Carol Vorderman appeared on the show with Richard Whiteley from 1982 until his death in 2005, and subsequently with Des Lynam and Des O'Connor, before leaving in 2008.
55 Facts About Carol Vorderman
2.
Carol Vorderman was a presenter of ITV's Loose Women from 2011 until 2014.
3.
Carol Vorderman was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, the youngest of three children of Dutch father, Anton Carol Vorderman, and a Welsh mother, Edwina Jean Davies.
4.
Carol Vorderman's parents separated three weeks after her birth, and her mother took the family back to her home town of Prestatyn, Denbighshire, North Wales, where Vorderman and her siblings, Anton and Trixie, grew up in a one-parent household.
5.
Carol Vorderman did not see her father again until she was 42.
6.
Carol Vorderman's father remarried; his wife died in the early 1990s.
7.
Carol Vorderman was educated at Blessed Edward Jones Catholic High School in nearby Rhyl.
8.
Carol Vorderman left with a third-class degree, a result which she has described as having been "disappointing".
9.
Carol Vorderman did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007.
10.
Carol Vorderman initially found employment as a junior civil engineer at Dinorwig Power Station in Llanberis, Wales, and later as a graduate management trainee in Leeds.
11.
Carol Vorderman's mother noticed an advertisement in The Yorkshire Post asking for "a woman with good mathematical skills" to appear as co-host on a quiz show for the fledgling fourth terrestrial channel.
12.
Carol Vorderman submitted an application on behalf of her daughter, then aged 21.
13.
Carol Vorderman appeared on Countdown from the show's inception in 1982 until 2008.
14.
However, over the following years, the team was pared down, and Carol Vorderman began handling tiles for both the letters and numbers games.
15.
Carol Vorderman thus became a new type of game show hostess, revealing her intellectual ability by carrying out fast and accurate arithmetic calculations during the numbers game to reach an exact solution if neither contestant was able to do so.
16.
Carol Vorderman declined, and a search for a new presenter began while the show went into a four-month hiatus.
17.
In January 2007 Des O'Connor replaced Lynam; Carol Vorderman continued to co-host the show.
18.
On 25 July 2008, after 26 unbroken years with the show, it was announced that Carol Vorderman was stepping down from Countdown.
19.
Carol Vorderman had considered leaving the show when the show's original host Richard Whiteley died in 2005, but remained on the show when Lynam took over, and until 2008 when his eventual replacement O'Connor announced he was to step down as the show's host.
20.
Carol Vorderman recorded her last Countdown show on 13 November 2008 which was broadcast on 12 December 2008.
21.
Adams, Langsford and Andrea McLean hosted the show in rotation, with Carol Vorderman remaining as an occasional presenter on the programme, usually presenting one episode a fortnight.
22.
On 14 July 2014, Carol Vorderman announced her departure as a presenter on Loose Women.
23.
Carol Vorderman is the presenter of the annual Pride of Britain Awards, which are televised by ITV.
24.
Carol Vorderman began hosting the awards when they were introduced in 1999.
25.
In 2004, Carol Vorderman took part in the second series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancer Paul Killick.
26.
Carol Vorderman was the second celebrity to be eliminated from the show.
27.
Carol Vorderman guest presented Have I Got News for You in 2004 and 2006 and presented an episode of The Sunday Night Project.
28.
Carol Vorderman presented the ITV Food show Food Glorious Food in 2013.
29.
In March 2013, Carol Vorderman recorded an ITV gameshow pilot called Revolution.
30.
In 2016, Carol Vorderman finished in eighth place in the sixteenth series of I'm a Celebrity.
31.
On 7 April 2020, Carol Vorderman appeared on The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off and won.
32.
Broadcast on S4C on 19 April 2020, Carol Vorderman took part in the show and, with the help of Owain Wyn Evans, learned Welsh and completed various challenges in the language.
33.
Carol Vorderman has had newspaper columns in The Daily Telegraph, and in the Daily Mirror on Internet topics.
34.
Carol Vorderman expanded her business ventures, launching a number of Sudoku products.
35.
Carol Vorderman saw the company as a natural extension of her own experiences in buying and selling properties over recent years and was aiming at a target market of "families aged 35 plus".
36.
On 2 March 2010, Carol Vorderman publicly launched her new commercial venture of an online mathematics coaching system for 4- to 12-year-old children under the name of the MathsFactor.
37.
Carol Vorderman had maintained a long-standing endorsement of the debt consolidation company FirstPlus, an association that ceased in 2007.
38.
In 2006, the charity Credit Action attempted to highlight the potential dangers of debt consolidation, calling on Carol Vorderman to stop giving First Plus credibility.
39.
Carol Vorderman's agent responded that Vorderman had no intention of curtailing the contract for a service which was perfectly legal and offered by an excellent company.
40.
When interviewed by The Daily Telegraph in November 2008 Carol Vorderman herself responded with:.
41.
On 2 June 2012, Carol Vorderman named a Class 91 "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight" at the National Railway Museum as part of the Railfest 2012 Event.
42.
On 20 November 2014, Carol Vorderman accepted the appointment of ambassador to the Royal Air Force Air Cadets.
43.
Carol Vorderman has taken up learning the Welsh language and has been using the Say Something in Welsh online course.
44.
In 2022 Carol Vorderman was praised by The Herald as the "real leader of the opposition" after criticising members of the government for exploiting their positions for personal gain.
45.
Carol Vorderman was first married in 1985 at age 24 to Christopher Mather, a Royal Navy officer, but the marriage lasted only twelve months.
46.
Carol Vorderman lived with or very near to her mother all her life, until her mother's death in 2017.
47.
Carol Vorderman was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for "services to broadcasting" in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2000.
48.
Carol Vorderman has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University in North Wales and, in 2000, received an Honorary Degree from the University of Bath.
49.
Carol Vorderman was voted UK Female Rear of the Year in 2011.
50.
In November 2021, Carol Vorderman was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Institution of Engineering and Technology in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the engineering profession.
51.
Carol Vorderman has been critical of the Labour Party's education policies.
52.
Carol Vorderman is a patron of the Cleft Lip and Palate Association.
53.
Carol Vorderman appeared in a short film entitled 'Run for the future' which promotes prostate cancer awareness and a charity run held every year on the Bristol Downs to raise funds for the BUI prostate appeal.
54.
Carol Vorderman has taken part in the Great North Run on several occasions to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
55.
Carol Vorderman is an active supporter and advocate of the RAF Association charity, appearing at airshows and taking part in other fundraising events.