Phillip Schofield

Phillip Schofield
Schofield in 2007
Born	Phillip Bryan Schofield (1962-04-01) 1 April 1962 Oldham, Lancashire, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Broadcaster
Years active	1982-present
Employer	ITV
Agent	James Grant
Television	Presenting: This Morning (2002-) Dancing on Ice (2006-) All Star Mr & Mrs (2008-10, 12-) The Cube (2009-)
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Spouse	Stephanie Lowe (1993-present)
Children	Ruby Molly
Website	Official Website

Phillip Bryan Schofield (born 1 April 1962) is an English broadcaster and television personality. He has presented shows such as This Morning and Dancing on Ice, alongside Holly Willoughby, as well as various game shows including The Cube and All Star Mr & Mrs. He has annually presented The British Soap Awards and Text Santa; he compèred the 2007 Royal Variety Performance. Schofield has also worked in radio, theatre and music.

Early life and career

Schofield was born in the Lancashire town of Oldham. He grew up and was educated in Newquay, Cornwall. When he was 15, his first foray into media was a Sunday show on Hospital Radio Plymouth. After many years of writing letters to the BBC, at 17 he took up the position of bookings clerk for BBC Radio at Broadcasting House in London, where he was, at the time, the youngest employee.

Television

Aged 19, Schofield moved with his family to New Zealand, where he made his television debut presenting the children's music programme Shazam! on 23 February 1982. He also spent two years working for the Auckland-based station Radio Hauraki.

In 1985, Schofield returned to England, where he became the first in-vision continuity presenter for Children's BBC on weekdays for two years from September 1985. He left the "Broom Cupboard" to present Going Live! on Saturday mornings between September 1987 and April 1993. He then moved to adult-orientated TV with various programmes for ITV, such as Schofield's Quest, Schofield's TV Gold and Ten Ball. From 1994 to 1997, Schofield presented Talking Telephone Numbers for five series, and the National Lottery Winning Lines programme for BBC One between June 2001 and October 2004.

His two current assignments with ITV1 are as co-presenter of daytime TV talk-show, This Morning (since 3 September 2002) and as co-presenter of the BAFTA-nominated celebrity reality television show Dancing on Ice (since 2006) alongside Holly Willoughby, and Christine Bleakley since 2011. Also, All Star Mr & Mrs with Fern Britton, and on his own since 2012.

Since 2006, Schofield has presented The British Soap Awards, between 2006 and 2008 he hosted the programme with Fern Britton but since 2009, he has hosted alone. Following the success of that show, and his continued spot on This Morning, ITV signed Schofield to an exclusive two-year contract (a so-called 'golden handcuffs' deal) in July 2006, alleged to be worth £5 million. The exclusive deal also meant he could no longer present the BBC nationwide quiz Test the Nation, which he had fronted for fifteen editions with Anne Robinson between 2002 and 2006. Schofield was replaced by Danny Wallace.

During the run of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, Schofield co-hosted the new ITV1 spin-off series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! Exclusive with Sheree Murphy. He has also presented two series of Have I Been Here Before?, a programme in which a celebrity attempts to use regression to get in touch with a previous life.

In May 2008 Schofield's father, Brian, died from a long-standing heart condition, which led to Schofield's taking a break from presenting This Morning. John Barrowman stood in for him until his return.

Since April 2008, Schofield and his colleague, Fern Britton, have presented a revival of the ITV show Mr and Mrs. A celebrity version, three series have aired to date. In 2010, the show took a break but returned in 2012 for another series without Britton. Schofield now presents the primetime ITV show, The Cube, where contestants are given difficult and brain-straining tests. They face the 'Cube' to win up to £250,000. Since 2011, Schofield has co-hosted Christmas charity show Text Santa, alongside Christine Bleakley, on ITV1.

On 8 November 2012, Schofield interviewed the prime minister David Cameron on This Morning and presented him with a list he had obtained from the internet of five persons named as paedophiles in connection with the North Wales child abuse scandal. The names of several former senior Conservative politicians were said to be visible on the list. Cameron responded by warning against a witchhunt, "particularly about people who are gay". Schofield was widely criticised for this action, with broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby describing his behaviour as 'cretinous'. Schofield later apologised (via fellow presenter Ruth Langsford, putting the blame on the camera operator).

Filmography

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987–1993	Going Live!	Presenter
1994–1997	Talking Telephone Numbers	Presenter
2001–2004	National Lottery Winning Lines	Presenter
2002—	This Morning	Presenter
2002–2006	Test the Nation	Presenter
2006—	Dancing on Ice	Presenter
	The British Soap Awards	Presenter
	I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! Exclusive	Presenter	Spin off series
	Have I Been Here Before?	Presenter
2008, 09	Beat the Star	Presenter	2 episodes
2008–2010, 2012—	Mr and Mrs	Presenter
2009—	The Cube	Presenter
2010—	The Comedy Annual	Presenter
2011—	Text Santa	Presenter

Radio

While working as presenter of Going Live!, he was also broadcasting on BBC Radio 1 with a Sunday show (also called Going Live). When Radio 1 made the switch from medium wave to full use of FM stereo in 1988, Schofield was one of the presenters chosen to help with the launch by officiating at the turning on of the Southend transmitter. During his 2005 appearance on Room 101, Schofield recalled how a large crowd gathered in expectation of Simon Mayo arriving by helicopter to turn on the transmitter. Due to a miscommunication, however, Mayo instead flew to Norwich. Realising the crowd would be disappointed by Mayo's failure to appear, Schofield and an unnamed producer fled without revealing the news, and left the crowd - which included the town's mayor - still watching the sky. For this reason, and as a result of a later incident involving wing walking on a plane leaving Southend Airport, Schofield chose Southend as one of his pet hates for the programme.

In February 2010, he launched Radio Plymouth in Devon.

Theatre

Schofield elected to try his hand at theatre, and took over the role of Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat from Jason Donovan on the West End stage. Another theatre production he was involved in was Dr Dolittle.

Music

As a consequence of appearing in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, he was approached to record a cover of Close Every Door to be released as a single. The single was released in December 1992 on Polydor Records and peaked number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.

Personal life

In March 1993 Schofield married Stephanie Lowe, a BBC Production Assistant whom he met while at BBC Children's Television. The couple have two daughters, Ruby and Molly, and live near Henley-on-Thames.

Schofield collects Bordeaux wines, an interest kindled by friend Jason Donovan. Asked in 1992 to introduce a compilation video for Donovan, as a friend Schofield refused to accept payment. Stock, Aitken and Waterman sent him two cases of Burgundy with a set of tasting notes; he joined the Wine Society two years later.

Schofield is a patron of the charity CHASE hospice care for children, which offers help and support to children and their families who are not expected to reach their 19th birthday. In conjunction with rose specialist C&K Jones, he launched the Schofield rose in support of CHASE at Gardeners World June 2006. Each rose sold attracts a donation to CHASE. Schofield is also an ambassador for children's charity Kidscape

External links

Official web sites

• Phillip Schofield's Official website
• Phillip Schofield at itv.com