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Anthea Turner (born 25 May 1960) is an English television presenter. She was a host of Blue Peter from 1992 until 1994, and of GMTV from 1994 until 1996.
Turner joined BBC Radio Stoke as a runner, eventually joining breakfast show presenter Bruno Brookes as part of his rap crew. The couple became romantically involved and employed Peter Powell as an agent through his management company.
Television
Turner moved into television through Sky Channel and Music Box presenting live music programmes from July 1986 to 1989. Her debut on national television was with the BBC on But First This, which led to her fronting two series for the BBC on the Saturday morning show UP2U.
During a motorbike stunt that went wrong on UP2U,[3] Turner suffered burns and temporary hearing loss, which led to a successful lawsuit against the BBC.[4]
She presented Top of the Pops from October 1988 to May 1991, and, for the final 18 months of this period, was the only non-Radio 1 DJ to do so regularly.
Turner presented the children's television show Blue Peter from 27 June 1992 to 29 June 1994, and around this time was also associated with publicising The Y Plan, a system of exercise developed by the London YMCA. She moved on to presenting on Totally Live on pan-European music channel Music Box, followed by GMTV, which she presented from July 1994 to 24 December 1996.
The relationship between Turner and her GMTV co-presenter Eamonn Holmes was frosty, with Holmes issuing an ultimatum to the GMTV management that he would leave if they did not sack his colleague: as a result, Turner lost her job.[5] After Bovey left his wife Della for Turner, with ensuing tabloid interest, Turner's career went into a decline.[6] Her autobiography Fools Rush In, for which she was paid an estimated £400,000 advance, sold 451 copies in its first week of release in November 2000 and entered the bestseller charts at No. 531.[7]
Attempting to revive her career, Turner presented BBC One's short-lived Saturday-evening programme Your Kids Are in Charge in 2000 with her sister Wendy Turner-Webster. The following year, she participated in Celebrity Big Brother, and was the third contestant to be evicted, after Chris Eubank and Vanessa Feltz.
In February 2006, Turner made a television comeback on BBC Three in Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife, where she taught disorganised-house women and men how to clean and run their houses.[citation needed] The series was accompanied by three related books. Later in 2006, she appeared as a guest on BBC Two's music-based panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
In April 2009, Turner appeared on the ITV reality show Hell's Kitchen with Marco Pierre White, alongside her then husband Grant Bovey. Turner also presented the show Help Me Anthea, I'm Infested for BBC Three, as she advised people whose homes have been overrun by pests.[citation needed] Turner took part in the first series of the Channel 4 game show The Jump in 2013. The show saw twelve celebrities take part in winter sports. The show is set in a mountainside in Austria.
On 23 August 2015, she replaced Anne Diamond and Sian Welby as the host of the Health Lottery draws on Channel 5. Welby later returned on 2 October and Anthea Turner was dropped from the line-up.[citation needed]
On 20 November 2017, Turner appeared on the BBC show Celebrity Antiques Road Trip in an episode set in Staffordshire and Cheshire.[citation needed] In 2018, she appeared on the Channel 5 show Celebs in Solitary, where she attempted to spend five days in solitary confinement.[9]
In 2013, Turner appeared as a contestant in the eighth series of Dancing on Ice, where she finished in ninth place out of twelve celebrity skaters. She participated in the show with her professional skating partner Andrew Buchanan. In the third week she performed to the Donny Osmond song "Puppy Love", and ended up in the skate-off against Keith Chegwin. They lost the skate-off and were the fourth couple to be eliminated from the series.[10]
Note: Week 3 was a duel, in which the judges did not give scores, instead the celebrities were paired up and the judges chose which performance they preferred, making them immune from the public vote.
Personal life
Turner's private life has been covered in the tabloid press. The then-editor of the Daily Mirror, Piers Morgan, admitted in April 2003 that the interest of the popular press in Turner's private life had seriously damaged her career.[11]
After her long relationship with one-time DJ co-worker Bruno Brookes, she married her manager, former DJ Peter Powell in 1990; the couple divorced in 1998.
The year of her divorce from Powell, Turner moved in with the CEO of Imagine Homes, Grant Bovey. Bovey left his wife, Della, to move in with Turner. He was later reconciled with Della, before leaving her again to return to Turner. Turner and Bovey married on 23 August 2000. Turner was keen to start her own family with Bovey, who has three daughters from his previous marriage.[12][13]
OK! magazine was sold exclusive rights to the Bovey-Turner wedding[14] for an amount that Turner described as "substantial".[15] The only photograph released to the media was of Bovey and Turner biting into a Cadbury Snowflake chocolate bar, which had been provided by the magazine.[16] Several tabloids ran critical stories,[14][17] but Turner wrote in her autobiography that she believed that the photo that would be released to the media would be a "traditional wedding-day shot"[16] and OK! confirmed that neither Turner nor Bovey had been involved in the picture's release.[18]
Turner further wrote "The whole thing smacked of us selling our souls for sponsorship, which could not have been further from the truth. We'd never entered into any discussion or financial agreement with the chocolate company: our only link with them had been the box of confectionery that they had sent for the reception. Indeed, the whole concept was absolutely abhorrent to us both. To say I was gutted would be a gross understatement. It just goes to show that even the most experienced of us can be lulled into a false sense of security and caught off guard."[16]
Turner and Bovey split up in 2012, due to Bovey's extramarital affair with a much younger woman.[19][20][21] After an initial reconciliation, they separated again in August 2013, this time permanently and they divorced in October 2015.[citation needed]
Melinda Jane Messenger is an English television presenter and former glamour model and Page Three girl. She presented the magazine programme Live from Studio Five and was formerly the co-presenter of the reality show Cowboy Builders.
