Richard Whiteley
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John Richard Whiteley (born December 28, 1943 in Bradford, West Yorkshire; educated at Giggleswick School, North Yorkshire and Christ's College, Cambridge) is a British television presenter and journalist. He is most famous for presenting Countdown, a letters and numbers game show on Channel 4.
The suits and ties he wears for Countdown have a reputation for their garishness, and it is fairly frequent for his co-presenter, Carol Vorderman, to comment on this. Whiteley also tells many anecdotes and puns, which are often met by groans from other presenters and members of the audience. He has a cameo role as himself in the movie About a Boy.
He is nicknamed Twice Nightly Whiteley, in reference to the time when he would present Yorkshire Television's Calendar News and the Countdown programme in the same evening. In a self-referential joke, he often alters this to Once Yearly, Nearly.
Whiteley has moderate international fame from a much-used clip of him being bitten by a ferret in a TV interview. He was also one of the first journalists at the scene of the 1984 Brighton bombing, having been in Brighton's Grand Hotel at the time of the explosion.
He has held the honorary title of Mayor of Wetwang.
He has presented the most TV shows in history but has never received an award. Whiteley was awarded an OBE in June 2004.
His partner is actress Kathryn Apanowicz.
In May 2005 he was admitted to the intensive care unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary suffering from a serious case of pneumonia.
References
- Whiteley gets an OBE in honours (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/3799603.stm)
- TV's Whiteley stable in hospital (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4531611.stm)