Biography
Kyle was born in South Africa and was named after General Sir Redvers Buller, the British military commander in the early stages of the Anglo-Boer War. He began his broadcasting career with the South African Broadcasting Corporation, but emigrated to England in 1952, and spent a year as a schoolmaster before becoming a freelance radio and television broadcaster.
Redvers Kyle joined ATV for a Sunday afternoon series at its inception in September 1955, and made early contributions to ITN.
He then joined the likes of Muriel Young and Leslie Mitchell as an announcer at Associated-Rediffusion from February 1956 until the company, by then called "Rediffusion London", lost its franchise in 1968.
It was during his time there that he made television history by presenting the first schools programme on British television in 1957. The programme was called Looking and Seeing and Kyle was criticised for talking too much and trying "to cover too much ground in too short a time".
He survived to host a number of other children's programmes produced by A-R in the late 1950s and early 1960s, voiced over local adverts for ATV in the Midlands, was heard as a narrator on a number of LP records, and composed light music.
After Associated-Rediffusion closed, he moved to the new Yorkshire Television in Leeds, where he remained for a quarter of a century until his retirement in 1993, although he did continue to announce from time to time on YTV and Tyne Tees Television through to around 1998. It was during this period that his voice was heard in the Yorkshire Television children's series The Giddy Game Show as well as Yorkshire TV's long running schools series How We Used To Live.
In the 1990s and after leaving YTV, his voice was heard in programmes made by Victor Lewis-Smith, who had revived the name "Associated-Rediffusion" for his own production company.
Redvers Kyle is now retired.
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