Elaine Grand (''née'' Hill; 8 June 1926 – 30 April 2001) was a Canadian broadcaster. Elaine Hill was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

."Elaine Hill Grand (1926–2001)"
''Manitoba Historical Society'', 27 June 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2022. Her father, George Hill, had been born in England but had migrated to Canada and served in the

Canadian Army The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also respo ...

, where he was in the

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which toured America and Europe in the interwar years. Her mother was an art and music teacher.Barbara Moon
"She's TV's First Atlantic Commuter"
''Maclean's'', 16 March 1957. Hill attended Kelvin High School, graduating in 1942. She later married Solomon Grand, who died in 1953.Peter Denton
"Elaine Grand"
''The Guardian'', 17 May 2001. Retrieved 20 January 2022. She trained as a fashion illustrator before moving to television; she was the interviewer for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

's ''

Tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft * ''Ta ...

'' from 1953 to 1956 and was, according to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', "the most famous woman in Canada" at that time. In 1956, she moved to England and joined

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

, though she continued to work in Canadian television for a while, presenting '' Chrysler Festival'' (1957). In 1960 she married the playwright

Reuben Ship Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portugues ...

. She produced documentaries including ''Unmarried Mothers'' (1963) and in the 1970s and 1980s became one of the interviewers for

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

's Afternoon Plus (alongside

Mavis Nicholson Mavis Nicholson (née Mainwaring; 19 October 1930 – 8 September 2022) was a Welsh writer and radio and television broadcaster. She was born in Wales, and worked throughout the United Kingdom. Early life Nicholson was born on 19 October 1930 i ...

, Judith Chalmers and

Mary Parkinson Mary Ann, Lady Parkinson (née Heneghan; born 16 July 1936) is a British journalist and television presenter, and the wife of Sir Michael Parkinson. Parkinson was born in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire. She presented the 1970s magazine pr ...

), a talk show which attracted a wide range of interviewees. Broadcast during the daytime, it was initially targeted towards housewives, but, with unemployment growing, its editor

Catherine Freeman Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman (born 16 February 1973) is an Aboriginal Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, se ...

turned it into a serious interview format. As ''The Guardian'' commented, Grand "brought the art of intelligent interviewing to a wide and growing audience ... hewas one of a handful of broadcasters who changed the face of daytime television in Britain" through her interviews of politicians, thinkers, writers and other notable figures. She died on 30 April 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand, Elaine 1926 births 2001 deaths Journalists from Winnipeg Canadian women television journalists ITV people 21st-century Canadian women 20th-century Canadian women