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Richard Whiteley

From Countdown
Revision as of 18:20, 12 December 2008 by Mglovesfun (talk | contribs) (IMDB)
The late Richard "Twice Nightly" Whiteley.

John Richard Whiteley, known on Countdown as Richard Whiteley (28 December 1943 - 26 June 2005) was the presenter of Countdown from its inception in 1982 until his death in 2005. He was the first face on Channel 4 and, with over 10,000 television appearances, he accumulated more broadcast hours than anyone else in the history in British television. He became an OBE in 2004.

Five more episodes, forming the final games of Series 53, had been filmed before his death. Countdown was not broadcast on the 27th, but the rest of the episodes were shown later that week. His last episode saw John Mayhew become series champion.

He appeared as a contestant only once - in a Christmas special against Carol Vorderman.

Outside of Countdown, Richard started his television career as a newsreader and from 1982 to 1995, performed both as the Contdown host and as a Calendar Yorkshire TV newsreader. He gave up newsreading in 1995. Due to his links with Countdown, he appeared on Star Spell in 2005, a programme that tested celebrities on spelling, which he won. A biography of his life, Richard Whiteley: Television Man was released in 2003.

See also