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. From 2022 to 2023, Vorderman was 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. From 2023 to 2024, Vorderman presented her own show for the talk radio station LBC.
Early life and education Vorderman was born on 24 December 1960 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, the youngest of three children of a Dutch father, Anton Vorderman (1920–2007), and a Welsh mother, Edwina Jean Davies (1928–2017).Who Do You Think You Are?, 27 September 2007. 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, where Vorderman and her brother and sisterFamily Fortunes, 11 February 2012 grew up. Vorderman did not see her father again until she was 42. In 1970, her mother remarried, separating ten years later.Piers Morgan's Life Stories, 27 April 2012 Vorderman's father remarried; his wife died in the early 1990s.
Vorderman was educated at Blessed Edward Jones Catholic High School in nearby Rhyl. In 1978, aged 17, she began studying engineering at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. She left with a third-class degree, a result which she has described as having been "disappointing". 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. Her great-grandfather Adolphe Vorderman played a key role in the discovery of vitamins.
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.Carol Vorderman, It All Counts (Headline Publishing Group, 2010). 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 later said she had resigned after failing to agree terms for a new contract, and it was reported that she had been asked to take a cut of 90% from her previous salary, estimated as £900,000. 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 Year Title Role Channel 1982–2008 Countdown Vital statisticianCo-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 (ITV) 1993 World Chess Championship Co-presenter Channel 4 1994 Tomorrow's World Co-presenter BBC1 Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe Narrator ITV 1996 Entertainment Today Presenter ITV Out of this World PresenterBBC1 1997 Hot Gadgets Presenter The Antiques Inspectors Presenter This is Your Life Herself, Guest of Honour 1998 Points of View Presenter What Will They Think of Next Presenter ITV 1999 Dream House Main presenter BBC One 1999–2003 Better Homes PresenterITV 1999–present Pride of Britain Awards Presenter 2000 Star Lives Presenter 2001–2002 Britain's Brainiest Kid Presenter 2004 Strictly Come Dancing ContestantBBC 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 presenterChannel 4 2008 One Last Consonant, Please Carol Subject2009Would I Lie To YouContestantBBC One 2011, 2018–2019, 2022 Lorraine Guest presenter (26 episodes)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 S4C2020–present The Wheel Expert (multiple episodes) BBC One2021 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 ITV2022 Beat the Chasers Contestant ITV 2022–2023 This Morning News Reviewer (2022–2023)ITV 2023 Taskmaster's New Year Treat Contestant Channel 4I'm a Celebrity... South AfricaContestantITV Queen of Oz 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 ContestantITV 2025 Celebrity Puzzling Team captain 5
Radio