Robert Kee

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Robert Kee

Robert Kee (born October 5, 1919 in Calcutta , † January 11, 2013 ) was a British television presenter, documentary filmmaker, journalist and author.

Life

Robert Kee was born in Calcutta in 1919 as the son of a Scottish jute dealer. Later he attended Stowe School in Stowe , Buckinghamshire , and studied at Magdalen College of the University of Oxford . During the Second World War , he joined the Royal Air Force and became a bomber pilot in 1942. He was shot down over the Netherlands , became a German captivity and was brought to Poland . He made a total of two escape attempts and made it to Cologne before he was picked up again.

After the war he worked for Picture Post . From 1956 to 1957 he worked for the Observer , from 1957 to 1958 for the Sunday Times and in 1957 for the Spectator . From 1958 he worked for the BBC and worked on the television series Panorama . From 1964 to 1978 he worked for ITV . From 1980 to 1981 he produced the thirteen-part documentary series Ireland: A Television History for the BBC . After disagreements regarding a report on the Falklands War , he left the BBC in 1982. Together with David Frost , Anna Ford , Michael Parkinson and Angela Rippon , he founded TV-am in 1983 .

In addition to his career in television, he wrote a number of books, including about his captivity, the Second World War and Ireland.

Kee was married three times. His first two marriages ended in divorce. He had a daughter from his first marriage and a daughter and two sons from his second marriage.

Publications (selection)

  • A crowd is not company (1947)
  • The Green Flag (1972)
  • Ireland: A History (1980)
  • 1939: The World We Left Behind (1984)
  • 1945: The World We Fought For (1985)
  • Trial and Error (1986)
  • The Laurel and the Ivy (1993)

Web links