Carol Vorderman

Carol Jean Vorderman... yeah i probably would
Born	(1960-12-24) 24 December 1960 Bedford, England
Occupation	television presenter
Spouse	Chris Mather 1985-1986 Patrick King 1990-2000
Children	Katherine (Katie) King Cameron King
Parent(s)	Tony Vorderman Edwina J. Davies

Carol Jean Vorderman MBE (born 24 December 1960, Bedford), is a UK television personality best known for being a long-standing co-presenter of Channel 4 game show Countdown. She attended Blessed Edward Jones High School, Rhyl, Wales before graduating from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge with a third class degree in Engineering.

Biography

Vorderman was born in 1960 to a Dutch father and Welsh mother. Her parents broke up three weeks after her birth in Bedford and her mother took the family back to her home town of Prestatyn, North Wales, where Vorderman and siblings grew up in a single parent household. Their mother remarried in 1970 to an Italian national. Vorderman attended the Roman Catholic comprehensive Blessed Edward Jones High School and refused to meet or have contact with estranged father until January 2002 when (according to the Daily Mail) she relented and the two were reconciled. She did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007, as part of the BBC genealogical programme Who Do You Think You Are?. It was only at this point that she discovered that her father had been an active member of the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation. He died whilst the programme was being filmed.

In 1978, she was accepted by Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to read Engineering. She was a member of the "Nines Club" at Cambridge, so named because members achieve a third in each of their three years of study (3+3+3=9). Her Countdown co-star Richard Whiteley coincidentally achieved the same class of degree at the same university.

After graduation, her mother's second marriage had broken down, and the family were back in financial difficulties. Vorderman found work as a graduate management trainee in Leeds, and was briefly a backing singer in the Leeds-based pop group Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits, fronted by radio DJ Liz Kershaw during the early 1980s. They recorded songs such as a version of The Undertones' hit Teenage Kicks.

Career

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. Thus, at the age of 21, Vorderman made her name on Countdown with Richard Whiteley from the show's inception in 1982 until Whiteley's death in June 2005. In October 2005, Desmond Lynam replaced Whiteley and co-hosted with Vorderman. In January 2007 Des O'Connor replaced Lynam and Vorderman continues 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 £5 million per year.

Between 1987 and 1989 she co-hosted the 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. Vorderman has worked as a researcher and producer on many shows, specialising in science and educational programmes, and went on to present numerous 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. Carol refused to submit to their demand citing numerous other BBC 'stars' who were allowed to advertise products at that time, including Gary Rhodes the BBC chef advertising Tate and Lyle sugar. 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 present 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, How 2 on CITV and the popular Better Homes, which began in 1999 and spawned a spin-off Better Gardens. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in June 2000 for "services to broadcasting".

Vorderman was a newspaper reviewer on the last episode of Breakfast with Frost. 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.

Recently Vorderman has expanded her business empire 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. She has also appeared in a commercial for "Farmfoods" in the UK, advertising "Chippy Chips" for £1 and "Cadbury's Cones" for 75p.

Writing career

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. She is also a self-described sudoku addict since April 2005 when she wrestled a book of the puzzles from her 12-year-old daughter Katie during a holiday in the Caribbean. Vorderman has written numerous books of sudoku puzzles with help on how to tackle them. She has sold millions of sudoku books worldwide, with almost one million being sold in less than a year in the UK alone.

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.

Personal life

Vorderman was first married in 1985 at age 24 to Chris Mather, a Royal Navy officer and former rugby league international player, but the marriage only lasted twelve months. Vorderman's second marriage was to management consultant Patrick King in 1990 at age 29. With King she had two children, Katie and Cameron. She separated from King in 2000.

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

Charity work

Vorderman is the patron of the Cleft Lip and Palate Association (CLAPA) (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 Carol won £60,000 for CLAPA.

Controversies

Vorderman was criticised in the British press for "growing old disgracefully" after appearing in revealing dresses at several awards shows and other media events. She occasionally tops polls for "Most Sexy" and "Most Popular". Her most recent accolade of this type was the twice-married and divorced celeb being voted "The Woman Most British Men Want to Marry" by the largest ever online poll for www.match.com. In 2003, Vorderman commented harshly on fashion gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, after they had called her an "overdone Eighties nightmare" and placed her in their list of the 20 worst-dressed celebrities. In 2004 she appeared in an erotic photoshoot for GQ magazine: in consequence, sales of the magazine rose by 24%. Recent images appear to show that she has had extensive cosmetic dentistry.

Vorderman has also been criticised in the press and by charities for her series of adverts to promote personal loans. Carol has appeared in several adverts over a number of years promoting consolidated loans for lender Firstplus leading to criticism that her profile may lead people who are unsuitable for such loans to consider them. This resulted in an on-line petition from financial journalist Martin Lewis, who felt that Vorderman was seen by the general public as a credible figure because of her mathematical skill demonstrated in TV programmes such as Countdown. The petition was officially supported by the UK's two largest debt charities, Credit Action and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. The petition had over 80,000 signatures and newspapers reported that she threatened legal action to try to stop it.

Videos and writing

• How Mathematics Works, 1996
• Carol Vorderman's Guide to the Internet (written with Rob Young), 1998
• Carol Vorderman's Guide to Maths
• Carol Vorderman's Pop Music Times Tables, 1991
• Carol Vorderman's Detox Diet
• Carol Vorderman's How To Do Sudoku, 2005
• Carol Vorderman's Massive Book Of Sudoku, 2005

External links

• Carol Vorderman at IMDb

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