Angela Rippon began her career with the
Plymouth Evening News before embarking on a career with the regional ITV company, Westward Television, as a researcher and presenter before joining Points West in Bristol and then becoming the BBC's first ever female newsreader in 1975 when she became well-known for showing her legs during a dance routine on
The Morecambe and Wise Show the following year, as well as presenting
Wheelbase (BBC2's original motoring magazine programme which became
Top Gear later!). When the BBC's CEEFAX teletext service was introduced, Angela Rippon presented a special programme about the use of teletext subtitles called This is CEEFAX. She was thought to be rivalled in 1978 when Anna Ford became ITN's first female newsreader since Barbara Mandell (Angela was actually the BBC's first female newsreader since Nan Winton's brief tenure in 1960). Neither female newsreader felt any rivalry with the other and actually talked about it over supper and rubbished all newspaper reports, but actually in 1980, when TV-am were awarded the ITV breakfast franchise by the IBA both females were joined together for the first time to form a team called "The Super Six" but when Esther Rantzen became pregnant the team became known as the "Famous Five" along with Michael Parkinson, Robert Kee and Sir David Frost, who remained with the company until its franchise loss in 1992, which Angela Rippon quite correctly predicted would be the case in the very first programme when she stated that "hopefully you will not only join us for the first day's programming, but every day, at least for the next eight years". Despite being sacked along with Anna Ford two months later, this did not stop her from working with American television, by which time she was tempted back to Britain when the BBC wanted her to present a new quiz show called
Masterteam, which was created as part of the BBC's new early evening schedule originally filled by
Sixty Minutes which was axed in favour of the Six O'Clock News in August 1984, meaning that a 25-minute gap now existed between it and the end of childrens' programmes. Angela Rippon appeared in an advertisement for Blue Arrow in 1988, by which time she was asked by Thames Television to take on the baton from Penelope Keith to host
What's My Line? when Eamonn Andrews died at the end of 1987. Angela Rippon presented a programme called
Day Out and A Summer Journey for BBC West about the Kennet and Avon Canal before presenting the quiz
Matchpoint by 1990. By 1992 she became the Chairperson of the English National Ballet Company, and also presented a newsreading stint as part of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast during its run. In December 2001 Angela was unfortunately involved in a run-in when some thieves tried to assault her in the middle of the street and manage to steal her jewellery and her credit cards as well as mobile telephone, and appeared on ITV1's Tonight with Trevor McDonald to report on street crimes. She has appeared on Channel 4's
Countdown and also she has presented
Bargain Sun and Sea Spotting for BBC2 as well as being on the ITV News Channel as one of the "Star Presenters" during the war on Saddam Hussein.
[-] Hide Full Biography
Angela Rippon began her career with the
Plymouth Evening News before embarking on a career with the regional ITV company, Westward Television, as a researcher and presenter before joining Points West in Bristol and then becoming the BBC's first ever female newsreader in 1975 when she became well-known for showing her legs during a dance routine on
The Morecambe and Wise Show the following year, as well as presenting
Wheelbase (BBC2's original motoring magazine programme which became
Top Gear later!). When the BBC's CEEFAX teletext service was introduced, Angela Rippon presented a special programme about the use of teletext subtitles called This is CEEFAX. She was thought to be rivalled in 1978 when Anna Ford became ITN's first female newsreader since Barbara Mandell (Angela was actually the BBC's first female newsreader since Nan Winton's brief tenure in 1960). Neither female newsreader felt any rivalry with the other and actually talked about it over
[+] Show Full Biography
United Kingdom
Digg
Furl
Del.icio.us
Google