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==Early career==
==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]]'' (coincidentally, one of the tracks Vorderman had to identify during the "intros round" when she appeared on ''[[Never Mind the Buzzcocks]]'' in December 2009).<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1311257/Whos-girl-Dawn-Chorus-The-Blue-Tits-Carol-Vorderman-days-big-hair-rage.html Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits]</ref> During 1984/85 she made regular appearances on the [[Peter Levy (presenter)|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.
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).<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1311257/Whos-girl-Dawn-Chorus-The-Blue-Tits-Carol-Vorderman-days-big-hair-rage.html Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits]</ref> During 1984/85 she made regular appearances on the [[Peter Levy (presenter)|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==
==Television career==

Revision as of 04:49, 8 August 2011

Carol Vorderman
Carol Vorderman in July 2011
Born
Carol Jean Vorderman

(1960-12-24) 24 December 1960 (age 63)
Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, UK
NationalityBritish
OccupationBroadcaster
Years active1982–present
Known forCo-presenting: Countdown (1982–2008)
Guest presenting: Have I Got News For You (2006)
Spouse(s)Christopher Mather
(1985–1986; divorced)
Patrick King
(1990–2000; divorced)
ChildrenKatie and Cameron King
Parent(s)Tony Vorderman (deceased)
Edwina J. Davies

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.

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.[1][2] In 1970 their mother married Armido Rizzi, a native of Italy.[3]

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.

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.[4] Her great-grandfather Adolphe Vorderman played a key role in the discovery of vitamins.[5]

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).[6] 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

Countdown

1982 – June 2005

Vorderman'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.[citation needed]

After Richard Whiteley

In 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.[7]

On 25 July 2008, after her 26 unbroken years with the show it was announced that Vorderman was stepping down from Countdown.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] Vorderman later said that she had "put on a stone from the stress of being 'sacked' from Countdown".[9] Vorderman and O'Connor both left the show in December 2008.[11]

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.[12]

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.[13] 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[14] and was chosen to compère the world chess championship match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short in 1993.[15] 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,[16] 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,[17] Stars and their Lives, What Will They Think of Next, Tested to Destruction, and the popular Better Homes,[18] 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.[19] 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.[20]

On 4 March 2010 Vorderman appeared on BBC One's Question Time[21] following the announcement from Michael Gove, the UK shadow children's secretary, that she was to head the Conservatives' taskforce on mathematics teaching.[22] 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.”[23] In May and October 2010, she guest anchored ITV1's show Loose Women.

Since April 2011, Carol has regularly guest hosted the ITV1 weekday magazine show Lorraine, most recently in June 2011.[24]

Outside television

Journalism

Vorderman has had newspaper columns in The Daily Telegraph, and in the Daily Mirror on Internet topics. She has written books on Detox diets. Her No 1 Bestseller was Detox For Life, produced in collaboration with Ko Chohan and Anita Bean and published by Virgin Books, which sold over a million copies.

A large number of school textbooks have been published under her name, chiefly by Dorling Kindersley in series such as English Made Easy, Maths Made Easy, Science Made Easy and How to Pass National Curriculum Maths.

Commercial ventures

Vorderman also expanded her business ventures launching a number of sudoku products. In March 2007 she launched a brain training game called Carol Vorderman's Mind Aerobics together with BSkyB. Also in 2007, she released a video game for PlayStation 2 in the United States entitled Carol Vorderman's Sudoku.

In the autumn of 2008, soon after she completed her final regular Countdown show, Vorderman announced a new commercial venture in her own property development and sales company that would specialise in overseas holiday and retirement homes within the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Spain. Called Carol Vorderman's Overseas Homes Ltd she saw the company as a natural extension of her own experiences in buying and selling properties over recent years and was aiming at a target market of "families aged 35 plus".[25] However, because of the international financial downturn the venture proved short-lived and during March 2009 Vorderman publicly withdrew her name from the firm, which suspended trading soon after.[26]

On 2 March 2010, Vorderman publicly launched her new commercial venture of an online mathematics coaching system for 4 - 12 year old children under the name of the MathsFactor.[27]

