Jill Dando

She was the daughter of Jack Dando (February 1918 – February 2009 ) and Winifred Mary Jean Hockey (August 1928 – January 1986), who died of leukaemia aged 57.

Her only sibling, brother Nigel (born 1952), worked as a journalist for BBC Radio Bristol before retiring in 2017, having previously worked as a journalist in local newspapers since the 1970s.

Dando was raised as a Baptist and remained a devout follower.

When she was three years old, it was discovered that she had a hole in her heart and a blocked pulmonary artery.

Jill Wendy Dando (9 November 1961 – 26 April 1999) was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader.

She had heart surgery on 12 January 1965.

Dando was educated at Worle Infant School, Greenwood Junior School, Worle Community School, and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre, where she was head girl, and completed her A-levels.

She then went on to study Journalism at the South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education.

Dando was a member of Weston-super-Mare Amateur Dramatic Society and Exeter Little Theatre Company, with whom she appeared in plays at the Barnfield Theatre.

She was a volunteer at Sunshine Hospital Radio in Weston-super-Mare in 1979.

Dando's first job was as a trainee reporter for the local weekly newspaper, the Weston Mercury, where her father and brother worked.

After five years as a print journalist, she started to work for the BBC, becoming a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985.

That year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West.

In 1987, she worked for Television South West, then BBC Spotlight in Plymouth.

In early 1988, Dando moved from regional to national television in London to present BBC television news, specifically the short on-the-hour bulletins that aired on both BBC1 and BBC2 from 1986 until the mid-1990s.

From 1989 to 1996, Dando engaged in a relationship with BBC executive Bob Wheaton.

She then had a brief relationship with national park warden Simon Basil.

In 1994, she moved to Fulham.

Dando presented the BBC television programmes Breakfast Time, Breakfast News, the BBC One O'Clock News, the Six O'Clock News, the travel programme Holiday, the crime appeal series Crimewatch (from 1995 until her death) and occasionally Songs of Praise.

She spent most of her career at the BBC and was the corporation's Personality of the Year in 1997.

At the time of her death, her television work included co-presenting the BBC One programme Crimewatch with Nick Ross.

At the time of her death, Dando was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff, and had been the 1997 BBC Personality of the Year.

Crimewatch reconstructed her murder in an attempt to aid the police in the search for her killer.

After Barry George was charged with the murder but acquitted, Crimewatch made no further appeals for information concerning the case.

In December 1997, Dando met gynaecologist Alan Farthing, later Queen Elizabeth II's personal physician, on a blind date set up by a mutual friend.

Farthing was separated from his wife at the time.

On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, south-west London, prompting the biggest murder inquiry conducted by the Metropolitan Police and the country's largest criminal investigation since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.

A local man, Barry George, was convicted and imprisoned for the murder, but after eight years in prison he was acquitted following an appeal and retrial.

No other suspect has been charged with Dando's murder and the case remains unsolved.

Jill Wendy Dando was born at Ashcombe House Maternity Home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

On 25 April 1999, Dando presented the first episode of Antiques Inspectors.

She was scheduled to present the Six O'Clock News on the evening of the following day.

She was featured on the cover of that week's Radio Times magazine (from 24 to 30 April).

Dando was also booked to host the British Academy Television Awards 1999, alongside Michael Parkinson, at Grosvenor House Hotel on 9 May.

On 5 September, BBC One resumed airing of Antiques Inspectors, the final series to be recorded by Dando.

The series had made its debut on 25 April, with filming of the final episode completed two days before that.

The programme was cancelled following her death, but it was decided later in the year that it should be aired as a tribute to Dando.

The final episode aired on 24 October.

A couple of months after Farthing's divorce was finalised, the couple announced that they were engaged on 31 January 1999.

Their wedding was set to take place on 25 September.