26 Facts About Richard Whiteley

John Richard Whiteley was an English presenter and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show Countdown.

Countdown was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45 pm on 2 November 1982, and Whiteley was the first person to be seen on the channel.

Richard Whiteley's trademarks were his jolly, avuncular manner, his fondness for puns, and his bold, sometimes garish wardrobe.

Richard Whiteley was born on 28 December 1943 in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, the first child of Thomas and Margaret Richard Whiteley ; he had a younger sister, Helen, who died in March 1998 aged 49 of cancer.

Richard Whiteley spent his childhood in Baildon: his family owned a long-established textile mill, Thomas Richard Whiteley and Co of Eccleshill, which went out of business in the 1960s.

On leaving Cambridge in July 1965, Richard Whiteley served three years as a trainee at ITN but left to join the newly created Yorkshire Television in July 1968.

Richard Whiteley was bitten by a ferret on an edition of Calendar in 1977.

The clip is often repeated on programmes showing television outtakes and Richard Whiteley once joked that when he died, the headlines would read, "Ferret man dies".

Richard Whiteley was chosen as host and continued with the show when Jeremy Isaacs brought it to Channel 4 as the first programme broadcast by the new station.

Richard Whiteley was nicknamed "Twice Nightly Whiteley", in reference to the time when he would present the Calendar news programme and Countdown in the same evening, from 1982 to 1995.

Richard Whiteley told many anecdotes and puns, which were often met by groans from other presenters and audience members.

Richard Whiteley was granted the honorary title of "Mayor of Wetwang" in 1998 and was known for his amusement at the village's name.

Whiteley had his own chatshow, Richard Whiteley Unbriefed, on the BBC.

Richard Whiteley's guests were unknown to him beforehand, so before he could interview them, he had to guess who they were.

Richard Whiteley was one of the first people to report on the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing, as he was staying in the hotel at the time.

Richard Whiteley was the subject of This Is Your Life in March 1997 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel on the set of the ITV soap opera, Emmerdale.

In 2001, Richard Whiteley stood as rector for University of Dundee.

On 15 June 2003, Richard Whiteley appeared on the BBC show, Top Gear and set the slowest time in the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment with a time of 2:06.

In May 2005, Richard Whiteley was taken into hospital with pneumonia.

Richard Whiteley was buried at St John the Evangelist Church at East Witton.

Richard Whiteley had suffered from asthma since he was very young and had diabetes.

Richard Whiteley's final show was broadcast on 1 July 2005, which was the grand final of the 53rd series.

Richard Whiteley was an organ donor, and it was reported his corneas were donated to help two people.

Three pairs of Richard Whiteley's spectacles were donated by Kathryn Apanowicz, his longtime partner, to optical charity Vision Aid Overseas.

The 288-seat theatre has been built at the school where Richard Whiteley was a pupil and governor and provided a resource for the whole local community.

Richard Whiteley was honoured with the Mayoralty of Wetwang in 1998, became a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire in 2003, and was appointed OBE in the June 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to broadcasting.