David Jacobs (broadcaster)

David Lewis Jacobs, CBE was a British broadcaster perhaps best known as presenter of the BBC Television 1960s peaktime show Juke Box Jury, and as chairman of the longrunning BBC Radiotopical forum Any Questions Earlier radio work included small acting parts over the years he played himself or presenter characters in film, television and radio productions. Jacobs finally stepped down as a BBC Radiopresenter shortly before his death, his career having spanned more than 65 years.

Jacobs was born to a Jewish family, the youngest of three sons of Jeanette and David Jacobs senior, in Streatham Hill, London, and educated at Belmont College and Strand School. In his early years the family was affluent, but his father, a Covent Garden fruit importer, was bankrupted in 1939 after suffering illhealth for a decade, and the family soon lost their home. This forced his youngest son to leave school at 14, and Jacobs took up various shortterm jobs, before he served in the Royal Navy from 1944 to 1947, and performed on the popular BBC General Forces Programme Navy Mixture in 1944. He became an announcer with the British Forces Broadcasting Service and was chief announcer on Radio SEAC in Ceylon . Jacobs was later assistant station director.

Source: Wikipedia