
Richard Whiteley
Acting
Biography
John Richard Whiteley OBE DL (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter, and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show Countdown. Countdown was the launch program for Channel 4 at 4:45 pm on 2 November 1982, and Whiteley was the first person to be seen on the channel (not counting a program montage). Despite his intelligence, Whiteley enjoyed projecting the image of an absent-minded eccentric. His trademarks were his jolly, avuncular manner, his fondness for puns, and his bold, sometimes garish wardrobe. Thanks to over twenty years' worth of nightly installments of Countdown as well as his work on the Yorkshire magazine program Calendar and various other television projects, at the time of his death Whiteley was believed to have clocked 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 Test Card F.
Known For

This fast-paced and stunt-filled motor show tests whether cars, both mundane and extraordinary, live up to their manufacturers' claims. The long-running show travels to locations around the world, performing extreme stunts and challenges to see what the featured cars are capable of doing. The current hosts are Paddy Mcguinness, Chris Harris and Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff.
Top Gear

Hilarious, totally-irreverent, near-slanderous political quiz show, based mainly on news stories from the last week or so, that leaves no party, personality or action unscathed in pursuit of laughs.
Have I Got News for You

The Paul O'Grady Show is a British comedy chat show hosted by Birkenhead-born comedian Paul O'Grady. The format was originally devised by Granada Television and was broadcast on ITV before moving to Channel 4, where the show was produced by Olga TV. The programme is a teatime chat show consisting of a mixture of celebrity guests, comic stunts, musical performances, and occasionally viewer competitions.
The Paul O'Grady Show

A gameshow hosted by Ant and Dec filled with stunts, sketches, and special guest appearances.
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway

Shooting Stars is a British television comedy panel game broadcast on BBC Two as a pilot in 1993, then as 3 full series from 1995 to 1997, then on BBC Choice from January to December 2002 with 2 series before returning to BBC Two for another 3 series from 2008 until its cancellation in 2011. Created and hosted by double-act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, it uses the panel show format but with the comedians' often slapstick, surreal and anarchic humour does not rely on rules in order to function, with the pair apparently ignoring existing rules or inventing new ones as and when the mood takes them.
Shooting Stars
The Terry and Gaby Show was a daytime television show broadcast on Five on weekday mornings between June 2003 and April 2004, produced by Chris Evans' company UMTV. It was hosted by Terry Wogan and Gaby Roslin. The opening titles featured Gaby dressed up like a movie star driven to the studio in a limo and walking on red carpet to the door. Meanwhile Terry, carrying a briefcase, rode a rickety old bicycle across London and parked it outside the back door before quietly entering the building through said back door. The show was not well known for the guests who appeared on it, but rather for its many bloopers or double entendres
The Terry and Gaby Show

Noel's House Party is a BBC television light entertainment show hosted by Noel Edmonds that was broadcast live on Saturday evenings throughout the 1990s. It was set in a large house in the fictional village of Crinkley Bottom, leading to much innuendo. The show was broadcast during the autumn-spring season. It was the successor show to Noel's Saturday Roadshow, and carried over some of its regular features such as the Gunge Tank, the Gotcha Oscar and Wait 'Till I Get You Home. In 2010, Noel's House Party was voted the best Saturday night TV show of all time. The show had many regular guests posing as fictional villagers, including Frank Thornton and Vicki Michelle. The show gave birth to Mr. Blobby in the Gotcha segment. The character became well known, ruining the premise of the segment, but Blobby still made appearances. There was also a contrived rivalry between Noel and Tony Blackburn. In addition, many episodes featured one-off guest stars, including Michael Crawford as Frank Spencer, who came in to find the whole audience dressed as Frank after Fantastic Stuart Henderson from Troon had performed as Frank singing The Beatles song "I Saw Her Standing There", and Ken Dodd in a highwayman's outfit - 'Going cheap at the Maxwell sale' - as Noel's long lost 'twin', Berasent.
Noel's House Party

The clock is ticking as contestants compete in games of lexical dexterity and numerical agility.
Countdown
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It's Only TV But I Like It
Spoof chat show that sees divorced character Keith Barret explore what makes a successful relationship, with a celebrity guest couple featured on each episode.
The Keith Barret Show

This programme is the original version of the popular Channel 4 words and numbers show, Countdown Countdown.Yorkshire Television purchased the format and commissioned a series of eight shows under the title Calendar Countdown, which were to be a spin-off of the regional news programme Calendar. As the presenter of Calendar, Richard Whiteley was the natural choice to present Calendar Countdown his daily appearances on both shows earned him the nickname "Twice Nightly."
Calendar Countdown
Calendar is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Yorkshire at its studios in Leeds, serving Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of the North Midlands and north western Norfolk areas of England. District reporters and camera crews are based at newsrooms in Hull, Lincoln and Sheffield.
Calendar

It was the most notorious terrorist incident since the Gunpowder Plot - an attempt by the IRA to wipe out the entire UK government on 12 October 1984 as it convened on the south coast. Award-winning journalist Peter Taylor remembers the carnage as special effects and emotional testimony from survivors combine in a tense reconstruction. Followed by The Hunt for the Bomber.
The Brighton Bomb

Made by Yorkshire Television, this programme presented by Richard Whiteley is a look at Christmas celebrations in the village of Haworth in West Yorkshire, the home of the Bronte sisters. The special, first broadcast 18th December, 1980, includes footage of children waving from window of steam train in Haworth Railway Station, Haworth High Street with choir singing carols outside church, and Santa on a train talking to local children.