Anita West

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Anita West is a British actress and former television presenter.

[edit] Blue Peter

On 7 May 1962, she joined the British children's television show Blue Peter as a stand-in host, following the departure of Leila Williams. She remained with the programme for only 16 editions, the last on 3 September the same year, making her, to date, its shortest-serving presenter ever. She was removed from the series because of her imminent divorce from the musician Ray Ellington, and its perceived inappropriateness for a presenter of a children's programme in this era; one of West's successors, Lesley Judd, was to be more fortunate more than a decade later when she separated from the actor Derek Fowlds.

The length of time West presented Blue Peter was so short that, for many years, she was not officially recognised as a Blue Peter presenter, only being added to the official list of presenters upon the show's fortieth anniversary in 1998. In contrast, her replacement, Valerie Singleton, ahead of whom West had come in earlier auditions, became the show's longest-serving female presenter until Konnie Huq.

[edit] Later career

After leaving Blue Peter, she appeared in such shows as Space: 1999, Crossroads and Lovejoy. She also briefly returned to Blue Peter in 1998, to appear in its pantomime.