Helen Mary Malcolm[1] (15 March 1918 – 13 October 2010) was one of the first two regular female announcers on BBC Television after the Second World War and was a household name in the United Kingdom during the 1950s.
[2] The only daughter and youngest of four children of the diplomat and politician Sir Ian Malcolm and Jeanne Langtry (1881–1964) and granddaughter of the Victorian socialite and actress Lillie Langtry, a mistress of King Edward VII,[3][4] Mary Malcolm was born in Marylebone and brought up partly in Poltalloch, Argyll, Scotland.
Commercial breaks quickly became popular and the BBC decided audiences no longer needed a hostess to soothe them.
[5] Malcolm left the BBC in 1956 although she continued to appear as a guest on various programmes including an episode of the comedy series The Goodies.
[4][5] Malcolm had the onset of dementia late on in her life and died on 13 October 2010 at the Hilton Park care centre in Bottisham, Cambridgeshire.