat Line". The discreet smile, crystal-clear voice and engaging smile also made Lady Barnett a much-in-demand after-dinner speaker, a role into which she slipped confidently, always delivering a highly amusing and perfectly polished speech.

When the more informal culture of the 1960s and 1970s brought an end to her television career, she descended into a reclusive and eccentric existence. In 1980, she was found guilty of shoplifting, being fined for stealing a can of tuna and a carton of cream worth 87p from her village grocer. This brought her briefly back into the public eye, and just four days later, she was found electrocuted in the bath of her home in Cossington, Leicestershire, apparently having committed suicide. [cite journal |date=1980-11-17 |title=Pilfering Urges |journal=Time |volume= |issue= |pages= |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,950505,00.html]

Because of past public perception, viewing her as 'a hardline aristocrat', after her death the British tabloid press seized upon her apparent disingenuousness and hypocrisy. Her past broadcast remarks (which were very authoritarian) were held up for ridicule.Fact|date=February 2007

Her story was sensitively recounted by several of her friends and colleagues in a 1991 BBC Radio 4 documentary in the "Radio Lives" series, which confirmed that she gave no indication whatsoever to any of her friends that she was planning to take her own life, and that she kept up a facade of "business as usual".

Lady Barnett - whose autobiography, 'My Life Line', was published in 1965, had one son, with her husband - who died ten years before her.

References

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/photogallery/kenneth-williams8.shtml See photo of Isobel Barnett on the "What's My Line?" panel]