Anthea Turner

Anthea Turner
Born	(1960-05-25) 25 May 1960 Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
Occupation	TV Presenter/Journalist
Notable credit	Blue Peter presenter (BBC) Top of the Pops presenter (BBC) GMTV presenter (ITV) Presenter of Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife(BBC)
Spouse	Grant Bovey

Anthea Millicent Turner (born 25 May, 1960 in Stoke-on-Trent) is an English journalist, television presenter and media personality.

Biography

Born to a geologist father, Anthea and her younger sister/fellow television presenter Wendy Turner Webster spent their holidays in the Lake District. Turner is dyslexic.

Career

Turner joined BBC Radio Stoke as a runner, eventually joining breakfast show presenter Bruno Brookes as part of his crew. The pair started a relationship, and employed Peter Powell as an agent through his management company

Move to television

Turner's move into television was through Sky Channel (UK) presenting live music programmes from July 1986 - 1989. Her debut on national television was with the BBC on But First This, which led to Anthea fronting two series for the BBC on the Saturday morning show Up2U. She then spent three years as the only non-Radio One DJ to regularly present Britain's most successful TV music show Top of the Pops. Her first adult TV show was Best of Magic which she co-hosted with Simon Mayo.

The short-lived Saturday morning children's show UP2U was a flop, and is chiefly remembered retrospectively for a motorcycle stunt that went wrong, which later resulted in an internet rumour that Turner had died. Turner was to stand forward of a truck, the motorcycle would do its stunts, and finally pyrotechnics would be ignited. Unfortunately there was a communications breakdown; at the last minute it was decided that Anthea would sit on the back of the truck, she would also take her cue from somebody behind the camera which, unknowingly to the camera crew, became the same cue used to ignite the pyrotechnics. Turner suffered burns and temporary hearing loss, which led to her successful lawsuit against the BBC. The video of the accident can be seen on various web sites.

Blue Peter and GMTV

Turner later became famous for presenting the children's television show Blue Peter, 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, the ITV morning television station GMTV, as well as the first National Lottery draw on BBC1 in 1994, and the ITV travel show Wish You Were Here...? Turner was at the height of her fame, and in common with many personalities released two work-out videos: Anthea Turner Body Basics (1996) and Anthea Turner: Tone, Lift And Condition: The Inch Buster (1999), both produced and distributed by Grant Bovey.

Turner's nickname by Eamonn Holmes, during her time at GMTV, which is intended to be an insult, is Princess Tippy Toe. The relationship between them was so frosty that Holmes gave an ultimatum to the GMTV management that either they sacked Anthea, or he would leave; they decided to sack Anthea. After Bovey left his wife Della for Turner, the ensuing tabloid interest, and then the "Flakegate" scandal (see below), Turner's career went into a decline.

Trying reviving her career, in 2000 Turner presented BBC1's short-lived Saturday evening programme Your Kids Are In Charge with her sister. In 2001, she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, and was the third contestant to be evicted, after Chris Eubank left, followed by Vanessa Feltz. But nothing seemed to work to erase the fallout from the media reaction to Flakegate, and in 2003 she came 15th in a Channel 4 poll of 100 Worst Britons.

Career revival

In February 2006, Turner made a television comeback on BBC Three in Anthea Turner: Perfect Housewife, where she taught disorganised housewives how to fold towels, clean and run their houses and prepare perfect canapés. The series was accompanied by her three books, How to be the Perfect Housewife, How to be the Perfect Housewife: Entertain in Style, and The Perfect Christmas (released September 2008), all published by Virgin Books. Later in 2006, she appeared as a guest on BBC Two's music-based panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Currently she is presenting the show Help me Anthea - I'm infested for BBC Three, as she tackles people whose homes have been overrun by pests. She recently posed as Madonna had for her album 'Hard Candy' wearing only leather boots, underwear and fishnet tights.

Personal life

Turner's private life has made her a tabloid staple. After a long relationship with fellow Stoke resident and one-time DJ co-worker Bruno Brookes, she married her manager, British DJ Peter Powell.

However, the marriage was short lived, and in 1998, Turner's present husband, Grant Bovey, left his wife Della for her; he then reconciled with Della, before leaving her again. Bovey and Turner eventually married on 23 August 2000, and now live in Chiddingfold, Surrey, however on 23 February 2009, The Daily Mail reported that their Surrey mansion has been put up for sale due to catastrophic failures in Bovey's buy-to-let property business, Imagine Homes. The newspaper reports that Turner has been reduced to making television commercials for household detergents to make ends meet.

Turner is keen to start her own family with Bovey, but for various reasons, this has not yet been achieved. She is stepmother to Bovey's three daughters Lily, Amelia and Claudia, from his previous marriage.

Controversies

Flakegate

In 2000, Turner received more bad publicity from the British tabloids after photographs of her wedding reception, published in the magazine OK! in an exclusive deal worth £450,000, showed the couple (apparently) using their wedding to publicise a new Cadbury chocolate bar, Snowflake. OK! issued the photo to the media with the caption "Anthea Turner and Grant Bovey: exclusive OK! wedding photograph, enjoying Cadbury's new Snowflake. For the complete wedding coverage and a free Cadburys Snowflake, buy OK! magazine this weekend. OK! First for celebrity news." The Sun described it as "the most sickening wedding photo ever", and the event is now referred to as "Flakegate". However, Turner, Bovey, Cadbury's and OK! all denied that the chocolate was part of a sponsorship deal. However the wedding was rumoured to have cost in excess of £150,000 which was paid for by OK! magazine. Pictures of their wedding and their subsequent honeymoon were in the magazine for the next two weeks. Turner and Bovey insist that someone had stuck the chocolate bar in her hand and snapped a picture before she knew what was happening. Richard Desmond the proprietor of OK! and his wife were sitting next to the newly married Boveys at the time.

Charity work

Turner had a widely reported falling-out with the Douglas Macmillan Hospice in 2004 for failing to turn up to fund-raising events. She was subsequently dropped by the charity as one of their fund-raising patrons. She has allegedly had disagreements with other organisations for similarly failing to deliver satisfactory support and publicity.

Recently, she was disowned by the local charity, NSAAA for failing to contribute to their £5 million campaign which only raised £15,000 since it started.

External links

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