Carol Jean Vorderman (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh broadcaster, media personality, and writer. Her media career began when she joined the Channel 4 game show Countdown, appearing with Richard Whiteley from 1982 until his death in 2005, and subsequently with Des Lynam and Des O'Connor, before leaving in 2008.
While appearing on Countdown, Vorderman began presenting shows for ITV, including How 2 (1990–1996), Better Homes (1999–2003) and The Pride of Britain Awards (1999–present), as well as guest hosting shows, such as Have I Got News for You (2004–2006) and The Sunday Night Project (2006). She was a presenter on the ITV talk show Loose Women from 2011 until 2014. She has also appeared as a contestant on reality shows, including Strictly Come Dancing (2004), I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (2016) and The Great Celebrity Bake-Off (2020), winning the last. Since 2022, Vorderman has been a news-reviewer for This Morning.
Vorderman was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting in the Queen's Birthday Honours in June 2000. She has also worked as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet books. In 2023, Vorderman began presenting her own show for the talk radio station LBC, but has since stepped down from presenting regularly on the station.
Early life and education
Vorderman was born on 24 December 1960 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, the youngest of three children Her parents separated three weeks after her birth, and her mother took the family back to her home town of Prestatyn, Flintshire (now in Denbighshire), North Wales, grew up. Vorderman did not see her father again until she was 42. In 1970, her mother remarried, separating ten years later. Vorderman's father remarried; his wife died in the early 1990s. Vorderman did not trace the Dutch side of her family until 2007 (as part of the BBC genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are?). It was only then that she discovered that her father had been an active member of the Dutch resistance during the Nazi occupation. He died while the programme was being filmed.
Early career
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. In her spare time, she was briefly a backing singer with friend Lindsay Forrest in the Leeds-based pop group Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits, fronted by radio DJ Liz Kershaw during the early 1980s. The group recorded, among other songs, a version of The Undertones' hit "Teenage Kicks" (one of the tracks Vorderman had to identify during the "intros round" when she appeared on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in December 2009; the series often includes questions from contestants' pasts).
During 1984–85, Vorderman made regular appearances on the Peter Levy show on Radio Aire, appearing mid-morning to read a story for pre-school children. In the mid-1980s, Vorderman worked part-time in the Information Services Department of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, principally in the production of in-house video programmes.
Television career
Countdown
1982–2008
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. She submitted an application on behalf of her daughter, then aged 21. Vorderman appeared on Countdown from the show's inception in 1982 until 2008.
Initially, Vorderman's only contribution to the show was the numbers game, and she formed part of a five-person presentation team, billed as one of the "vital statisticians" along with Linda Barrett. However, over the following years, the team was pared down, and Vorderman began handling tiles for both the letters and numbers games. 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. Her lasting success on the show led to her becoming one of the highest-paid women in Britain, ultimately earning her an estimated £1 million per year.
After Richard Whiteley
In June 2005, the producers of Countdown asked Vorderman if she wanted to fill the role of main presenter vacated by the recently deceased Richard Whiteley. Vorderman declined, and a search for a new presenter began while the show went into a four-month hiatus. In October 2005, Des Lynam replaced Whiteley and co-hosted with Vorderman. In January 2007, Des O'Connor replaced Lynam while Vorderman continued to co-host the show. On 25 July 2008, after 26 unbroken years with the show, it was announced that Vorderman was stepping down from Countdown. She 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 also to step down as the show's host. Vorderman and O'Connor both left the show in December 2008.
Vorderman recorded her last Countdown show on 13 November 2008 which was broadcast on 12 December 2008. Both of her children were in the audience, together with many of the previous guests from "Dictionary Corner". After the prizegiving at the end of the show, Des O'Connor was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the show's lexicographer Susie Dent, and Vorderman received one from Gyles Brandreth. She was too moved to complete her farewells. A special show, One Last Consonant, Please Carol, hosted by Brandreth and featuring Vorderman's highs and lows during the 26 years of the show, was also filmed and transmitted just before her final Countdown appearance.
