Anthony Ward Clare (24 December 1942 – 28 October 2007) was an Irish psychiatrist well-known in the UK and Ireland as a presenter of programmes about psychiatry on BBC TV and Radio.

Career

Clare was born in Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland and educated at Gonzaga College. In 1966, he graduated from University College, Dublin (UCD) where he was an auditor of the Literary and Historical Society. During his time in UCD, he won the 1964 Observer Mace debating competition, speaking in a team with Patrick Cosgrave. Following initial training in psychiatry at St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, he moved to the Institute of Psychiatry at The Maudsley Hospital, in London where he studied under Professor Michael Shepherd. Clare held a doctorate in medicine and a master's degree in philosophy, and was a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Author of several popular books on psychiatry, Clare held the positions of Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin and Medical Director of St. Patrick's Hospital, Dublin. He was due to retire from his current post as Consultant General Adult Psychiatrist at St. Edmundsbury Hospital in Lucan, Dublin when he died suddenly of a heart attack in Paris at the age of 64.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Clare was the best-known psychiatrist in Britain. His first media appearances were on the light-hearted BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme Stop the Week. He was also for many years the voice of the BBC popular science programme QED. Clare became famous for his probing interviews with well-known figures such as Bob Monkhouse and Paddy Ashdown in several series of In the Psychiatrist's Chair, which started on television in 1982, and was subsequently transferred to Radio 4.

As a young man Clare lost his Catholic faith and later explained why in a newspaper interview.

I can't really believe in a God that can suddenly and haphazardly intervene during one moment of history, causing air crashes, genocide and famine.

Clare married Jane Hogan in 1966 and they had seven children together.

TV Programmes

• QED
• ''After Dark
• In the Psychiatrist's Chair

Radio Programmes

• In the Psychiatrist's Chair
• Father Figures
• All in the Mind

Books

• Depression and How to Survive It (Co-written with Spike Milligan)
• Lovelaw
• In the Psychiatrist's Chair I, II & III
• On Men: Masculinity In Crisis
• Psychiatry in Dissent: Controversial Issues in Thought and Practice

References

External links

• Anthony Clare at the Internet Movie Database
• The chair man: Anthony Clare Guardian Newspaper article
• Obituary in The Times, 31 October 2007
• Daily Telegraph obituary
• Guardian obituary (includes additional section on his hosting of the After Dark television programme)
• Anthony Clare - Obituary
• Morton Schatzman, Professor Anthony Clare (obituary) The Independent, 31 October 2007
• Ed Carty, Anthony Clare, the psychiatrist with the chair, dies aged 64, The Independent, 31 October 2007
• Richard Ingrams, Richard Ingrams' Week: Memories of my time in the psychiatrist's chair, The Independent, 3 November 2007
• Psychiatrist Anthony Clare dies aged 64, Daily Mail, 30 October 2007