Nancy Banks-Smith

Nancy Banks-Smith (born 1929) is a British television and radio critic, who spent most of her career writing for The Guardian.

Life and career

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Born in Manchester and raised in a pub,[1] she was educated at Roedean School.

Banks-Smith began her career in journalism in 1951 as a reporter at the Northern Daily Telegraph. In 1955, after a brief period at the women's section of the Sunday Mirror, she moved to the Daily Herald as a reporter. She worked for the Daily Express from 1960 to 1965 as a feature writer, moving to be a TV critic for The Sun in 1965. She left the newspaper in 1969 when it was bought by Rupert Murdoch.[2]

Banks-Smith began writing for The Guardian in 1970, with her television column becoming a leading feature of the newspaper. She has remained with the paper since then,[3] though by 2010 she no longer wrote daily reviews.[2] Until 2017, she wrote a monthly column for the paper entitled "A month in Ambridge", reviewing recent developments in the radio soap opera The Archers.

Awards

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In 1970, she was recommended for the Order of the British Empire, which she declined.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Nancy Banks-Smith (2 March 2016). "Nancy Banks-Smith: 'I grew up in a pub – I thought Corrie was a documentary'". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  2. ^ a b Celebrating 40 years of Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 4 February 2010
  3. ^ Nancy Banks-Smith (19 June 2020). "The night I watched Vera Lynn with Marlene Dietrich". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  4. ^ "Some who turned honours down", The Guardian, 22 December 2003, retrieved 31 August 2012.
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