A popular personality who treated everyone the same

JILL DANDO was at the peak of her career when she was shot dead in a London street in a crime that really did shock Britain.

She was one of the country’s top television personalities and a household name.

But the woman who once called herself Jill Blando always harboured a sense of puzzlement that people found her clever, talented and beautiful.

She once said: “I sometimes wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and think ‘Why me?’.”

Brimming with poise and stunningly telegenic, Dando was as uncomplicated off screen as she was on.

Her fiancé at the time of her murder, Alan Farthing, said: “Jill believed everyone was fundamentally the same and treated everyone the same.”

The golden girl of television, dubbed “One Take Dando” by colleagues, wanted more than to just be the presentable face of the BBC. She was deeply passionate about her work on Crimewatch UK, and believed the programme was a powerful tool for good.

Her colleague and Crimewatch co-presenter Nick Ross recalled how she almost wept once when interviewing a victim live.

Despite her modesty, Dando topped an opinion poll as the woman with whom men would most like to have dinner or go on holiday with.

Her qualities were obvious to everyone but herself, and they fuelled her meteoric rise as a journalist and TV presenter.

She was born on November 19, 1961, in Weston-super-Mare.

After secondary school, Dando joined her local paper, the Weston Mercury, at the age of 18.

She also developed a passion for acting and was a member of the local amateur dramatic society.

After five years in print journalism, she went on to work for BBC Radio Devon before getting her television break on the BBC south-west regional news show, Spotlight.

At 26, in 1988, she moved to London and began working on the BBC’s Breakfast Time news programme, her profile increasing as regular presenters Sally Magnusson and Kirsty Wark became pregnant.

In the early 1990s, she took a role on the BBC Holiday programme when Anneka Rice left.

By 1995, Dando had added the monthly BBC1 Crimewatch show to her roster of programmes, teaming up with Nick Ross after Sue Cook decided to leave.

A year earlier, she had become a presenter of BBC1’s main early evening bulletin, the Six O’Clock News.

Her numerous roles earned her a six-figure sum annually, with some reports estimating she had a £500,000 two-year deal.

Her private life was regularly in the headlines.

She had nearly married in her 20s, before embarking on a six-year relationship with BBC executive Bob Wheaton.

This dissolved due to what she called the pressure of work.

She then found love while filming an edition of Holiday in South Africa where she met warden Simon Basil. They continued dating when she arrived back home, but the romance proved to be short-lived.

She told TV Times: “I’ve always believed that I wouldn’t get married until I knew it was right and until that happens I won’t.

“I’d have to respect a man intellectually as well as fancy and love him.”

It was not long before that man came along.

He was gynaecologist Farthing, whom she met on a blind date.

Dando made it clear to BBC bosses that her priority was her personal life and, on January 31, 1999, Dr Farthing hushed guests at a party to announce the couple were engaged to be married.

She is buried alongside her mother, Jean, in Worle, near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

The words on her headstone, thought up by Dr Farthing and Jill’s brother, Nigel, read: “Jill Dando 1961-1999. Your beautiful smile, that unaffected elegance, a genuine star. We love you.”

George appeal: the quest for justice

THE murder of TV presenter Jill Dando shocked Britain. Here is a timeline of the events following her killing.

* April 26, 1999 — The 37-year-old is shot dead with a single bullet to the head on the steps of her home in Fulham, south-west London.

* May 25, 2000 — Police arrest Barry George, also known as Barry Bulsara, following surveillance.

* May 29, 2000 — Police charge George with murdering Dando.

* July 2, 2001 — A jury finds George guilty of murder. He is later sentenced to life imprisonment.

* July 29, 2002 — George loses an appeal against his conviction at the Court of Appeal in London. Three judges rejected his claim his conviction was unsafe.

* December 16, 2002 — The House of Lords refuses permission for George to mount a further challenge to his conviction.

* March 25, 2006 — It emerges that lawyers for George have submitted new evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission which they believe undermines the safety of his conviction. They say they have new medical evidence which suggests George’s mental problems would have made him incapable of carrying out the crime, and that witnesses who were not heard at the original trial may provide an explanation for why a particle of gunshot residue was found on his coat.

* September 5, 2006 — A BBC documentary says a new interpretation of the forensic evidence cast doubt on the conviction.

* June 20, 2007 — The Criminal Cases Review Commission refers the conviction to the Court of Appeal.

* August 22, 2007 — George is refused bail ahead of his second appeal.

* October 29, 2007 — The foreman of the jury that convicted George in 2001 tells a BBC documentary George may have been found not guilty, if crucial evidence linked to firearms residue found in his pocket was presented differently.

* November 5, 2007 — George begins second appeal against conviction at the Court of Appeal.

* November 15, 2007 — George’s appeal is upheld and he will be re-tried, possibly within months.