Eamonn Holmes

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Eamonn Holmes (b. December 3, 1959) is a Northern Irish television presenter based in England. He is often parodied in the media for presenting so many television shows that he was said to hold a monopoly.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career 3 Publications 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Eamonn Holmes was born in Belfast into a Roman Catholic family; he has four brothers. He has three children, Declan, Niall and Rebecca by his first wife, the former Gabrielle Holmes.

He also has one child, son, Jack Alex Holmes, with his current partner, Ruth Langsford, with whom he resides in Surrey. Holmes is not yet able to marry Langsford in the Church as his first marriage hasn't yet been annulled by the Sacra Rota; he has been quoted in the papers as expressing his impatience with the long, arduous process.

[edit] Career

In the 1980s he presented the evening news programme Good Evening Ulster on Ulster Television and later in the 1980s Open Air on BBC1. He is to date best known for presenting GMTV from 1993 until 2005. He has also occasionally presented Songs of Praise. He also presented How do they do that? with Jenny Hull in the 1990's.

He started at GMTV in 1993. His relationship with co-host Anthea Turner, from June 1994 until December 1996, had its ups and downs, though was distinctly characterised by the frequent downs towards the end of the troubled breakfast-time partnership.

In early 1996, after publicly criticising Anthea and her pushy nature as Princess Tippy Toes, he gave an ultimatum to the GMTV management that they either sacked Anthea, or he would leave. They decided to sack Anthea. Her replacement was Fiona Phillips. One interview which was memorable for all the wrong reasons occurred when a monosyllabic David Blaine appeared on the show on 29 August 2001.

It was while presenting GMTV that former Doctor Who actor Tom Baker famously criticised Holmes in an interview with the Metro (Associated Metro Limited) newspaper. He said: "Eamonn Holmes with his terrible 'I'm eating shit' grin and that acid blonde: bottle blonde, black bush - Fi-ona, I think he calls her. I couldn't possibly go on, I would be sick in his lap."

Holmes left GMTV after asking for a pay-rise of more than £500,000 a year for three days a week, which was refused after the management had noted that when Eamonn and Fiona were on holiday, the ratings showed no difference.

Holmes joined Sky News in October 2005 to present the new-look Sunrise programme. Other commitments include the long-running National Lottery programme Jet Set, a Radio Five Live programme on Saturday mornings, a column in a national newspaper and presenting on London radio station Magic 105.4 FM.

In September and October 2005 he appeared as a celebrity contestant in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, progressing through to Sale of the Century before getting knocked out. Recently he has also presented the BBC2 early evening quiz show, Sudo-Q, featuring an appearance from Mark Gardiner (TV), that combined contestants' abilities to complete a modified Sudoku puzzle and to answer general knowledge questions.

In December 2005 he opened the eulogies at the funeral of football legend George Best. He is a lifelong fan of Manchester United. Eamonn Holmes' autobiography was released in May 2006. He has been parodied in the magazine Viz in relation to his weight and an implied predilection for pies. Even so, he appeared in their unsuccessful 2004 film, Fat Slags.

In February 2004, Eamonn co-hosted the BBC1 show Would You Pass The 11+, produced by Wild Rover Productions. Holmes was the guest host for an episode of The Friday Night Project for Channel 4.

On 20 May 2006, Eamonn's National Lottery programme, Jet Set, was invaded by Fathers 4 Justice protestors just as the lottery draws were about to take place. Holmes earned some media criticism for hiding behind his female co-presenter rather than confronting the protesters. Nevertheless, the incident was resolved quickly and did not impinge upon the immovable 8pm start time of the subsequent Eurovision Song Contest.

Holmes began filming The Rich List, a new game show for Fox TV, in September 2006. It was his first TV hosting role in the USA, however it was pulled from the schedule after only one episode due to its bad performance of only 4.14 million viewers^{[citation needed]}. He is due to present another new game show, Reversal of Fortune, for the BBC during the last quarter of 2006.

Currently Holmes has been writing a column for a newspaper, The People.^[1]

He will soon be appearing on one of EMAP Performance TV's several channels presenting Eamonn Holmes' 50 Film Favourites

[edit] Publications

His autobiography is called This is MY Life, a reference to another famous Irish Eamonn - Eamonn Andrews. It reveals some of what occurred behind the scenes during his tenure at GMTV, particularly regarding his stormy relationship with Anthea Turner.

[edit] References

1. ^ The People newspaper online

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Eamonn Holmes at the Internet Movie Database
• TV Ark
• First day on GMTV on 1st January 1993
• UK Gameshows
• Eamonn's programme is invaded by Fathers 4 Justice on 20th May 2006
• Eamonn leaves GMTV on 27th April 2006
• Tom Baker's Metro interview