DAME Esther Rantzen regularly reached enormous audiences with her long-running BBC1 TV series That’s Life.

But until now, she has not experienced the 21st century version of celebrity that comes from giving a TED talk.

Dame Esther is gearing up to speak on "fake news" at TEDxWinchester, a locally-organised event licensed by the originators of the influential TED (technology, entertainment and design) conferences.

“I’m going to talk about fake news because I think fake news has always been with us,” Dame Esther, who lives in the New Forest, told the Daily Echo.

“When people were trying to explain things that they don’t understand, whether it’s ‘a pig ate the moon’ or ‘a stork brought the baby’, it’s a human response to a situation to invent a good story.

“I think we’re hardwired to believe it. No matter how small a society is – you can find yourself on a South Sea island where there is a religion and they’ve decided Prince Philip is a god. Wherever you go, wherever humanity is, you will find a story to explain either the world or their own existence and also about death.

“But it does matter because alongside fake news we get scapegoats. As a Jew myself, I’m terribly aware of the hideous lies told about Jews over the ages – the blood libel, the Elders of Zion – which are used as an excuse for persecution.”

Her lasting achievements may be founding ChildLine and the Silver Line, to child abuse and isolation for older people – but Dame Esther, 81, still sees herself as a journalist.

“I’m going to write my TED talk as late as possible, partly because I’m a journalist and I like the deadline, but partly because the news changes,” she said.

She hosted That’s Life for 21 years, mixing campaigning journalism with humorous songs, funny misprints and misshapen vegetables.

She contrasts its approach with the current Netflix hit Inventing Anna, a drama inspired by real events, which carries the disclaimer: “This whole story is completely true. Except for all the parts that are totally made up.”

“In my days on That’s Life – which was a mongrel programme, incorporating investigative journalism and entertainment – we were very clear that we had to get our facts right, because if we didn’t, we would be sued for an awful lot of money,” she said.

“So there was no meddling, there was no ‘This is all absolutely true apart from the bits that we made up’.

“They say a lie goes half-way around the world before the truth gets its boots on and I’m depressed by the alacrity with which people decide that 5G masts are infecting them with Covid,” she added.

She remains hopeful that impartial facts will win out “as long as we have journalists and platforms which can provide some sort of factual evidence to disprove the lies told by dictators like Putin”.

“I think humanity has been inching its way forward to trusting scientific evidence as against their mythology and inventions – but the desire is always there,” she added.

TEDxWinchester takes place on Tuesday, April 5, at the University of Winchester and online. Details are at tedxwinchester.com