Angela Rippon

Angela Rippon

Angela May Rippon is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. She was the first female journalist permanently to present the BBC national television news. Since 2009, she has co-presented the BBC consumer show Rip Off Britain. Since 2013, she’s co-hosted Holiday Hit Squad on the BBC.

About Angela Rippon in brief

Summary Angela RipponAngela May Rippon CBE is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. She was the first female journalist permanently to present the BBC national television news, and the second female news presenter on British television after Barbara Mandell on Independent Television News in 1955. She appeared on a Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1976, presented the first two series of Top Gear and also presented Come Dancing. She has written fourteen books, toured with a production of Anything Goes and presented a segment of BBC One’s The One Show. Since 2009, she has co-presented the BBC consumer show Rip Off Britain with Gloria Hunniford and Julia Somerville. Since 2013, she’s co-hosted Holiday Hit Squad on the BBC alongside Helen Skelton and Joe Crowley. She is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and the Royal Television Society (RTS). She was awarded a CBE for services to television and journalism in 2011. She also received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2012.

She lives in Devon with her husband and three children. She currently lives in London with her family and works as a freelance journalist and TV news presenter. Her husband, John, was a Royal Marine; she first saw him in 1947 when he returned from World War II. Her mother, Edna, worked at a fine china company called Lawley’s and was also a seamstress. She attended Public Secondary School, Cobourg Street in Plymouth. After leaving school at 17, she joined the photographic office of the Western Morning News and worked for the Sunday Independent, and later, BBC local radio and Westward Television as an editor. She began her television career at BBC South West in Plymouth in 1966, before becoming a reporter for BBC TV news. She first presented a national news programme on BBC2 in 1974. For a fortnight, she replaced newsreader Richard Baker – who was on holiday – on BBC One’s Nine O’Clock News, and was offered a permanent newsreading role in 1975.