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{{Short description|English newsreader}}{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

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| birth_place = Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England19990209df=y}}| death_place = | occupation = Newsreader| employer = BBCITNMargaret|1958}}| children = 4}}Andrew Gardner (25 September 1932 – 2 April 1999) was an English newsreader on Independent Television News (ITN) in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1977. He was also one of the original presenters of the half hour News at Ten bulletin when it began in July 1967. Gardner read the news on the regional Thames At 6 (later Thames News) bulletin broadcast on the ITV London weekday franchise Thames Television from 1977 to his retirement in mid-1992.

Biography

Gardner was born as one of three children of an Upper Wimpole Street dentist in the middle-class Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire on 25 September 1932.NEWS, Barker, Dennis, 6 April 1999, Obituary; Andrew Gardner obituary; The last goodnight from the News At Ten, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/news/1999/apr/06/guardianobituaries2, 16 February 2023, JOURNAL, October 1965, My two year old son keeps wondering... why does Daddy spend so much time in that little box?,transdiffusion.org/2015/10/15/andrew-gardner/, TV World, 40–43, 16 February 2023, Transdiffusion, He was educated at the independent Dauntsey’s School in West Lavington, Wiltshire,NEWS, 5 April 1999, Andrew Gardner, 23, The Times, 66478,link.gale.com/apps/doc/IF0500934315/TTDA?u=Pseudopedia&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=55d4afed, subscription, 16 February 2023, The Times Digital Archive, before serving as a corporal in the Royal Air Force’s medical administration during his National Service.NEWS, 5 April 1999, Andrew Gardner; Broadcaster who presented the first News at Ten bulletin, 23, The Daily Telegraph,www.newspapers.com/clip/118735737/obituary-for-andrew-gardner/, 16 February 2023, Newspapers.com {{open access, }}

Career

Gardner considered becoming an actor but discovered he lacked the talent to pursue that career, and did not want to become a dentist like his father. When he was 21 years old, he moved to Rhodesia in 1954 to avoid seven years of examinations and became a writer of children’s stories about a small hedgehog as a hobby, which was adapted into a ten-minute six-part radio series after working a clerical job with a firm of refrigerator manufacturers.NEWS, 10 August 1962, Andrew has a ‘space’ problem, 3, Leicester Evening Mail,www.newspapers.com/clip/118736243/andrew-gardner-leicester-evening-mail/, 16 February 2023, Newspapers.com {{open access, }}Following an outbreak of the Asian flu epidemic, which reduced the number of available announcers and broadcasters to the Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland,NEWS, Gowers, Michael, 19 March 1966, Newscaster-But No Front Man, 6, Liverpool Echo,www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000271/19660319/083/0006, subscription, 16 February 2023, British Newspaper Archive, he began a career in radio journalism in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1957, working as a freelance newsreader-reporter in Africa for the Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and becoming a staff member 18 months later, working as a producer and nightly newsreel editor.NEWS, Hayward, Anthony, 5 April 1999, Obituary: Andrew Gardner, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-andrew-gardner-1085283.html, 16 February 2023, NEWS, 20 March 1968, Andrew loves the challenge of hard news, 6, The Guardian Journal,www.newspapers.com/clip/118736057/andrew-gardner-the-guardian-journal/, 16 February 2023, Newspapers.com {{open access, }} Gardner was one of the first reporters of the masscares that took place during the Congo Crisis in 1960, and also broadcast in Angola, Congo and Mozambique. When he realised that the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was about to disband, he returned to the United Kingdom in 1961.NEWS, 4 April 1999, Veteran newsman Gardner dies, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/311111.stm, 16 February 2023, Gardner enrolled in a one-month broadcasting course at the BBC and began working for the corporation as a broadcaster for its African services and radio shows like Ten O’Clock and Topic for Tonight. He co-chaired the live BBC afternoon television discussion programme Table Talk with Erskine Childers.

