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Sarah Beeny

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Sarah Lucinda Beeny
Born
Sarah Lucinda Beeny

(1972-01-09) 9 January 1972 (age 52)
Reading, Berkshire, England
EducationLuckley-Oakfield School
Queen Mary's College
Occupation(s)Property developer, businesswoman, broadcaster
SpouseGraham Swift (m. 2003)[1]
Children4
WebsiteOfficial website

Sarah Lucinda Beeny (born 9 January 1972) is an English property developer and television presenter, best known for presenting the Channel 4 property shows Property Ladder, Property Snakes and Ladders, Streets Ahead, Britain's Best Homes, Help! My House is Falling Down, Beeny's Restoration Nightmare, Double Your House for Half the Money and Sarah Beeny's Selling Houses.

Biography

Beeny was born in Reading, Berkshire, to Richard and Ann.[2] Beeny has an elder brother, Diccon.[2] The daughter of an architect for Bovis Homes,[3][4] her mother loved the self-sustained outdoor life. The family lived in two converted brick cottages in a nine-acre plot on the edge of the Duke of Wellington's estate Stratfield Saye,[5] in a style that Beeny describes as "a bit like The Good Life."[3] The family kept goats, chickens and ducks, while her father made dolls house furniture to raise extra cash. Beeny has described her family in this period as "...crafty-entrepreneurial but more craft than entrepreneurial."[3]

After her mother died aged 39 of breast cancer[2] when Beeny was 10,[3][6] she was educated as a weekly boarder at the all-girls Luckley-Oakfield School in Wokingham. Although her friends went to university, Beeny did not and was encouraged to study drama by her English teacher, taking a leading role in Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle.[7] Pursuing the idea of becoming a professional actress, she studied drama at Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke, but failed to get into a drama school.[7]

Advised by her father and stepmother Trisha[2] to get out and see the world, Beeny travelled around the world solo at the age of 17 and felt "lonely and seasick" most of the way round.[3][6] She returned to the UK to take a series of jobs, including: working for Save the Children; window cleaning; door-to-door vacuum cleaner selling and running her own sandwich making business.[3][6][7] Assuming she would be self-employed for the rest of her life, at weekends, she would study the property market, which gave her a good grounding in the market. Having saved up a deposit, without any formal training, Beeny began her own property developing business with her brother and her husband. Beeny is also the co-founder of the popular UK dating website Mysinglefriend,[6]

Beeny met her husband and business partner, Graham Swift, when she was 18 years old. Her brother is married to Swift's sister, Caroline.[2][8] Beeny and Swift have four sons. They have homes in Streatham, London[9] and at Rise Hall, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.[10]

Property media

After meeting the sister-in-law of Sarah Delafield-Cook, a talent hunter at Talkback Thames at a hen party,[4][11] she was asked to undertake a screen test to front a new programme series about property development, which was to be fronted by a property expert. Taking the advice of her stepmother and never turning down an opportunity,[3] the successful format Property Ladder has led to various spin-off series, including Streets Ahead, Britain's Best Homes and Property Snakes and Ladders.

In 2006, Sarah presented another Channel 4 programme One Year to Pay Off Your Mortgage. She has written a number of books to accompany the series, as well as a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday.

In August 2007, Sarah starred in a promotional trailer for Channel 4 which was made in the form of a parody of a Kung Fu movie. The classic line "You dare to challenge the might of the Beeny", was said by Beeny to the evil nemesis. Later that year, she also appeared on the Channel 5 motoring show, Fifth Gear, where she raced Jason Plato in an articulated lorry around a course. Beeny has appeared on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word, as she offered up her garden for Gordon's sheep to feed on.

She regularly appears on television and is a friend of DJ Christian O' Connell. She has also appeared on Bob the Builder alongside Dermot O'Leary, on which she estimated the value of Bob the Builder's house to be "Two Bob".[citation needed]

Since August 2010, she has fronted the Channel 4 programme Help! My House is Falling Down, which had the working title of House Rescue before its commission.

In November 2010, she presented Beeny's Restoration Nightmare on Channel Four,[12] showing her renovation of Rise Hall, a Grade II* listed historic house near Rise, East Riding of Yorkshire, to create a wedding venue.[13]

In August 2011, Beeny began presenting a new series for BBC One titled Village SOS. In this series the programme follows a group of passionate villagers who want to restore their village to its former glory.[14]

Beeny owns the online estate agent, Tepilo.[15]

Views

In August 2014, Beeny was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[16]

Books

  • Property Ladder: How to Make Pounds from Property
  • Property Ladder: Profit from Property
  • Property Ladder: The Developer's Bible
  • Property Ladder: Hints and Tips
  • Sarah Beeny's Price the Job
  • A Date with Sarah Beeny: Mysinglefriend.com's Guide to Dating and Dumping, Flirting and Flings – 2007
  • Property Ladder: Sarah Beeny's Design for Profit

References

  1. ^ "Knowing me, Knowing you: Sarah Beeny and Graham Swift". The Independent. London. 15 November 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e Help!
  3. ^ a b c d e f g McLean, Gareth (9 May 2007). "I get a kick from risk". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  4. ^ a b "Meet Sarah Beeny". At Home Magazine. September 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  5. ^ "My country memories". allaboutyou.com. 7 May 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  6. ^ a b c d "Sarah Beeny: dates and destiny". Sunday Herald. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  7. ^ a b c "My best teacher – Sarah Beeny". Times Educational Supplement. 7 November 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  8. ^ Swann, Yvonne (15 August 2008). "Sarah Beeny's heaven and hell". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  9. ^ Cavendish, Lucy (11 January 2009). "Interview: Sarah Beeny, TV property expert". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  10. ^ Cable, Simon (15 December 2008). "'I used to flash my breasts at the builders and snog all the boys,' says Sarah Beeny the St Trinian's-style rebel". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  11. ^ Morris, Sophie (19 November 2007). "My Life in Media: Sarah Beeny". The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 December 2008.
  12. ^ Channel Four
  13. ^ Rise Hall official website
  14. ^ "BBC One – Village SOS". Bbc.co.uk. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  15. ^ Shoffman, Marc. "Could you save money by ditching estate agents and selling your own property?". This is Money. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  16. ^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories | Politics". theguardian.com. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
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