Ronald Fletcher

Ronald Stephen Fletcher (10 July 1910 – 6 February 1996) was an English radio announcer and newsreader for the BBC. He began his career as a crooner on South African radio in the early 1930s before returning to the United Kingdom and got involved in the production of unsuccessful programmes for early commercial radio stations. Fletcher joined the BBC after demobilisation in 1945, working on the BBC Light Programme, the BBC Home Service and the BBC Third Programme. He was the announcer for actor Bernard Braden's radio series Breakfast with Braden and Bedtime with Braden and did television programmes such as Twice a Fortnight, the BBC consumer programme Braden's Week and On the Braden Beat on ITV. Fletcher did 200 episodes of the BBC Radio 4 panel game show Quote... Unquote from 1975 to 1994.

Early life Fletcher was born on 10 July 1910 in Salisbury. He was the son of a chartered accountant, and his grandfather had wealth from his job as a coal miner owner in the North of England. Fletcher had a younger sister. Fletcher lost his inheritance he received from his grandfather by betting on horse races and investing in a string of failed business ventures during the 1930s. Fletcher became a crooner and made his debut on the radio. In 1945, Fletcher joined the corporation after he observed an advertisement for such an radio announcer. He remained in radio until he was 58,

Esther Rantzen, who was a researcher on Braden's Week, reportedly wanted Fletcher to read the newspaper clippings on her consumer programme That's Life! but an administrative error by a BBC booking clerk meant that Cyril Fletcher got the part instead. There were two children of the second marriage. Fletcher had an heart attack en route to a betting shop and died at hospital in Roehampton on 6 February 1996. His funeral was at the Mortlake Crematorium on 13 February.