ITN

Gardner had a successful television audition in December 1961, and began working for the British commercial television news service ITN as one of four newscasters and a reporter. That year, he and fellow newsreader Reginald Bosanquet were presented with a silver and rose trophy at the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association ceremony for their impartiality and personal popularity.NEWS, 19 August 1968, ‘News at ten’ wins award, 7, The Guardian Journal,www.newspapers.com/clip/118738675/news-at-ten-wins-award-the-guardian/, 16 February 2023, Newspapers.com {{open access, }} Gardner worked on the television programmes Roving Report and Dateline, Reporting ‘66 and Reporting ‘67. He was the presenter of the maiden transatlantic broadcast from the United States to Western Europe via the Telstar 1 satellite in 1962. Gardner also reported in the field, such as the Great Train Robbery in 1963. He co-presented the first edition of the News at Ten bulletin with Alastair Burnet on 3 July 1967, and continued to read the news on the half-hour bulletin until 1977.He was asked to present ITN’s coverage of special broadcasts such as the Chancellor’s Budget and United Kingdom general elections, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Gardner also commentated on state events such as the Wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the Silver wedding anniversary of Elizabeth II, ITV’s studio coverage of the Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (alongside Selina Scott) in 1981 and the first ITV Telethon.

Thames Television

From September 1977, he joined ITV London’s weekday television franchise Thames Television on a three-year contract to read the news on the new nightly regional Thames At 6 (later Thames News) programme from Mondays to Fridays.NEWS, Morris, Roz, 29 June 1992, Cooling down in a hot seat, 27, The Guardian,www.newspapers.com/clip/118737540/andrew-gardner-the-guardian-page-27/, 16 February 2023, Newspapers.com {{open access, }}NEWS, 13 July 1977, Final deadline for ITV man, 5, Liverpool Daily Post,www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004986/19770713/005/0005, subscription, 16 February 2023, British Newspaper Archive, This was partly due to his desire to be in the public eye less often, and he was assured by a producer that it would be a local programme rather than a parochial one. The Southern Television broadcast interruption committed by an unknown hoaxer caused the TV picture to wobble slightly and silence Gardner’s voice, which was replaced by a distorted voice purported to be from the Ashtar Galactic Command’s Vrillon on 26 November 1977. It sent a message that humans needed to stop acting warlike and become more peaceful before it was too late.NEWS, Barnett, David,www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/vrillon-hacking-alien-voice-seventies-extra-terrestrial-hoax-unexplained-mysteries-a8069926.html,www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/vrillon-hacking-alien-voice-seventies-extra-terrestrial-hoax-unexplained-mysteries-a8069926.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20171130085401www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/vrillon-hacking-alien-voice-seventies-extra-terrestrial-hoax-unexplained-mysteries-a8069926.html,">web.archive.org/web/20171130085401www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/vrillon-hacking-alien-voice-seventies-extra-terrestrial-hoax-unexplained-mysteries-a8069926.html, 2017-11-30, limited, live, 18 June 2019, Vrillon: the alien voice hoax that became a legend, The Independent, 25 November 2017, Gardner retired from Thames in mid-1992, before the station ceased broadcasting in the same year and was replaced by Carlton.

Personal life

He met his wife Margaret while the two were working in Salisbury, Rhodesia. They were married in June 1958, and the couple had four children.

Death

Gardner died from a heart attack on 2 April 1999, aged 66, while on a flight to Madeira. At the time of his death, he lived in Benenden, Kent. A memorial service was held for him on the late afternoon of 14 June 1999 at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, London, attended by fellow newscasters and journalists.NEWS, Andrew Gardner,link.gale.com/apps/doc/IF0500949421/TTDA?u=Pseudopedia&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=2086f47d, The Times, 20, 66528, 1 June 1999, 17 February 2023, The Times Digital Archive, subscription, NEWS, Mr Andrew Gardner,www.newspapers.com/clip/118825297/andrew-gardner-memorial-service-the/, The Daily Telegraph, 29, 9 June 1999, 17 February 2023, Newspapers.com {{open access, }}NEWS, Mr Andrew Gardner,link.gale.com/apps/doc/IF0502285783/TTDA?u=Pseudopedia&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=1fc00a3e, The Times, 26, 66540, 15 June 1999, 17 February 2023, The Times Digital Archive, subscription, NEWS, Mr Andrew Gardner,www.newspapers.com/clip/118825456/andrew-gardner-memorial-service-the/, The Daily Telegraph, 24, 15 June 1999, 17 February 2023, Newspapers.com {{open access, }}

References

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