Quote:

 

Television presenter and journalist Richard Whiteley has died just days after undergoing heart surgery.
The host of Channel 4's daytime game show Countdown for 23 years, Whiteley died in Leeds General Infirmary.

The 61-year-old, from Ilkley, West Yorkshire, fell ill with pneumonia in May and was rushed to hospital. He had been said to be recovering slowly.

Whiteley, who had fronted the show with Carol Vorderman since 1982, is still on screen as the show is pre-recorded.

Real shock

Vorderman's agent, John Miles, said the pair were friends as well as colleagues, and she is devastated by the death.

  I'm shocked. It's terrible news

Terry Wogan


Obituary: Richard Whiteley

He said: "He'd had an operation, but this really is a shock. He'd seemed to be OK.

"Carol was told about his death by a member of his family."

Before presenting Countdown, Whiteley had been a familiar face on Yorkshire Television since the late 1960s.

Famous moments from his TV career included an on-screen attack by a ferret, and being broadcast in negative - with white hair and a black face.


Whiteley received an OBE last year

But he was also an incisive political reporter who was the first journalist to interview then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, after the Brighton bombing in 1984.

Terry Wogan, fellow presenter and friend of Whiteley, said he was too upset to speak fully.

"I'm shocked. It's terrible new," the Radio 2 presenter said.

Last November Whiteley was honoured with an OBE from the Queen, who is said to be a Countdown fan, as was the late Queen Mother.

He leaves behind a partner of 11 years, Kathryn Apanowicz, who featured in Eastenders during the 1980s.

Jay

June 27, 2005 06:45 PM

I saw Carol's interview on Richard & Judy today (I just happend to flick over to C4 in time :ph34r:), such a shame, poor woman's devasted. :'( Haven't heard much about his wife though, I wonder if she's doing her best to keep out of the press. Couldn't blame her. :/