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Pat Keysell (7 June 1926 – 31 October 2009) was a presenter of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

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television series ''

Vision On ''Vision On'' was a British children's television programme, shown on BBC1 from 1964 to 1976 and designed specifically for children with hearing impairment. Concept and production ''Vision On'' was conceived and developed by BBC producers Urs ...

'' which ran from 1964 to 1976. She was also a mime artist and administrator.

Early life

Keysell was born in

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre- Saxon times ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and brought up in

Petts Wood Petts Wood is a town in south-east London, England, previously located in the historic county of Kent. It lies south of Chislehurst, west of St Paul's Cray and Poverest, north of Orpington and Crofton, and east of Southborough and Bromley ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. She was educated in

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

and trained in mime at the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a ...

. She later emigrated, returning to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

in 1958 with her son, after having divorced her husband.

Career

Keysell worked as a personal assistant to

Ursula Eason Ursula Vernon Eason (19 August 1910 – 25 December 1993) was a BBC radio broadcaster, television producer and administrator, and a pioneer of television programmes for deaf children in the 1950s and '60s. Eason joined the BBC in 1933 as th ...

(1910–93) who was the Assistant Head of BBC Children's Television from 1955 to 1970. She made her debut with ''For Deaf Children'' in the late 1950s by introducing mime to the format, acted out by deaf actors. By the time of ''Vision On'' she was a production assistant with the BBC's Drama Department and went freelance in order to present the new programme. Keysell was involved in ''Vision On'' at a very early stage when the series began in 1964, being the presenter and assistant to

Tony Hart Norman Antony Hart (15 October 1925 – 18 January 2009),Debrett's People of Today 2008, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2007. known professionally as Tony Hart, was an English artist best known for his work in educating children in art through his role ...

. Many of her ideas were included in the very early shows which were then broadcast fortnightly. It was Keysell who delivered the catch phrase "I'm sorry we can't return any of your pictures but we give a small prize for those that we do show" after the programme's 'Gallery' feature. Her main contribution to BBC television was that she helped to bridge the gap between hearing and non-hearing viewers. She did this by addressing the television camera and using sign language as she spoke. Keysell was a mime teacher for the

Royal National Institute for the Deaf The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), known as Action on Hearing Loss from 2011 to 2020, is a charitable organization working on behalf of the UK's 9 million people who are deaf or have hearing loss. History The Royal National I ...

(RNID) and in 1968 was awarded a

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

Fellowship to study with the

National Theatre of the Deaf The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) is a Connecticut-based theatre company founded in 1967, and is the oldest theatre company in the United States with a continuous history of domestic and international touring, as well as producing original wor ...

in the USA. On her return she set up a company also named the

. The American company threatened to sue and the name was promptly changed to British Theatre of the Deaf which became a professional touring company in 1974 and was the forerunner of later projects developed by other deaf people particularly Terry Ruane who was general manager. It is arguable that other opportunities for deaf actors like the course at

Reading University The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

developed from Keysell's earlier work. After ''Vision On'' ended in 1976, she wrote and produced two series of the storytelling programme ''Under the Same Sun'' (1978–79) for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

. The title originated from a theatre show she had recently done with the British Theatre of the Deaf, ''Under the Sun'', and followed the same format, using the same stories. In 1992 Keysell wrote a mime workshop book called ''Mime Over Matter''. She then worked at the

Brewery Arts Centre Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of t ...

in Cumbria and on other projects before settling in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

from 1996. Keysell and

were reunited over lunch shortly before Hart's death, not having seen each other since the ''

'' series had finished. After touring her own Compass Storytelling shows for many years, Keysell studied storytelling as a healing art at

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

and Mindfields College, subsequently developing her work in day centres, Crowborough Hospital, working with the elderly, adults and children with a learning disability, the Sussex Association for the Blind, Shinewater Court (people with severe physical disabilities) and in the hearing impaired unit in Willingdon School. Until May 2006, Keysell was Artistic Director of Compass Community Arts, a registered charitable arts organisation working with all branches of the community based in her home town of

. She was featured on the BBC community programme ''

See Hear ''See Hear'' is a monthly magazine programme for deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United Kingdom, broadcast on Wednesday mornings at 8.00am. The programme focuses on the British and the worldwide deaf community and covers a broad range of ...

'' on 1 April 2009, where she talked about her career in television and education. She retired and went to live in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where she died aged 83, survived by her son Michael.

References

External links

*
TV Presenter Vision OnContributors to Vision On
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keysell, Pat 1926 births 2009 deaths Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama BBC television presenters British mimes Educational broadcasting in the United Kingdom English television presenters People from Tooting People from Eastbourne