Endorsement controversy

Vorderman had maintained a long-standing endorsement of the debt consolidation company First Plus, an association that ceased in 2007. In 2006, the charity Credit Action attempted to highlight the potential dangers of debt consolidation, calling on Vorderman to stop giving First Plus credibility. Her agent responded that Vorderman had no intention of curtailing the contract for a service which was perfectly legal and offered by an excellent company.[8] When quizzed by The Daily Telegraph in November 2008 Vorderman herself responded crisply with:

"The secured loans market was criticised and it was pertinent to pick me out, because I was a face. I advertised FirstPlus for 10 years. We had something like £1.5billion out on loan and until a matter of months ago there were no repossessions. When that programme [BBC's Real Story] was made, [there were] no repossessions. Did they say that? Funnily enough, no."[25]

Other activities

On 18 September 2010 Vorderman, a Catholic, co-presented events prior to the Papal Vigil in Hyde Park,[28] alongside author Frank Cottrell Boyce.[29][30]

Personal life

Vorderman was first married in 1985[31] at age 24 to Christopher Mather, a Royal Navy officer and former rugby league international player, but the marriage lasted only twelve months. Her second marriage was to management consultant Patrick King in 1990 at age 29.[32] Vorderman had two children, Katie (b.1991) and Cameron (b.1997), with King, but they separated in 2000.[citation needed]

After meeting at a Christmas party in 1999, Vorderman and Daily Mail columnist and PR consultant Des Kelly lived together in London from 2001, also using their other house in Glandore, West Cork, Ireland. After five years together, Vorderman and Kelly separated in December 2006, publicly announcing the amicable split in January 2007,[33] but are now back together in Bristol according to reports.[34][35]

Honours and awards

Vorderman was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in June 2000 for "services to broadcasting" in the Birthday Honours List.[36] She was elected as an honorary Fellow of Bangor University in North Wales.[37]

Vorderman was voted UK Female Rear of the Year in 2011.[38]

Political activity

There have been persistent rumours that she is a supporter of the UK Conservative Party[39] though she has not confirmed this. In addition, she is a frequent critic of the Labour Party's education policies.[40] She agreed to head a taskforce established by the Conservative Party to look at the teaching of mathematics. David Cameron stated "Carol has got a passion for maths. We have all seen that on Countdown with her brilliant mental arithmetic and she is going to lead this task force so we can get the answers right” in referral to the plan.[41]

Charity work

Vorderman presenting an RAF Wings Appeal show in July 2011

Vorderman is a patron of PC David Rathband's Blue Lamp Foundation [42] and the Cleft Lip and Palate Association (CLAPA) [43] (her older brother, Anton, was born with a cleft lip and palate). In 2005 she was the winner of Ant and Dec’s Gameshow Marathon. As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations ITV ran a series of the nation’s favourite game shows featuring celebrities competing to become Gameshow Marathon winner and raise money for the charity of their choice. As series winner Vorderman won £60,000 for CLAPA.[44]

Vorderman appeared in a short film promoting 'Run for the future' which promotes Prostate Cancer awareness and a charity run held every year on the Bristol Downs to raise funds for the BUI prostate appeal.[45] She has also taken part in the Great North Run on several occasions to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. This was in memory of Richard Whiteley's sister Helen, who died of the disease.[46]

Vorderman is an active supporter and advocate of the RAF Wings Appeal charity, appearing at airshows and taking part in other fundraising events.[47][48]

Vorderman participated in Comic Relief Does The Apprentice (BBC1) as part of the winning ladies team in March 2009 and appeared on "The Apprentice - You're Fired!" (BBC2) on 25 March 2009. She also appeared as a guest in November 2010.

