Background
Intending to start her career as an actress, Bligh met with some opposition from her mother.
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Jasmine Bligh
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However, she became a Charlot showgirl at the Cambridge Theatre, London, aged 17. Five years later, Bligh, struggling as an actress, answered a British Broadcasting Corporation advertisement for female television "hostess-announcers" - unmarried and without red hair. Both Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell were chosen for the jobs out of 1,122 applicants from the British Empire.
Along with Leslie Mitchell, they were seen during test transmissions from Alexandra Palace in 1935.
She rejoined the service in 1946 after its Second World War hiatus and was the first person to appear when broadcasting was resumed, greeting viewers with the words:
"Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?"
After twenty minutes she introduced the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey"s Gala Premiere (1933), which had been the last programme shown before the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939.
Her theatrical experience, however, proved very useful as she had to learn 400 words a day to speak directly to the camera. The press, at that time, described Bligh and Cowell as "Twin Paragons", and Bligh continued when the British Broadcasting Corporation began its regular television service a year later.
She became a personality in her own right, amongst other daring escapades, she was seen being given a fireman"s lift and hurtling about in a motorcycle sidecar.
Later she presented the British Broadcasting Corporation"s Television for Deaf Children in the 1950s. She continued to work in television up until the 1970s, when she was a presenter of Good Afternoon for Thames Television.
