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| | Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Obituary: Richard Whiteley |
 | | Though, for nearly 30 years, he worked as a journalist for ITN and Yorkshire Television, the promiscuously smiling Richard Whiteley, who has died aged 61 after a heart operation, will be most remembered as the co-host, with Carol Vorderman, of the words-and- numbers television parlour game, Countdown. |
 | | It was based on a French television programme, Numbers And Letters, but was given more polish and a host, in Whiteley, who could make contestants secure in the knowledge that his bonhomie would survive all mistakes and crises. |
 | | The recorded shows, bought from Yorkshire TV by the embryonic Channel 4, were still running when he died, and Whiteley claimed to have been the first face seen on the new channel when it launched on November 2 1982. |
| www.guardian.co.uk /arts/news/obituary/0,12723,1516363,00.html?gusrc=rss (1007 words) |
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