Fern Britton

Fern Britton
Britton in 2009 at Wendy Richard's funeral service
Born	Fern Britton (1957-07-17) 17 July 1957 Ealing, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom[1]
Residence	Buckinghamshire, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Television presenter and author
Years active	1980–present
Employer	BBC (1994–2000, 2009– ) ITV (1999–2010) Channel 4 (2009, 2011)
Spouse(s)	Phil Vickery (m. 2000)
Children	4
Parent(s)	Tony Britton Ruth Britton
Relatives	Jasper Britton (half-brother)

Fern Britton (born 17 July 1957) is an English television presenter, best known for her television work with ITV and the BBC.

Britton rose to national fame when she presented Ready Steady Cook between 1994 and 2000 on BBC One.

Britton was presenter of the ITV's This Morning programme from 1999-2009'

In 2012, Britton participated in Strictly Come Dancing, where she was paired with professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev.

Early life

Britton was born in Ealing, London, to English actor Tony Britton and his first wife, Ruth Hawkins. After spending her early life in Buckinghamshire, she started her career on Westward Television as a continuity announcer. She attended Dr Challoner's High School in Little Chalfont and the Central School of Speech and Drama, where she trained in stage management.

Career

Fern has written 6 novels New Beginnings, Hidden Treasures, The Holiday Home, A Seaside Affair,A good Catch and The Postcard to date ( nov 2016). All have been in the Sunday Times bestseller list and critically acclaimed. From 2016 she has signed another three book deal with Harper Collins publishers and is also working on a tv script.

Starting out

After working with The Cambridge Theatre Company, Britton began her broadcasting career in March 1980 at Westward Television in Plymouth, the then-incumbent ITV regional company, as a continuity announcer and newsreader on the nightly local bulletin Westward Diary. When Westward lost its franchise in 1981, Britton moved to the local BBC headquarters as a presenter with Spotlight in the South West, before moving to BBC One's Breakfast Time where she became the BBC's youngest-ever national news presenter. Fern then went on to work at TVS in Southampton, co-hosting the South edition of the news programme Coast to Coast with Fred Dineage, as well as Coast to Coast People, The Television Show, Magic Moments and, as presenter with Stefan Buczacki, of That's Gardening. She stayed until the demise of TVS in December 1992.

In January 1993 she joined London News Network's London Tonight before moving in April 1993 to GMTV to present the post-9:00 am slot, Top of the Morning. Britton moved back to Carlton Television to present After Five in 1994. She also appeared in the first two series of The Brian Conley Show.

ITV

Britton had guest presented This Morning since 1993, but from September 1999 she became a full-time host presenting the Friday edition with John Leslie.^[2] In 2002 Fern became the main host of the series along with John Leslie and, later, with Phillip Schofield .^[3]

In 2006, Britton co-presented the reality television show Soapstar Superstar. On 31 May 2007, she hosted the Classical Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall and she also co-hosted The British Soap Awards from 2006 until 2008 with Phillip Schofield.

In 2007, Britton presented her own ITV Saturday night series called That's What I Call Television. In each show, she was joined by a celebrity co-host who selected their favourite TV moments from the 1980s and then reunited some of the original stars of selected shows. Julian Clary was her first co-host, followed by Matthew Kelly on the second show, and finally Bradley Walsh for the third. In December 2007, a Christmas edition was broadcast with co-host Ronnie Corbett, and a week later another was broadcast, this time with Desmond Lynam.

From 2008 until 2010, Britton co-presented a revival of the ITV show Mr & Mrs; this time it was an "All Star" version. She co-hosted the show with Phillip Schofield.

In November 2008, Britton announced she was to take a break from This Morning and return after the Christmas break in January 2009.^[4][5] Britton announced on 25 March 2009 that she was leaving This Morning, after 10 years, at the end of the current series.^[6] Two days after quitting This Morning, Britton pulled out of hosting the 2009 British Soap Awards alongside co-host Phillip Schofield.^[7]

On 17 July 2009, Britton's 52nd birthday, her farewell This Morning programme was aired. She wept as the cast and crew and her friends paid tribute.^[8]

BBC

In 1994, Britton presented the popular television cookery gameshow Ready Steady Cook, which she continued until 2000. Britton has also appeared twice as a panellist on the BBC panel show, Have I Got News for You, which she also, twice, guest presented on 27 April 2007 and on 17 October 2008.

In 2009, Britton returned to the BBC and was a team captain on the BBC One trivia panel show As Seen on TV.

Since 2009, Britton hosted a series for BBC One called Fern Britton Meets... in which she interviewed high-profile personalities about their religious beliefs. The series attracted particular attention for an interview with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which he said he still would have thought it right that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein be removed even without evidence he had weapons of mass destruction.^[9]

Since 2014, Fern has presented The Big Allotment Challenge for BBC Two. The series was commissioned for a second series which aired in early 2015. In January 2016, Britton began presenting the BBC One antiques game show For What It's Worth.

Channel 4

On 2 November 2009, Britton appeared as a stand-in host on The Paul O'Grady Show for two weeks.

