Leslie Scott Falconer Mitchell (4 October 1905 – 23 November 1985) was a British actor and broadcaster who was heard on newsreel soundtracks, radio, and television.
Mitchell was the first voice heard on BBC Television on November 2, 1936, and also gave the inaugural announcement on Associated-Rediffusion, the joint first company to broadcast as part of the ITV network, on 22 September 1955.
His voice was perhaps best known from his lengthy relationship with British Movietone News, for which he provided commentary on newsreels throughout the Second World War and into the mid-1970s.
[1][3] His health later prevented him from entering the Royal Navy,[4] and he finished his education at Chillon College on Switzerland's Lake Geneva.
[1] In 1928, he did plays in England and South Africa, toured with Edgar Wallace's Flying Squad and appeared as Captain Stanhope in Journey's End.
[5] Mitchell's injuries in a major motorbike accident that saw him pulled by the back wheels of a car for 100 yd (91 m) kept him out of work for more than a year, just as Flying Squad was ready to transfer to the West End.
[5] In June 1936, he was one of three announcers selected from 600 applications for the BBC's fledgling Television Service, alongside Jasmine Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell, which was then only available in London.
[1][14] Starting from that day,[12] he interviewed well-known and newsworthy guests on the first television magazine programme Picture Page for six years and 264 editions.
[1][5] Mitchell appeared as himself in the 1942 comedy film The Black Sheep of Whitehall in which comedian Will Hay drives him to a nervous breakdown.
[5][16] In the post-war years he had a stint as filmmaker Alexander Korda's director of publicity, but was mainly a freelance writer, commentator and producer from 1948 onwards.
[29][30] In June 1955 he joined the ITV commercial franchise Associated-Rediffusion service for weekdays in London, where he became senior announcer, and was also in charge of talks and as chairman of discussion programmes.
[5][13][15] He was the first presenter of the programme This Week,[14] and was the first person to announce on ITV television in the Midlands from the opening ceremony at Birmingham Town Hall in February 1956.
[34][35] Though ill health continued to affect him,[16] much of his later work was on programmes concerning the early days of British television, such as a celebration of 25 years of BBC TV which he jointly narrated with Richard Dimbleby in 1961, and a 40th anniversary documentary in 1976.
[5][14] In October 1974 Mitchell appeared on Desert Island Discs and chose his luxury item as a silver box containing a miniature singing bird and a biography of Leonardo da Vinci as his chosen book.