After leaving Countdown, Vorderman continued to contribute her column to the British magazine Reveal. Channel 4 admitted in 2009 that all Countdown presenters had always worn earpieces, and that producers would "sometimes supply extra ideas as there are often multiple options to ensure viewers are given the best possible answers." A source close to Vorderman denied that she had worn an earpiece or cheated in her mental arithmetic answers.
Loose Women
In July 2011, Vorderman and Sally Lindsay were tipped for roles on Loose Women following ITV's decision to axe Kate Thornton and Zoë Tyler from the programme. This was later confirmed, with Vorderman presenting her first live show on 5 September 2011. From September 2011 to June 2013, Vorderman and fellow Loose Women host Andrea McLean hosted two to three shows per week. However, after the show returned from its summer break in September 2013, she began to host one episode per week, with McLean anchoring the remaining four. On 3 October 2013, it was announced that former Loose Women presenter Kaye Adams would be returning to the show later in the year and Ruth Langsford would join the panel in January 2014. Adams, Langsford and Andrea McLean hosted the show in rotation, with Vorderman remaining as an occasional presenter on the programme, usually presenting one episode a fortnight.
On 14 July 2014, Vorderman announced her departure as a presenter on Loose Women. Vorderman explained:
Other television work
Vorderman is the presenter of the annual Pride of Britain Awards, which are televised by ITV. She began hosting the awards when they were introduced in 1999. In 2004, Vorderman took part in the second series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancer Paul Killick. She was the second celebrity to be eliminated from the show. She guest presented Have I Got News for You in 2004 and 2006 and also presented an episode of The Sunday Night Project. Vorderman guest presented 15 episodes of Lorraine in 2011. She presented the ITV Food show Food Glorious Food in 2013. In March 2013, Vorderman recorded an ITV gameshow pilot called Revolution. On 29 June 2013, it was announced that the show had been "scrapped" by ITV.
In 2016, Vorderman finished in eighth place in the sixteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! On 7 April 2020, Vorderman appeared on The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off and won. Broadcast on S4C on 19 April 2020, Vorderman took part in the show ('Language Road Trip') and, with the help of Owain Wyn Evans, learned Welsh and completed various challenges in the language. An extra episode, ('Language Road Trip: Christmas') was broadcast at the end of 2020, interviewing each of the celebrities about whether they were still making use of their Welsh and the opportunities they had had to use Welsh during lockdown.
In 2023, Vorderman appeared in I'm a Celebrity... South Africa. On 16 June 2023, she appeared as herself in Episode 1 of the BBC One comedy Queen of Oz. Vorderman is seen and heard on her radio programme questioning the outrageous antics of spoiled spare to the British crown, Princess Georgiana, played by Catherine Tate.
Filmography
Television
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Channel
|-
| 1982–2008
| Countdown
| Vital statistician<br />Co-presenter (4,832 episodes)
| Channel 4
|-
| 1987–1989
| Take Nobody's Word for It
| Co-presenter
| BBC1
|-
| 1990–1996, 1998
| How 2
| Co-presenter
| CITV <small>(ITV)</small>
|-
| 1993
| World Chess Championship
| Co-presenter
| Channel 4
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1994
| Tomorrow's World
| Co-presenter
| BBC1
|-
| Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe
| Narrator
| ITV
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| Entertainment Today
| Presenter
| ITV
|-
| Out of this World
| Presenter
| rowspan="4" |BBC1
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1997
| Hot Gadgets
| Presenter
|-
| The Antiques Inspectors
| Presenter
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1998
| Points of View
| Presenter
|-
| What Will They Think of Next
| Presenter
| ITV
|-
| 1999
| Dream House
| Main presenter
| BBC One
|-
| 1999–2003
| Better Homes
| Presenter
| rowspan=4|ITV
|-
| 1999–present
| Pride of Britain Awards
| Presenter
|-
| 2000
| Star Lives
