Anneka Rice

[6] She then moved to BBC children's TV, where she worked for Monica Sims and as a production assistant on Lucky Numbers.

She also produced Wheelbase, a weekly drive-time radio show, for RTHK and worked as an account executive for PR company Corporate Communications.

She then landed her first high-profile job, as the jump-suited "skyrunner" of Channel 4's Treasure Hunt, co-hosted by former BBC newsman Kenneth Kendall.

Rice hosted the BBC's Children in Need appeal in 1987 and tested an early version of her next project, Challenge Anneka.

[11] As the owner of the rights to Challenge Anneka, Rice remained involved with the format as it was sold to other European territories, which produced their own versions.

She was the host of Passport, which saw contestants taken to Botswana, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Egypt to compete in gruelling local activities to win a glamorous holiday at the end.

[citation needed] Rice took a sabbatical to bring up her young family in 1995 and enrolled at Chelsea College of Art for two years.

[citation needed] In the 2000s she returned to work as a regular on The Wright Stuff and as host for Channel 5 series Dinner Doctors.

She also took part in the ITV programme Extinct, presented by Sir Trevor McDonald and Zoë Ball, which saw Rice and seven other celebrities visit endangered animals in their natural habitat.

In August 2012, she was named co-presenter of The Flowerpot Gang on BBC 1 with Joe Swift (TV garden presenter) and Phil Tufnell.

In 2017, she appeared as a contestant on Richard Osman's House of Games and participated in Channel 4's Celebrity Hunted for Stand Up to Cancer.

She was a contestant for Kirstie Allsopp's Celebrity Craft Masters; and on BBC 1's Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with Kevin Clifton and featuring regularly on It Takes 2.

In 2012 Rice and Patrick Kielty filled in for Alan Carr and Melanie Sykes on BBC Radio 2 which led to her confirmation in February 2012 as the successor to Zoe Ball on the Weekend Breakfast Show, live from 6am.

Since 2017 she has presented Junior Choice on Christmas Day morning, following the death of long time host Ed Stewart.

In 2017 she wrote and presented a two-hour Christmas special about Ronnie Wood, his art and music, called Paint it Black.

[citation needed] She presented the Adventure Series, making films about learning to scuba-dive, ski and sail, which were accompanied by books.

[citation needed] In 2015 she gave a piano recital at the Christmas Gala at the Kings Place, giving herself five months to re-learn, having not played since she was a child.

Rice filming Treasure Hunt at Hatton Locks in 1984
Rice at the recording of Challenge Anneka at the Royal Albert Hall , London, 1995