Richard Whiteley

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**Richard Whiteley**
Richard Whiteley
Born:	December 28, 1943 Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
Occupation:	Television presenter/journalist
Salary:	400000

John Richard Whiteley, OBE, DL (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English television presenter and journalist.

He was most famous for his 23-year stint as presenter of Countdown, a letters and numbers arrangement game show broadcast daily on Channel 4. An edition of Countdown was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45pm on 2 November 1982, and Whiteley was the first person to be seen on the channel, discounting a programme montage. His trademarks were his jolly, avuncular manner; his fondness for bad puns; and bold wardrobe (particularly jackets and ties).

Thanks to some twenty years worth of nightly installments of Countdown as well as his work on the Yorkshire magazine programme Calendar and various other television projects, at the time of his death Whiteley was believed to have clocked-up more hours on British television screens - and more than 10,000 appearances - than anyone else alive, apart from Carole Hersee, the young girl who appeared on the BBC's iconic Test Card F.^[1]

1 Countdown
2 Memorial
3 Top Gear
4 Notes
5 Biography
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Countdown

Main article: Countdown (game show)

Richard Whiteley with Countdown co-host Carol Vorderman

In 1982, Yorkshire Television started making Calendar Countdown, copying a popular French quiz show format, Des chiffres et des lettres. Whiteley was chosen as host, and continued with the show when Sir Jeremy Isaacs brought it to Channel 4 as the first programme broadcast by the new station. After a successful first broadcast, with an audience of over 3.5 million viewers, the programme lost 3 million viewers for its second show. However, it gradually rebuilt its audience over the following weeks, and it was as the host of Countdown that Whiteley became known to a wider audience in the United Kingdom outside Yorkshire. He was nicknamed "Twice Nightly Whiteley", in reference to the time when he would present the Calendar news programme and Countdown in the same evening, from 1982 to 1995. In a self-deprecating joke, he often altered this to "Once Yearly, Nearly".

As the presenter of Countdown, Whiteley developed a reputation for wearing garish suits and ties, and it was common for his co-presenter, Carol Vorderman, to comment on this. Whiteley also told many anecdotes and puns, which were often met by groans from other presenters and members of the audience. He was granted the honorary title of "Mayor of Wetwang" in 1998, and was known for his amusement at the village's name.

Countdown was not intended to be a long-lasting format, but it quickly became a flagship programme for Channel 4. At the time of Whiteley's death, it still regularly attracted up to four million viewers. The Queen and The Queen Mother are both said to have been fans. He had a cameo appearance role as himself, presenting Countdown, in the film About a Boy. From series 54, broadcast in 2006, the series champion has received the "Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy".

Whiteley made more than 10,000 television appearances over the course of his career, presenting more programmes than anyone else in history. He became a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire in 2003, and was appointed OBE in the June 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to broadcasting.

[edit] Memorial

On 10 November 2005, thousands of friends and admirers gathered at York Minster for a memorial service to celebrate Whiteley's life. Guests included his co-host Carol Vorderman who paid tribute to him, saying, "If he were here he would have welcomed you one-by-one, greeting every one of you by the hand and would have wanted a photograph taken."

He was described by Countdown regular Gyles Brandreth as "...a love god ...but he was the most innocent love god you could imagine. He was like a ray of sunshine, and like sunshine we all warmed to him."

[edit] Top Gear

On 15th June, 2003, Richard appeared on the BBC show, Top Gear. He set the slowest time ever in the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment with the Suzuki Liana, with a time of 2:06.0 around the Top Gear test track.

[edit] Notes

^ According to his Obituary on the BBC website

[edit] Biography

Himoff!: The Memoirs of a TV Matinee Idle by Richard Whiteley (London, Orion Books, 2001) ISBN 0-7528-4345-1.
Richard by Kathryn by Kathryn Apanowicz (London, Virgin Books, 2006) ISBN 1-85227-375-5