#broadcaster

A Life on Our Planet, 2020

Q: When is a Telecaster not a Tele? A: When it was made in mid-1951

On August 5th 1923 Scottish broadcaster, Eileen Mitchell, was born.

Mitchell, formerly Eileen Browne, who famously began the programme with the words: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin", narrated the popular show for 15 years.

Born in Edinburgh, Eileen studied at the Royal College of Music for 18 months with the piano as her first instrument. After working in precision engineering during the war, she wrote to the BBC asking if there were any vacancies in the schools music department and she was given temporary employment as a junior programme assistant, which later became permanent. During the next seven years her assignments included Music And Movement, Music Box and orchestral concerts. She also wrote the script for a series of on the lives of great composers called Adventures In Music.

For Listen With Mother she recorded the traditional nursery rhymes with George Dixon in 1950, when the programme began. She was also responsible for choosing the wide variety of music that opened each programme. The closing music, the Berceuse from Faure's Dolly Suite for piano duet, was recorded by Eileen and Roger Fiske.

She left the BBC in July 1953 shortly after her first marriage, but in 1955, she was the voice of Jenny Woodentop in the BBC's Watch With Mother series. She also worked regularly until 1964 as a part-time producer in schools radio.

In 1956 she married Robert Mitchell. She had a son, daughter and three stepchildren.