Carol Vorderman has been recognised with the Siân Phillips Award for outstanding contribution at this year's Bafta Cymru ceremony, held at the ICC Wales in Newport. The honour caps a 44-year career that began on Countdown in 1982 and has since included Loose Women, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here and the Pride of Britain Awards.
From Prestatyn poverty to national treasure
Vorderman, now 65, grew up in Prestatyn in "abject poverty", raised by a single mother who juggled five jobs to feed the family. She said she never felt different as a child, crediting the absence of a class system in Wales for her confidence.
"I grew up in abject poverty, kids from a divorced family in a little Catholic school. Not that it mattered to anybody, nobody pointed a finger or anything, but mum had five jobs and all of that to put food on the table. I didn't meet my father until I was in my 40s," she said.
Countdown beginnings and the dole gamble
Her television journey began when her mother spotted an advertisement seeking a woman with strong mathematical skills and submitted the application on her behalf. The position was for Countdown, the game show that launched Channel 4 in 1982.
Vorderman said she never wanted to be in telly, but took the risk because she could always become an accountant if it didn't work out. After Channel 4 offered another contract, she gave up her day job and went on the dole for a few months before Yorkshire Television offered her a full-time contract worth £15,000.
Richard Whiteley and the Countdown years
She worked on Countdown for 26 years and said she would have stayed if the late Richard Whiteley hadn't died in 2005. "If it was only Countdown I'd have been very, very happy, and I'd still be doing Countdown had Richard Whiteley not died – the two of us would still be there," she said.
Vorderman kept a daily record of her mathematical accuracy on the show, noting in shorthand notebooks whether contestants got answers spot on, whether she did, or whether she missed them. She said the notebooks are "somewhere in a box".
Beyond the small screen
Her achievements extend well beyond television. Vorderman has chaired a UK government taskforce on maths education, acquired her pilot's licence, received an honorary degree from Swansea University, and was awarded an MBE for services to broadcasting in 2000.
She said she prefers to look forward rather than back. "I'm very much a moving forward person. But equally, as you get a little bit older you have chapters in your life, and I just think that Bafta Cymru brought it together."
Vorderman said she will remain political but has no plans to run as a candidate. "I will remain political because I enjoy a fight with a wrong 'un," she said, adding that fighting for the rights and safety of young women is likely her priority going forward.
She is set to host her 27th Pride of Britain Awards imminently and said she now prioritises her social life, which she said "didn't really get going properly" after lockdowns. "I had a handful of really bad people wheedle their way into my life. I've got rid of all those and, oh my God, my social life now is like amazing. I love it – very happy with it."
