50 Facts About Anneka Rice

Anneka Rice began her broadcasting career with the BBC World Service and later moved to children's TV.

Anneka Rice took a sabbatical in 1995 to focus on raising her family and studied at Chelsea College of Art.

Anneka Rice has been involved in numerous charity projects and is an ambassador and patron for several charities.

Anneka Rice was born in Cowbridge, Glamorgan, Wales, and grew up in Surrey.

Rice adopted the name "Anneka" when she joined the British actors' union Equity, as an Annie Rice had already been registered.

Anneka Rice began her broadcasting career as a trainee for the BBC World Service, working on The World Today and Twenty-Four Hours.

Anneka Rice then moved to BBC children's TV, where she worked for Monica Sims and as a production assistant on Lucky Numbers.

Anneka Rice produced Wheelbase, a weekly drive-time radio show, for RTHK and worked as an account executive for PR company Corporate Communications.

Anneka Rice published a book called A Children's Guide to Hong Kong.

Anneka Rice dubbed kung fu films into English for Run Run Shaw late into the night and was a fittings model for Gloria Vanderbilt jeans during her lunch hours.

Anneka Rice then landed her first high-profile job, as the jump-suited "skyrunner" of Channel 4's Treasure Hunt, co-hosted by former BBC newsman Kenneth Kendall.

Anneka Rice was a regular part-time presenter on TVAM with Nick Ross, hosting one week a month, and hosted Sporting Chance on BBC2, inviting celebrities to take up a new sport.

Anneka Rice took part in BBC's Driving Force, teaming up with rally-cross driver Barry Lee to win the otherwise all-male competition in races driving Chieftain tanks, off-road cars, trucks and JCB diggers.

Anneka Rice co-presented Combat for ITV with Emlyn Hughes, pitting regiments of the British forces against each other.

Anneka Rice presented Capital Woman, a weekly women's magazine programme for ITV in the '90s.

Anneka Rice was the host of Passport, which saw contestants taken to Botswana, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Egypt to compete in gruelling local activities to win a glamorous holiday at the end.

Anneka Rice hosted the Children's Royal Variety Show and guested on numerous other shows.

When Rice moved from Treasure Hunt to Challenge Anneka they threw on a jacket and put a paint pot in her hand.

Anneka Rice had a Spitting Image puppet made of her.

Anneka Rice took a sabbatical to bring up her young family in 1995 and enrolled at Chelsea College of Art for two years.

In 2006 Challenge Anneka Rice returned to ITV for two specials, the first broadcast on Boxing Day.

Anneka Rice took part in the ITV programme Extinct, presented by Sir Trevor McDonald and Zoe Ball, which saw Rice and seven other celebrities visit endangered animals in their natural habitat.

Anneka Rice travelled to the North Pole to track polar bears by helicopter and fit them with tracking collars.

Anneka Rice chose the life and career of Jean Rhys as her specialist subject.

Anneka Rice was a presenter on Secrets of the National Trust for Channel 5 in 2016.

Anneka Rice was a contestant for Kirstie Allsopp's Celebrity Craft Masters; and on BBC 1's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with Kevin Clifton and featuring regularly on It Takes 2.

Anneka Rice was a guest on Channel 4's Bake Off, An Extra Slice and Children in Need 2019.

Anneka Rice was a regular guest on Loose Ends and presented Inside the Life Drawing Class, a documentary for Radio 4 about life drawing.

Anneka Rice was asked by Lynda Snell to renovate the Ambridge Village Hall in the early 1990s, joining Princess Margaret as the only other person to play themselves.

Anneka Rice returned to Ambridge again to re-open it in 2016 after Lynda's campaign to redecorate it.

Anneka Rice has presented specials for Friday Night is Music Night including one celebrating the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Anneka Rice presented the Arts Show, taking over from Jonathan Ross, often taking it to the Edinburgh Festival.

Anneka Rice was the regular Radio 2 host for the Olivier Awards and the Evening Standard Awards.

Anneka Rice takes part in Radio 2's yearly Festival in a Day in Hyde Park.

Anneka Rice was involved with the 1999 Cricket World Cup, promoting the one-day event as a new way for people, especially women, to get into cricket.

Anneka Rice had a range of sport clothes and jumpsuits in the 80s produced in collaboration with the clothing chain, DASH.

Anneka Rice presented the Adventure Series, making films about learning to scuba-dive, ski and sail, which were accompanied by books.

Anneka Rice is part of Maggi Hambling's Master Class and regularly exhibits her work.

Anneka Rice was the weekend TV critic for the Mail on Sunday in the mid-2000s and has been a travel writer for them from 2004.

Anneka Rice had a column for The Radio Times in 2019 and now writes an occasional column for The Independent.

Anneka Rice returned to Siret in 2013 to write about the fate of the orphans from the original Challenge Anneka programme.

Anneka Rice performed in panto at the Manchester Palace, the Theatre Royal Brighton, The Arts Theatre Cambridge and the Richmond Theatre during the 80s, playing principal boy.

Anneka Rice acted in 3 tours of The Vagina Monologues in 2005 and 2006.

Anneka Rice was part of The Great Western Choir and sang at the Big Chill Festival in 2009.

Anneka Rice writes and performs stand-up comedy at the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green.

Anneka Rice had a Chelsea Garden in 2017, designed alongside Sarah Raven and Tricia Guild, as part of a BBC parade of gardens.

Anneka Rice is an ambassador and patron of several charities including FISH, Horatio's Garden, Riding for the Disabled and Marie Curie.

Anneka Rice is involved with many of her old Challenge projects.

Anneka Rice married theatre boss Nick Allott in 1988, with whom she has two sons, Thomas Alexander D, born in 1989 and Joshua James, born in 1990.

Anneka Rice had another son with TV executive Tom Gutteridge in 1997.