World of Chig   

27.6.05
J R W O B E R I P

Chig is very saddened to hear of yet another celebrity death which makes me think, "It's the end of an era." Richard Whiteley has died today. He had been on TV in the UK for more hours than any other living person - quite an astonishing feat. Afternoons will never be the same again. And I mean that most sincerely. I'm a big fan of Countdown. It's the most comforting thing when you're off sick from work, and a rare example of entertaining television that's educational at the same time. Can it survive without him (apart from the current run, filmed with guest presenters, because of Whiteley's illness, but always in the hope that he would be back)?

One of the horrible ironies about this is that only two or three days ago, Channel 4 showed one of their promos; the one where they ask a lot of C4 celebrities the same question. The question was clearly, "how would you like to be remembered?" Richard Whiteley was the last person shown, and his answer was, "as the first face ever shown on Channel 4". He may never have won a Bafta or a National Television Award - a subject much discussed on Countdown itself - but at least no one can take that honour away from him, nor the OBE that he was at last given last year.

I wonder how many times in the next 24 hours we're going to see that clip of Whiteley being bitten by the ferrets on Yorkshire's Calendar programme?

Chig's sympathies go out to Whiteley's partner, former Eastender, sometime dictionary corner resident and Loose Women co-host, Kathryn Apanowicz. I'm going to have a nice cup of tea and a gypsy cream in silent tribute to the many happy hours, bad jokes and even worse ties that Twice Nightly Whiteley brought into my life.


The Countdown page.
BBC's Richard Whiteley obituary.


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