Kathryn Mary Draper-Garraway is an English broadcaster and journalist. In the 1990s, Garraway was a journalist for ITV News Central and later a co-presenter of ITV News Meridian. From 2000 to 2010, she co-presented GMTV. Currently, Garraway is the presenter of Mid Mornings with Kate Garraway on Smooth Radio and newsreader and co-anchor of the ITV Breakfast programme Good Morning Britain.
GMTV, now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national ITV breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end. The final edition of GMTV was broadcast on 3 September 2010.
Lorraine Kelly is a Scottish television presenter. She has presented various television shows for ITV and STV, including Good Morning Britain (1988–1992), GMTV (1993–2010), This Morning, Daybreak (2012–2014), The Sun Military Awards (2016–present), STV Children's Appeal (2016–present), and her eponymous programme Lorraine (2010–present).
Jenny Powell is an English radio and television presenter. After appearing on No Limits, she went on to present series such as Wheel of Fortune, UP2U, Gimme 5, Live Talk, Wordplay and Daybreak.
Jenni Falconer is a Scottish-born radio and television presenter. She appears on the ITV daytime show This Morning as a regular travel reporter and was a regular presenter of the National Lottery Draws on BBC One.
Ben Shephard is an English television presenter and journalist. He is currently the co-presenter of ITV's This Morning (2024–present), alongside Cat Deeley.
Eamonn Holmes is a Northern Irish broadcaster and journalist. He co-presented the breakfast television show GMTV (1993–2005) for ITV, before presenting Sunrise (2005–2016) for Sky News. Holmes co-presented ITV's This Morning (2006–2021) with his then-wife Ruth Langsford on Fridays and during the school holidays. In January 2022, he joined GB News to present its breakfast programme alongside Isabel Webster. He has also presented How the Other Half Lives (2015–2019) and It's Not Me, It's You (2016) for Channel 5.
Penelope Jane Smith is an English author, television presenter, newsreader and radio presenter. She has presented for Sky News, GMTV, Classic FM, BBC Radio London, TalkRadio and is a regular contributor to TalkTV launched in April 2022. Smith is a current presenter of the weekday mid-morning show on Magic Classical and her favourite classical composer is Giacomo Puccini.
Clare Lyn Nasir is an English meteorologist, author, and TV presenter.
Emma Lee is a television presenter and former catwalk model, she has presented productions which have gone on to receive RTS and BAFTA recognition and has presented on GMTV and ITV1's The Zone.
Lucy Donna Porter is an English actress, writer, presenter and comedian. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and many clubs around Britain. She is also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel shows, including Quote... Unquote and The Personality Test.
Cadbury Snowflake was a chocolate bar manufactured by Cadbury.
Wendy Turner-Webster is an English journalist, television presenter and animal rights activist.
Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife is a reality show that ran on BBC Three from 2006 to 2007 and is hosted by Anthea Turner. In each episode, two housewives are introduced who have difficulties running their home efficiently. Anthea helps them by giving tips in the art of housekeeping, homemaking and hostessing. After a two-week session their homes are revisited and one of the two contestants will be crowned as the Perfect Housewife. Lovely.
Andrea Jean McLean is a Scottish journalist and television presenter who works on ITV Daytime.
UP2U is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 16 July 1988 to 16 September 1989. The programme aired on Saturday mornings and was broadcast live from Manchester; the first series from a dedicated studio and the second from the programme's own production office.
Laura Jane Hamilton is an English television presenter, property expert and entrepreneur. She began her career on children's television, presenting shows such as Fun Song Factory and on Nickelodeon. She participated in series six of Dancing on Ice in 2011, finishing in second place.
The National Lottery Results is the television programme that broadcasts the drawing of the National Lottery in the United Kingdom.
Grant Michael Bovey is a British businessman and television personality. He is best known for his former marriage to Anthea Turner.
↑ Underneath the Underground: The Ghost of Knightsbridge No. 1 (Picture Puffin Story Books): Amazon.co.uk: Anthea Turner, Wendy Turner, Andy Hunt: 9780140563887: Books. ASIN0140563881.
↑ How To Be The Perfect Housewife: Lessons in the art of modern household management: Amazon.co.uk: Anthea Turner: 9780753512852: Books. ASIN0753512858.
↑ How to be the Perfect Housewife: Entertain in Style: Amazon.co.uk: Anthea Turner: 9780753513323: Books. ASIN0753513323.
↑ The Perfect Christmas: Amazon.co.uk: Anthea Turner: 9781905264414: Books. ASIN1905264410.
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