| Rav Wilding | |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 October 1977 Canterbury, Kent, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | English/Mauritian |
| Education | Fulston Manor School |
| Occupation | Television presenter |
| Known for | Police officer, television presenter, security guard |
Rav Wilding is an English television presenter, former security guard at Harrods, former soldier and former police officer who, since June 2004, has been a presenter on Crimewatch.
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Born in Canterbury, Kent, Wilding is the second of five children born to a Mauritian father and an English mother who were both nurses. He attended Fulston Manor School in Sittingbourne, Kent.
After secondary school he took an apprenticeship in construction before joining the British Army at seventeen. Due to his stature and physical fitness he was selected to undertake parachute training, but a broken leg sustained on a training run cut short a career in the Parachute Regiment. After four years he left after medical staff advised him that it would be highly unlikely that his leg would ever be back to full fitness.
On leaving the army in 1999, Wilding started working at Harrods in Knightsbridge as part of the security team. After approximately nine months at Harrods, Wilding's application to join the Metropolitan Police Service was accepted and he started training school. Wilding joined the Service at the start of 2000 and was posted to Peckham in South London. While based at Peckham in Southwark, he was involved in the high profile police investigation surrounding the death of Damilola Taylor. Wilding was part of a specialist unit specifically created in the aftermath of the murder where he worked on the tough North Peckham Estate where Taylor was killed.
After two years as a policeman he responded to an advert for people to partake in a jungle adventure, to live for three months in an Australian rain forest for a new television programme on Channel 4 called Eden. After numerous auditions and around 50,000 applicants Wilding was picked for the programme and flew out to New South Wales.
After three months in the jungle, Wilding returned to Britain and went back to work in the police but this time in to the CID. Working within CID, Wilding was posted to units focusing on robbery, burglary and major investigations as well as a long spell working on a Sapphire unit dealing with rape and sexual assault allegations. He was quickly selected for Detective training and became a Detective Constable for the last six years of his service. Wilding worked on many high profile cases, appearing regularly at the Old Bailey.
Wilding had to go through numerous interviews and auditions as well as formal television presenter training. Having also auditioned for Blue Peter, he was offered a part on BBC Crimewatch, which he has appeared on since 2004. After taking a period of unpaid leave, Wilding resigned from the police force in February 2008 to concentrate on TV work.
Wilding is a regular reporter on crime issues for BBC One's The One Show. Since 21 April 2008, Wilding has co-presented a new programme called Missing Live,[1] shown every weekday morning on BBC One.[2] In August 2008, he hosted the twenty-episode fly-on-the-wall series following the lives of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Helicopter Heroes on BBC One.[3] He has also fronted two series of the daily live show Crimewatch Roadshow for BBC One and will present the third series in June 2011.[4]
In January 2008, he won a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link and Ready Steady Cook. On 29 December 2008, Wilding appeared on Celebrity Mastermind.[5] His specialist subject was The Human Body. He came last with only fifteen points. In 2011 he took a role on CBBC as co-presenter and dunk tester for Dave Benson Phillips in the remake of Get Your Own Back.
In August 2009, Wilding was revealed as one of the contestants in Strictly Come Dancing and was partnered with Aliona Vilani.[6] Wilding was made fourth favourite by bookmakers behind former boxer Joe Calzaghe and actor Ricky Whittle,[7] however he became the third celebrity to be eliminated on the show after failing to be saved in the dance-off, on 3 October 2009.
He appeared several times on Big Brother spin off show Big Brother's Little Brother in 2010.
In September 2010, Wilding went to the front line of British Military operations in Afghanistan filming a series for BBC called Remembrance Week. Whilst filming he witnessed a bomb blast that killed one of the serving soldiers with the unit he was filming (The second Battalion the Duke of Lancasters Regiment) The Lions of England. The series focused on both past and present conflicts.[8]
Since February 2011, Wilding has been a host of the CBBC show Cop School, educating the youth on how to be a police officer. In March 2011, he presented the BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary series Neighbourhood Blues which focuses on how the police help communities and how they fight crime.
In August 2011 Wilding hosted a Crimewatch special on the riots in England.
On 1 November 2011 Wilding won ITV's 71 Degrees North.
He also appeared in an episode of The Real Hustle.
On 15th December 2011, Kirsty Young, Wilding's Crimewatch co-host, stated that it would be his last show.[9]
Resident in Kent, Wilding was engaged to air hostess and former girlfriend of footballer Rio Ferdinand, Lauren Alcorn. The couple broke up in December 2009.[10]
In December 2010, it was confirmed that Wilding was dating reality television star, Chantelle Houghton.[11] The couple met through a mutual friend, Dominic Littlewood, in October 2010.[12] In April 2011, Wilding announced that his relationship with Houghton was over.
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