Battersby was married to actress Judy Loe and was the stepfather of actress Kate Beckinsale.[3] Battersby was a Trotskyist for some years,[4] becoming a full-time organiser for the now defunct Workers Revolutionary Party.[5] The association had ended by 1981,[6] but the connection led to his being blacklisted by the BBC.[7]
Battersby died after a stroke on 10 January 2024, at the age of 87.[8][9]
^Mark Hollingsworth and Richard Norton-Taylor Blacklist: The Inside Story of Political Vetting, London: Hogarth Press, p.116-17 (Chapter 5 "MI5 and the BBC: Stamping the ‘Christmas Tree’ Files")