| Presenter
|-
| 2001–2002
| Britain's Brainiest Kid
| Presenter
|-
| 2004
| Strictly Come Dancing
| Contestant
| rowspan=2|BBC One
|-
| 2004, 2006, 2023, 2024
| Have I Got News for You
| Guest host, guest panellist
|-
| 2005–2006
| Carol's Big Brain Game
| Co-presenter
| Sky One
|-
| 2006
| The Sunday Night Project
| Guest presenter
| rowspan=2|Channel 4
|-
| 2008
| One Last Consonant, Please Carol
| Subject
|-
| 2011, 2018–2019, 2022
| Lorraine
| Guest presenter (26 episodes)
| rowspan=4|ITV
|-
| 2011–2014
| Loose Women
| Presenter
|-
| 2013
| Food Glorious Food
| Presenter
|-
| 2016
| I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
| Participant
|-
|2020
| Iaith ar Daith
| Participant
| S4C
|-
|2020–present
| The Wheel
| Expert (multiple episodes)
| BBC One
|-
| rowspan=3|2021
| Carol Vorderman: Closer to Home
| Presenter
| BBC One Wales
|-
| Great British Menu
| Guest judge; Series 16 – The Finals: Main Course
| BBC Two
|-
| Pride of Britain Awards
| Co-host
| ITV
|-
|2022
| Beat the Chasers
| Contestant
| ITV
|-
| 2022–2023
| This Morning
| News Reviewer (2022–2023)
|ITV
|-
| rowspan=6| 2023
| Taskmaster's New Year Treat
| Contestant
| Channel 4
|-
|I'm a Celebrity... South Africa
| Herself
| BBC One
|-
| RuPaul's Drag Race UK
| Herself; Guest judge (Series 5)
| BBC Three
|-
| Steph's Packed Lunch
| Herself; Guest host (one episode)
| Channel 4
|-
| The Masked Singer
| Contestant / Reindeer (one episode)
| ITV 1
|-
| 2024
| Cooking with the Stars
| Contestant
|ITV
|-
| 2025
| Celebrity Puzzling
| Team captain
| 5
|}
Radio
After leaving the BBC in 2023, Vorderman was an occasional guest host on LBC. In January 2024, two months after her BBC departure, she was to present her own show from 4pm to 7pm on Sunday afternoons. She said "I'll be using my voice – as you might expect – to cause a commotion. I won't be shy to say things that others won't and I'll hold the corrupt to account without fear or favour." Vorderman announced on 11 October 2024 that she would leave LBC following a "health scare".
Other work
Journalism
Vorderman has had newspaper columns in The Daily Telegraph, and in the Daily Mirror on Internet topics. She has written books on Detox diets. Her No. 1 bestseller was Detox For Life, produced in collaboration with Ko Chohan and Anita Bean and published by Virgin Books, which sold over a million copies. Many school textbooks have been published under her name, chiefly by Dorling Kindersley in series such as English Made Easy, Maths Made Easy, Science Made Easy and How to Pass National Curriculum Maths.
Commercial ventures
Vorderman expanded her business ventures, launching a number of Sudoku products. In March 2007, she launched a brain-training game called Carol Vorderman's Mind Aerobics together with BSkyB. Also in 2007, she released a video game for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable in the United States entitled Carol Vorderman's Sudoku. In 2007, Vorderman did TV commercials for the frozen food chain Farmfoods – advertising "Chippy Chips for £1" and "Cadbury's Cones for 99p".
In the autumn of 2008, soon after she completed her final regular Countdown show, Vorderman announced a new commercial venture, her own property development and sales company that would specialise in overseas holiday and retirement homes in the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, and Spain. It was called Carol Vorderman Overseas Homes Limited. She 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". However, due to the 2008 financial crisis, the venture proved short-lived. During March 2009 Vorderman publicly withdrew her name from the firm, which suspended trading soon afterwards. On 2 March 2010, 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.
Endorsement controversy
Vorderman had maintained a long-standing endorsement of the debt consolidation company FirstPlus, an association that ceased in 2007. In 2006, the charity Credit Action attempted to highlight the potential dangers of debt consolidation, calling on Vorderman to stop giving First Plus credibility. Her agent responded that Vorderman had no intention of curtailing the contract for a service which was perfectly legal and offered by an excellent company. When interviewed by The Daily Telegraph in November 2008 Vorderman herself responded with: