TV Weekly Special: Countdown Past
In the first of two special editions we look back at classic Channel 4 game show, Countdown – next week we take a look at the new hosting team of the long-running show.
It was a tough decision for bosses at Countdown to continue the show after the death of anchor Richard Whiteley in 2005. However, the team, based at Yorkshire Television in Leeds, chose to carry on with the daily quiz in the end – after all co-host, Carol Vorderman was still willing to continue in the role she’d held since episode one back in 1982.
Who’d have thought that budget cuts would only a few years later see the show undergo yet another major upheaval? This time the changes have been more drastic with new titles, set and presenters all unveiled for the first time on Channel 4 today.
Here we take a look back to the faces of Countdown past.
Richard Whiteley
Richard first presented Countdown for ITV, not Channel 4, when it was a local game show ‘Calendar Countdown’ only shown in the Yorkshire Television region. He had worked in journalism with national news service ITN before joining the new Yorkshire ITV service in 1968 as a reporter. He later became main host of their evening news programme – where he remained for over twenty years. For many years he was seen twice a day, first on Countdown and later as anchor of Calendar News. This is where fond nickname of ‘Twice Nightly Whiteley’ evolved from.
Countdown made Richard a national star, and other work came his way. He hosted his own talk shows for the BBC and ITV; as well as many guest presenting appearances on shows such as youth-aimed The Big Breakfast – such was Whiteley’s cult status among students.
His on-screen partnership with co-host Carol Vorderman, some claim, was the best part of Countdown. His ‘random’ dress sense, bad puns and jokes became as much a part of the format as the rounds themselves.
Richard had just completed the recording of the 53rd series of Countdown in 2005 when he became suddenly ill. His death a short time later was a surprise to viewers and the team at Yorkshire Television. His last week of episodes aired after his death, and an entire afternoon was dedicated to Richard on the day of his final edition. This included a documentary, a tribute show and a special introduction to the last Whiteley hosted Countdown by Vorderman who asked viewers to “laugh at all his bad jokes” as its what he would have wanted.
Producer Damian Eadie recently spoke to The Guardian, commenting that after Richard’s demise the programme lost its way. “In the old days, you never knew what was going to happen with Richard and Carol. Richard would make silly mistakes, he’d have a laugh, it kept you on edge. It was always exciting, but since then it’s been flat.”
Nearly five years after Richard’s death his is still, to most, Mr Countdown and no new host will ever fill the void left by one of televisions most unique game show hosts.
Des Lynam
Mr Smooth, known to be loved by ladies of a certain age (over 50) has mainly worked in television sport presenting. He began his media career in radio mainly as a commentator – notably for coverage of boxing matches. He later hosted sports-based programming for BBC Radio 2.
Lynam switched to the BBC Television sports department in 1977 – first as sports presenter as part of the Nationwide news programme – later moving on to anchor popular programmes such as Grandstand, Match Of The Day and Sportsnight. By the 1990s Des’ slick presenting style had gained him a large following of female fans. The BBC decided to try Lynam in mainstream presenting slots. Shows followed such as the lifestyle Holiday series and popular factual entertainment show How Do They Do That? and, later, a none-sports presenting role back at BBC Radio 2.
It may be this cosy smooth image Lynam has that made the Countdown bosses decide he would be their perfect replacement for the late Richard Whiteley. Des had appeared on the programme as a celebrity contestant sometime earlier so knew what to expect of the programme.
Series 54 saw Lynam introduced as the new host. The set, music and titles remained unchanged (apart from the removal of Whiteley from the opening sequence) from the previous series.
While the producers may have tried to keep as much familiarity to the programme as possible, Des Lynam really didn’t fit the mix. His two-year contract lasted, in the end, only a year. Mainly because Des decided that commuting to Leeds for a few weeks a year (the show is bulk recorded) from his home in Sussex was a bit too much. It didn’t gain him much sympathy with the public, who were more concerned that Channel 4 would try to accommodate Lynam by moving Countdown to the London Studios.
He told the Mirror at the time of his departure: “We do five shows in a day which everybody finds extremely tiring. It’s the sort of schedule I don’t want to commit myself to any more.”
There is little to say about Lynam’s era on Countdown other than it was very run of the mill presentation – almost newsreader-style. There wasn’t the chemistry between the presenters, it was bland television. At least Whiteley knew how to entertain – even if he did muddle things up. Lynam was word perfect, slick and professional. Some would call that, on a game show, just a tad boring.
Des O’Connor
A stalwart of television presenting for decades; Countdown producers decided to try their luck with a second Des, hiring the all-round entertainer in late 2006. O’Connor took the reigns of the daytime quiz for series 56, which began in January 2007.
Des was no stranger to hosting game shows, he had a successful run in the 1990s as compare of ITV’s Take Your Pick. It could be said that O’Connor also had the ‘Whiteley’ factor in as much as he could laugh at himself and entertain. The combination of Des O’Connor, Carol Vorderman and the familiar Countdown setting proved the most successful since the demise of Richard.
Des first made his television mark back in 1963, this coincided with a successful singing career. To date he has released over thirty albums. The variety of programmes O’Connor has hosted range from sketch shows to chat shows, the most popular and longest-running was Des O’Connor Tonight which began in 1977 and ran for almost twenty years.
Tonight switched to ‘today’ in 2002 when he teamed up with new-face Mel Sykes to host daytime chat show Today with Des and Mel which ran for several series. The show proved popular with daytime audiences, which may be one of the reasons bosses at Channel 4 and Yorkshire TV decided to lure Des over to replace outgoing Lynam as Countdown anchor.
While audiences enjoyed the O’Connor-lead show, some contestants have been unimpressed with the veteran star.
“Des O’Connor had me on for 11 shows and never got my name right, he had anything from Sinead to Jihad. Never got Junaid.” Junaid Mubeen told The Guardian. “I noticed with Des O’Connor there was a lot of innuendo. It wasn’t always appropriate for Countdown.” Mubeen added.
Des quit the show after two years to concentrate on new entertainment projects and to promote his latest album.
Carol Vorderman
Television queen of number crunching since the shows launch in November 1982, Carol originally shared duties with Linda Barrett who ruled over the letters section of the game. The show was reviewed quite early on – one suggestion was to ditch that ‘dithering’ Whiteley presenter for someone slicker (Des Lynam maybe? Pah) – and out of the brainstorming they realised it would cost much less per-episode if they had Vorderman also dish up the letters as well as the numbers. The ditching of Linda Barrett was maybe the saving of Richard too; who was able to then form his on-screen partnership with Vorderman – something which was to become a highlight of the programme.
Countdown was Carol’s first television work, but it soon catapulted her into one of the most sought-after female presenters. She was lured to the BBC to co-host long-running science show Tomorrow’s World; only to be sacked because the BBC didn’t approve her appearance in an advertising campaign for washing powder. The ratings for the show dropped dramatically after her departure, and in a u-turn, the Beeb tried to lure Vorderman back. She declined.
The BBC’s loss was ITV’s gain; she fronted their take on old classic ‘This Is Your Life’ – Stars and Their Lives and The Pride of Britain Awards.
Over the years many times it has been asked of her why she stayed with Countdown for so long, after all, she didn’t need to – not after the ‘bigger’ successes on the mainstream networks. Her reply was always because she loved the show and loved working with Richard Whiteley.
The death of Richard left many viewers thinking Vorderman would quit the show too; however she decided to carry on for ‘Twice Nightly’. Part of the new-look Countdown saw Carol gain a bigger role. From series 54 onwards she was given the job of introducing the celebrity guest in ‘dictionary corner’.
It came as quite a shock when, only days after the announcement Des O’Connor was leaving the show, in 2008 it was reported Vorderman had decided to step down. Initially Carol said she didn’t want to go through having to bond with yet another new presenter. It later became apparent a lot more had gone on behind the scenes, leaving many viewers dismayed at the actions of ITV Yorkshire and Channel 4 bosses.
Headlines were worthy of soap opera: ‘We Have Survived Without Richard And We’ll Survive Without You”; “Accept a 90% wage reduction or you’re out” and “Carol Tells How Callous Countdown Bosses Forced Her Out” were just a few of the tabloid gossip.
Countdown’s ratings have dropped in recent years. Common sense would dictate that was due to the programme airing earlier than it used to. Still, the fix in this day and age is budget cuts. It seems viewer-loved Carol had been axed; well pushed out with an impossible proposition of taking a 90% pay cut under the guise of budget cuts due to the lower viewing figures.
Producer Damian Eadie, speaking to The Guardian, makes it utterly clear it wasn’t his choice to ditch the popular hostess:
“Somebody else makes these decisions. They give me the ingredients and say cook the food… … she said she had been left with no choice – that she’d been tempted to accept the £800,000 a year wage cut, but it was obvious that the bosses thought she was past her sell-by date.
“She was still perfect for the job. I suspect it’s a business decision, finance rather than suitability.”
For some bizarre reason – and despite the fact she had given a plausible explanation that she felt the time was right to move on – some within the production company decided to start spreading rumours that she had been ditched because she had made unreasonable pay demands. Despite the gutter spin, the truth soon came to light; It was just another in a long line of reasons to frown upon the current standard of morals and behaviour at ITV Productions. A pointless exercise that only made the company look bad – not Vorderman.
Viewers were disgusted. Equally the creator of the programme Marcel Stellman was so appalled by how ITV had treated Carol that he threatened to withdraw their rights to make Countdown.
“This is not the way you deal with people when you have worked with them for 26 years.” He said at the time.
Carol had been willing to take a 33% pay-cut in line with Countdown’s budget being cut by 33% but in the end she departed the programme in December 2008 have appeared in every edition from series one to fifty-nine.
Next week: The New Era
