Carol Jean Vorderman

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Carol Jean Vorderman MBE (born 24 December 1960) is a British media personality, best known for co-hosting the popular game show Countdown for 26 years from 1982 to 2008. In September 2011 she became a co-anchor of the ITV1 panel show Loose Women.

Early life:

Vorderman was born in Bedford to a Dutch father and Welsh mother. Her parents broke up three weeks after her birth, and her mother took the family back to her home town of Prestatyn, North Wales, where Vorderman and her siblings grew up in a one-parent household. In 1970 their mother married Armido Rizzi, a native of Italy.

Vorderman was educated at the Roman Catholic comprehensive Blessed Edward Jones High School in Rhyl. At the age of seventeen she went to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1978, where she studied Engineering and gained a third class honours degree at age 20.

Vorderman did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007 (as part of the BBC genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are?). It was only at this point that she discovered that her father Anton had been an active member of the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation. He died whilst the programme was being filmed. Her great-grandfather Adolphe Vorderman played a key role in the discovery of vitamins.

Early career:

Vorderman initially found employment as a graduate management trainee in Leeds, and in her spare time was briefly a backing singer in the Leeds-based pop group Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits, fronted by radio DJ Liz Kershaw in the early 1980s. The group recorded such songs as a version of The Undertones' hit Teenage Kicks (one of the tracks Vorderman had to identify during the "intros round" when she appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in December 2009 - the series often includes questions from contestants' pasts). During 1984/85 she made regular appearances on the Peter Levy show on Radio Aire, appearing mid-morning to read a story for any pre-school children who might be listening with their mothers.

Television career:

Countdown1982 – June 2005Vorderman's mother noticed a newspaper advertisement asking for a woman with good mathematical skills to appear as co-host on a quiz show for the fledgling fourth terrestrial channel and submitted an application on behalf of her daughter. Aged 21, Vorderman made her name on Countdown with Richard Whiteley from the show's inception in 1982 until Whiteley's death in June 2005. Initially Vorderman's only contribution to the show was the numbers game and she formed part of a five person presentation team. However, over the coming years the team was pared down and Vorderman's contribution increased.

After Richard WhiteleyIn June 2005, the producers of Countdown asked Vorderman if she wanted to fill the role of main presenter vacated by the recently deceased Richard Whiteley. Vorderman declined, and a search for a new presenter began while the show went into a four-month hiatus. In October 2005, Des Lynam replaced Whiteley and co-hosted with Vorderman. In January 2007 Des O'Connor replaced Lynam; Vorderman continued to co-host the show. Vorderman was a new type of game show hostess, revealing her intellectual ability by carrying out fast and accurate arithmetical calculations as part of the game. Her lasting success on the show led to her becoming one of the highest-paid women in Britain, earning £1 million per year, from all sources.

On 25 July 2008, after her 26 unbroken years with the show it was announced that Vorderman was stepping down from Countdown. She later said she had resigned after failing to agree terms with Channel 4 for a new contract, and it was reported that she had been asked to take a cut of some 90 per cent of her previous salary, estimated as £900,000. She had considered leaving the show when the original show's host Richard Whiteley died in 2005, but remained on the show when Lynam took over, and until 2008 when his eventual replacement O'Connor announced he was also to step down as the show's host. Vorderman later said that she had "put on a stone from the stress of being 'sacked' from Countdown". Vorderman and O'Connor both left the show in December 2008.

Final period:

The producers auditioned for Vorderman and O'Connor's successors. On 21 November 2008 it was announced that these would be 22-year-old Oxford graduate Rachel Riley and Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling, respectively.

Vorderman recorded her last Countdown show on 13 November 2008 and it was broadcast on 12 December 2008. Both of her children were in the audience together with many of the previous guests from "Dictionary Corner". After the prize giving at the end of that show, Des O'Connor was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the show's lexicographer Susie Dent and Vorderman received one from Gyles Brandreth. She was too moved to complete her farewells. A special show, One Last Consonant, please Carol, hosted by Giles Brandreth and featuring Vorderman's highs and lows during 26 years of the show, was also filmed and transmitted just before her final Countdown appearance. After leaving Countdown she continued contributing to her column in the British magazine Reveal.

Other TV appearances:

Between 1987 and 1989 Vorderman co-hosted BBC TV series Take Nobody's Word For It with Professor Ian Fells and was chosen to compère the world chess championship match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short in 1993. She also had a long stint presenting on CITV's facts and science show How 2 from 1990-1996. Vorderman has worked as a researcher and producer on many shows, specialising in science and educational programmes and has presented several other television programmes including the BBC's Tomorrow's World, but was dropped after she starred in a commercial for Ariel washing powder. BBC management claimed it was a conflict of interest and dismissed her from the show. Vorderman refused to submit to their demand citing numerous other BBC "stars" who had been allowed to advertise products at that time. Weeks later, the ratings had dropped dramatically and the BBC asked her to return to anchor the programme but she refused.

In 1999, having been offered a lucrative contract, Vorderman moved to ITV, going on to compère numerous television programmes including: The Pride of Britain Awards since year 2000, Stars and their Lives, What Will They Think of Next, Tested to Destruction, and the popular Better Homes, which began in 1999 and spawned a spin-off Better Gardens.

Vorderman was a newspaper reviewer on the last episode of Breakfast with Frost. She was also a guest on Top Gear, as the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car towards the end of Series 3 in 2003. In 2004 Vorderman appeared on the second series of Strictly Come Dancing and was voted off the show on the second show of the series. In 2005, Vorderman beat off the other celebrities in ITV's Gameshow Marathon, winning the series. Vorderman appeared as a guest on Have I Got News for You on 14 May 2004, and hosted the show on 26 May 2006. She presented the Channel 4 entertainment show The Friday Night Project on 11 August 2006.

Between 2005 and 2006 she presented Sky One's quiz show, Carol Vorderman's Big Brain Game over two series that have since been repeated twice on the channel during 2007.

On 4 March 2010 Vorderman appeared on BBC One's Question Time following the announcement from Michael Gove, the UK shadow children's secretary, that she was to head the Conservatives' taskforce on mathematics teaching. Vorderman's appearance was heavily criticised in the media, with show host, David Dimbleby quoted in The Times as saying: “It lasts an hour, this programme...it felt like more to me.” In May and October 2010, she guest anchored ITV1's show Loose Women.

From 22 April until 2 September 2011, Carol regularly guest presented the ITV Breakfast programme Lorraine.

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