Carol Vorderman has set the record straight on her departure from the BBC, revealing 'loads of arguments' over advertising work that led to her being sacked. The 65-year-old presenter spoke to Sally Lindsay on Channel 5's vodcast 'A Night In with Sally Lindsay', reflecting on the highs and lows of her career.
During the conversation, Carol discussed a period when she was asked to front the BBC programme 'Tomorrow's World' while simultaneously appearing on Channel 4's 'Countdown'. Although her BBC contract stipulated exclusivity, she negotiated terms to allow both roles. However, things did not go to plan.
Carol said: 'So I carried on doing Countdown and I did Tomorrow's World, but it didn't end well... I had been doing all these adverts for Ariel before I started on Tomorrow's World. I started on it, ratings great, everyone was very happy, it was brilliant. I flew to Australia, we're filming in Australia, having a lovely time! Got a phone call when I got back to the hotel, 'ring your agent', I rang John Mars, [he was] saying, 'You've got to get on the first plane home, cancel filming'. Back to England... loads of arguments went on, and then in the end, they said, 'You're sacked'. I had other jobs for the BBC at the time. Gone from those as well. Everything gone. I had a column in the Radio Times. I was doing education shows I've been doing for a long time. Everything gone. I thought, 'What?'. Front page news, sacked.'
However, Carol was not prepared to accept this quietly and fought back by highlighting that other BBC presenters were also appearing in adverts. She explained: 'So I thought, 'Right, I'm not having this'. So I fought back through the press and I wrote articles saying, 'Hang on, this is just sexism'. I'm sacked for doing an advert when Noel Edmonds is doing Noel's Maxwell House coffee, party adverts, and he was doing Noel's House Party and Noel's Maxwell House Party adverts. Terry Wogan was doing British Gas. Loads of the men were doing commercials. Well, of course, the readers then went, 'Yeah, she's right'. The ratings of Tomorrow's World dropped through the floor. [BBC] had nowhere to go... So, I remained sacked and so that was that.'
Two months later, circumstances shifted when Carol received a mysterious phone call while in the make-up room for Countdown. She said: 'Two months later, I'm in the Countdown make-up room... It was a lovely guy who was the deputy editor of Tomorrow's World. He said, 'Don't laugh Carol, don't put the phone down, but they want to offer you your job back'. So I went, 'All right then... well I'll see the editor', I didn't get on with the editor at all. So I said, 'Well, all right, I'll meet him.' So I met him... in this hotel in Holland Park.'
During the encounter, Carol was told that BBC focus groups revealed viewers wanted her back, but then he made a comment that changed her stance. Carol recalled: 'So then he said, fatal words, he said, 'But if you tell anyone that we're offering you your job back, we will deny it'. So I went, 'Fine', rang my agent as soon as we came out and I went, 'John, keep them stringing along until a week or two before transmission and then tell them where to go'.'
Carol later worked for BBC Radio Wales but stepped down in 2023 to continue expressing her political opinions, which conflicted with the BBC's revised social media guidance.
