Richard Whiteley

TV presenter and veteran journalist Richard Whiteley died in hospital on Sunday 26th June 2005, aged 61. He had recently been admitted to hospital with pneumonia and died tragically just days after receiving heart surgery.


He was best known as the face of Channel 4 quiz show Countdown, a favourite with students throughout the country, but also could count the Queen and George Clooney amongst its fans. Countdown was the first programme shown on Channel 4 when it launched in 1982, and Richard clocked up more hours on television screens than anyone else alive as the presenter.


He was born in 1943 in Bradford, West Yorkshire and went to school in Giggleswick, where he was taught English by another celebrity Russell Harty. He was recruited into the ITN graduate scheme in 1965, having studied English at Christ’s College Cambridge. This saw the start of his career with Yorkshire Television, which he joined as a news reporter. He became a political reporter, and interviewed every Prime Minister since Harold MacMillian, including Margaret Thatcher, whom he was first to interview after the Brighton Bombing in 1984.


Honoured with an OBE in June 2004, he leaves behind partner Kathryn Apanowicz and son James.