Although Whiteley made a slow recovery from his illness he died on 26 June 2005 after a failed operation to correct a problem with his heart that had been detected. Whiteley fell ill with septicaemia in 2005, and as a result he was no longer able to record Countdown. Gradually the tasks performed by the extra presenters were taken over by Carol Vorderman, whose role within the show essentially became that of co-presenter. Vorderman, a Cambridge graduate and member of Mensa, was appointed as one of the numbers experts after responding to an advertisement in a national newspaper which asked for a young woman who would like to become a game show hostess unlike almost any other game show hostess of the time, however, the advertisement also made it clear that the applicants' appearance would be less important than their being a talented mathematician. When Countdown was commissioned for Channel 4 the number of hostesses expanded further: Cathy Hytner and Beverley Isherwood selected the letters and numbers tiles respectively, and calculations in the numbers rounds were checked by Linda Barrett or Carol Vorderman.
COUNTDOWN GAME SERIES
Jeff Stelling presented the series from 2009 to 2011Ĭalendar Countdown was presented by Richard Whiteley, with Cathy Hytner and Denise McFarland-Cruickshanks managing the numbers and letters rounds respectively. These shows were only broadcast in the Yorkshire area. 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". 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 their regional news programme Calendar.
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The format was brought to Britain by Marcel Stellman, a Belgian record executive, who had watched the French show and believed it could be popular overseas.
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It is produced by ITV Studios and broadcast on Channel 4. MediaCityUK, Salford Quays, Greater Manchester (2013–)Ĭountdown is a British game show involving word and number puzzles.