Videos and published writings

  • Carol Vorderman's Pop Music Times Tables, 1991
  • Carol Vorderman's How to Write a Perfect Letter, 1991
  • How Mathematics Works, 1996
  • Carol Vorderman's Guide to the Internet (written with Rob Young), 1998
  • Carol Vorderman's How To Do Sudoku, 2005
  • Carol Vorderman's Massive Book Of Sudoku, 2005
  • Eat Yourself Clever, 2008
  • Carol Vorderman's Guide to Maths
  • Carol Vorderman's Detox Diet
Preceded by
None
 Co-host of Countdown
1982-2008 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ BBC TV[clarification needed]
  2. ^ Cable, Amanda (29 November 2008). "My Countdown meltdown: Carol Vorderman reveals the full toll of being forced out by Channel 4". Mail Online.
  3. ^ GRO Register of Marriages: SEP 1970 8a 1666 ST ASAPH - Armido G. Rizzi=Edwina J. Vorderman
  4. ^ BBC TV: Who Do You Think You Are? - broadcast 27 September 2007
  5. ^ "Who Do You Think You Are? - Carol Vorderman". BBC One. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  6. ^ Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits
  7. ^ "Richest women in showbiz". Mail Online. 5 March 2004.
  8. ^ a b Zoe Williams (30 July 2008). "Your number is up, Carol". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
  9. ^ a b Liz Thomas Carol Vorderman: "I put on a STONE from the stress of being sacked from Countdown", Mail Online, 23 September 2008
  10. ^ "Carol Vorderman quits Countdown". BBC News. 25 July 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  11. ^ Vorderman and O'Connor's final show
  12. ^ Liz Thomas (21 November 2008). "Oxford graduate, 22, replaces Carol Vorderman as new look Countdown team is unveiled". Mail Online. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  13. ^ "Carol Vorderman ends Countdown career". Telegraph. 13 November 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  14. ^ Take nobody's word for it
  15. ^ Chess championship
  16. ^ Tomorrow's World
  17. ^ Pride of Britain
  18. ^ Other appearances
  19. ^ Top Gear
  20. ^ "Big Brain Game". UKGameshows. 22 May 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  21. ^ Question Time
  22. ^ Task Force
  23. ^ Vorderman’s gaffes may prove to be her final countdown Times Online, 6 March 2010
  24. ^ Lorraine
  25. ^ a b McNeill, Phil (5 February 2008). "Property overseas: Would you buy a villa from Carol Vorderman". Telegraph. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  26. ^ Daniel Boffey (16 March 2009). "Vorderman quits property firm". Mail Online. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  27. ^ Liz Thomas (2 March 2010). "The two faces of Carol Vorderman: From schoolteacher on breakfast television to glamour puss on Loose Women". Mail Online. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  28. ^ "Carol Vorderman overjoyed as she lands job to host Pope event in Hyde Park", Daily Mirror, 13 September 2010
  29. ^ "Carol Vorderman's countdown to the Pope's visit", The Daily Telegraph, 6 August 2010
  30. ^ "Papal visit: Pope expresses his 'deep sorrow' for abuse", BBC News, 18 September 2010
  31. ^ GRO Register of Marriages: DEC 1985 5 613 LEEDS - Christopher Mather=Carol J Voderman [sic]
  32. ^ GRO Register of Marriages: MAY 1990 20 1160 RINGWOOD and FORDINGBRIDGE - Patrick J. King=Carol J Vorderman
  33. ^ "Vorderman splits from her partner". BBC News. 25 January 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  34. ^ Saturday, 13 October 2007, 10:33 BST (13 October 2007). "Carol Vorderman reunites with ex". Digital Spy. Retrieved 8 August 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  35. ^ Denyer, Lucy (4 November 2007). "Moving on Carol Vorderman". Times Online. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  36. ^ Receives MBE in 2000
  37. ^ Bangor University Fellow
  38. ^ Rear of the Year 2011
  39. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa (14 February 2010). "Parties in pre-election battle to sign up stars". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  40. ^ Midgley, Neil (6 March 2009). "Carol Vorderman blasts Labour "lies" on maths teaching". Telegraph. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  41. ^ Sugden, Joanna (2 February 2009). "Carol Vorderman to help Tories with sums". Times Online. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  42. ^ Patron of PC David Rathband's Blue Lamp Foundation
  43. ^ Patron of CLAPA
  44. ^ Won £60,000 for CLAPA
  45. ^ Prostate cancer charity run
  46. ^ Great North Run
  47. ^ Wings appeal
  48. ^ RAF Waddington airshow
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