On 2 February 2011, it was confirmed that Britton would be taking over the 5:00 pm chatshow slot on Channel 4 that Paul O'Grady previously hosted. The show, Fern,^[10] began on 28 March 2011. The programme aired to low ratings and was reported to be facing a revamp, change of timeslot or cancellation after its second week on air.^[11] The show has since been confirmed as axed in its present form but Britton may work on other projects for Channel 4.^[12]

Strictly Come Dancing

On 10 September 2012, Britton was confirmed as one of the 14 celebrities taking part in the tenth series of Strictly Come Dancing. Her professional partner was Artem Chigvintsev.

Other work

In 1988, Britton took part in a Cinderella pantomime in which she played the role of Dandini Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. She was presenting Coast to Coast from the city at the time and her preparation for the part was filmed for the programme.

Britton has starred in advertisements for several companies and causes, including appearances as herself in advertisements for several Ryvita Minis, and in the 2007 What's it going to take? campaign for the charitable organisation Women's Aid.

March 1998 saw the launch of Britton's first book, Fern's Family Favourites, published by André Deutsch and written with the cook and home economist Susie Magasiner.

In November 2008, Fern, My Story was published by Michael Joseph. It went straight into The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller list where it remained for 12 weeks.

In May 2011, Britton played herself in a short independently made film by Mark Davenport called Photoshopping alongside lead Joan Kempson.

She has guest presented LIVE with... on Channel 5.

Personal life

Britton was married to TV executive Clive Jones. The two met while Jones was still married and began an affair. Britton broke off their affair after a year but Jones showed up on her doorstep two days later, having left his wife for her. The couple married on 12 November 1988 in Southsea and had three children together: twin sons Jack and Harry (born 1994) and daughter Grace (born 1997). Her marriage to Jones began to fall apart not long after and the couple officially split in 1998. A year later, Britton started dating celebrity chef Phil Vickery. The two met on the set of BBC Two's Ready Steady Cook and married in 2000. The couple have a daughter, Winnie (born August 2001), and currently reside in Buckinghamshire.

In May 2008, Britton announced that she had had a gastric band fitted to help her lose weight. She reported that she was very pleased with the band, but urged others not to follow her example. In a statement, she said, "Many people are interested in my weight loss. As interest is so high, I am making public that I had a gastric band operation two years ago. I did this for myself and I would not wish to influence others to do the same. For me it has worked and I am pleased with the results."^[13][14]

Charity

Britton was one of the celebrities, including Tom Hiddleston, Jo Brand, E. L. James and Rachel Riley, to design and sign her own card for the UK-based charity Thomas Coram Foundation for Children. The campaign was launched by crafting company Stampin' Up! UK and the cards were auctioned off on eBay during May 2014.^[15]

She is a patron of the Genesis Research Trust, a charity chaired by Professor Lord Winston, for which she has completed 10 overseas cycle challenges and a 21-day cycle ride from John O' Groats to Lands End in May 2015, as a result of which she raised over £150,000 for research into miscarriage.

Controversy

Britton attracted considerable criticism for claiming that she had lost weight naturally through diet and exercise, telling Now magazine, "I just ate a bit healthier and took up cycling to work ... It's taken me two years and a lot of hard work."^[16] Although to a certain extent, this is true, with an ITV spokesperson saying: "We weren't aware of this matter, but over the last two years Fern has cycled down the Nile, she exercises most days and has a very healthy lifestyle and healthy diet. As far as we're concerned, she lives and breathes what she talks about."^[16] She had, in fact, had gastric band surgery and despite initial denials by her agent admitted this was the cause of her weight loss when exposed by the News of the World newspaper.^[17] Britton did not apologise for keeping her operation secret,^[18] something exacerbated by the fact that she appeared in advertisements promoting Ryvita as a method of losing weight and had even produced an exercise video.^[19] All of Britton's employers were unaware of the surgery.^[18]

However, other television presenters such as Paul O'Grady came out on their shows to defend Britton, claiming that it was "tantamount to bullying ... look at Jade Goody and what happened"^[20] and co-host Phillip Schofield, in an interview with The Sun, said that "It's no one else's business that she had a gastric band fitted, despite the public backlash against her."^[21] Other newspapers defended Britton's right to privacy, such as The Guardian, in which Barbara Ellen argued that Britton should have been allowed to make a private medical decision.^[22] After the News of the World published its revelation, Britton confessed to the surgery on her own show, also stating that she "spoke carefully" about her weight loss and saying "I didn't lie, there was no need to lie" about her surgery.^[23]

Filmography

Television

Bibliography

Novels

• New Beginnings (2011)
• Hidden Treasures (2012)
• The Holiday Home (2013)
• A Seaside Affair (2014)
• A Good Catch (2015)
• The Postcard (2016)

Short stories

• The Stolen Weekend (2014)
• A Cornish Carol (2014)
• The Beach Cabin (2015)

Non-fiction

• Fern’s Family Favourites (1998)
• Winter Treats and Summer Delights (with Susie Magasiner) (1999)
• Fern and Phil's Family Food (with Phil Vickery) (2003)
• Fern: The Autobiography (2008)

References

External links

• Fern Britton at itv.com
• Fern Britton at the Internet Movie Database