Phillip Schofield

Early life and career

Schofield was born in Oldham, Lancashire. He grew up in Newquay, Cornwall, where he attended Trenance Infant School and Newquay Tretherras School. When he was 15, his first foray into media was a Sunday show on Hospital Radio Plymouth.

After many years of writing letters to the BBC, at 17, Schofield took up the position of bookings clerk and tea boy for BBC Radio at Broadcasting House in London, where he was, at the time, the youngest employee.

Television

Aged 19, Schofield moved with his family to New Zealand, where he made his television début as the initial presenter of the youth music programme Shazam! on 23 February 1982. He also spent two years working for the Auckland-based station Radio Hauraki.

In 1985, Schofield returned to Britain, where he became the first in-vision continuity presenter for Children's BBC on weekdays for two years from September 1985. From 1988 to 1991, Schofield was the host of the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, a teen magazine awards show.

Schofield left to present Going Live! on Saturday mornings between September 1987 and April 1993.

In the early 1990s, Schofield moved to adult-orientated television with various programmes for ITV, such as Schofield's Quest, Schofield's TV Gold and Ten Ball. From 1994 to 1997, he presented Talking Telephone Numbers for five series and in 1996 he hosted a show about remarkable coincidences called One in a Million. Schofield co-authored the book that came out of the series.

In the following decade, Schofield presented the National Lottery Winning Lines programme for BBC One between June 2001 and October 2004. And between 2002 and 2006, he co-hosted the BBC quiz show Test the Nation with Anne Robinson. In July 2006, Schofield signed an exclusive two-year contract with ITV, reported to have been worth £5 million. The exclusive deal also meant he could no longer present Test the Nation and was replaced by Danny Wallace.

Since 2002, Schofield has been a presenter on ITV daytime show This Morning replacing John Leslie with Fern Britton until 2008 and with Holly Willoughby from 2009. In May 2008, Schofield's father, Brian, died from a long-standing heart condition, which led to Schofield taking a break from presenting This Morning. John Barrowman stood in for him until his return.

Starting in 2005, Schofield presented two series of Have I Been Here Before?, a daytime programme where a celebrity attempted to use regression to get in touch with a previous life.

Since 2006, Schofield has presented The British Soap Awards. Between 2006 and 2008, he hosted the programme with Fern Britton but since 2009, Schofield has hosted alone.

During the run of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, Schofield co-hosted the spin-off series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! Exclusive with Sheree Murphy. The show lasted one series.

In 2006, Schofield presented two episodes of the ITV game show It's Now or Never, before the network axed the show, due to poor ratings.

It was announced in the summer of 2013 that Dancing on Ice was to come to an end following the 2014 series. The final ever episode of the show aired live on 9 March 2014. Schofield will return to Dancing on Ice in 2018 following ITV choice to reboot the series after 4 years.

Since April 2008, Schofield and Fern Britton hosted a revival of the ITV game show Mr. and Mrs., renamed as All Star Mr & Mrs. In 2010, the show took a break but returned in 2012 without Britton.

From 2009 until 2015, Schofield presented the primetime game show The Cube and has hosted A Night of Heroes: The Sun Military Awards with Amanda Holden from 2009 until 2014.

In 2010 and 2011, Schofield hosted the annual comedy show The Comedy Annual on ITV. From 2011 until 2015, Schofield co-hosted the Christmas charity show Text Santa on ITV with Christine Bleakley in 2011, 2014 and 2015 and Holly Willoughby in 2012 and 2013.

In April 2011 and June 2012, Schofield co-hosted ITV's coverage of the Royal Wedding and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with Julie Etchingham.

In March 2014, Schofield narrated the one-off ITV2 show Educating Joey Essex. The show was commissioned for a full series which was aired throughout 2014. The show was commissioned for a seven part second series, filming began in April 2016 and the series will air in summer 2016 with the first episode titled "The Queen's 90th Birthday".

In December 2014, Schofield undertook a live 24-hour TV marathon to raise money for Text Santa, where, as well as appearing on This Morning, he appeared on various other programmes throughout the day, including being a guest panellist on Loose Women.

Schofield presented two series of the primetime game show You're Back in the Room for ITV in 2015 and 2016.

In 2016, Schofield travelled to South Africa with his wife, as part of a series of short clips for This Morning. Following this, ITV aired a 3x30 minute episodes in a primetime slot, called Schofield's South African Adventure. Since March 2017, Schofield has presented 5 Gold Rings, a new game show format for ITV.

Radio

While working as presenter of Going Live!, Schofield was also broadcasting on BBC Radio 1 with a Sunday show (also called Going Live). When Radio 1 made the switch from medium wave to full use of FM stereo in 1988, Schofield was one of the presenters chosen to help with the launch. During his 2005 appearance on Room 101, Schofield recalled how a large crowd gathered in expectation of Simon Mayo arriving by helicopter, having turned on the Tacolneston transmitter.

Due to a miscommunication, and the crowd being disappointed by Mayo's failure to appear, Schofield and an unnamed producer fled without revealing the news, and left the crowd – which included the town's mayor – still watching the sky. For this reason, and as a result of a later incident involving wing walking on an aeroplane leaving Southend Airport, Schofield chose Southend as one of his pet hates for the programme.

In February 2010, Schofield launched Radio Plymouth in Devon.

Theatre

Schofield tried his hand at theatre and took over the role of Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat from Jason Donovan on the West End stage. The second musical he performed in was the title role of Doctor Dolittle at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, before touring the UK.

Music

While appearing in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Schofield was approached to record a cover of "Close Every Door" to be released as a single. The single was released in December 1992 on Polydor Records and peaked at number 27 on the UK Singles Chart.

Wine

In 2013, Schofield began writing for the Waitrose Weekend newspaper and has been the face of wine in their UK stores.

Schofield also has a separate Twitter account about wine called @SchofeOnWine.

Personal life

In March 1993, Schofield married Stephanie Lowe, a BBC Production Assistant whom he met while at BBC Children's Television. The couple have two daughters, and live in Henley-on-Thames.

Schofield collects Bordeaux wines, an interest kindled by friend Jason Donovan. Asked in 1992 to introduce a compilation video for Donovan, Schofield refused to accept payment. Stock, Aitken and Waterman sent him two cases of Burgundy with a set of tasting notes; he joined the Wine Society two years later.

On 23 February 2017, live on This Morning, Phillip confirmed he was a supporter of Oldham Athletic A.F.C, as he was born in the town.

Charity

Schofield is a patron of the charity CHASE hospice care for children, which offers help and support to families of children who are not expected to reach their 19th birthday. In conjunction with rose specialist C&K Jones, he launched the Schofield rose in support of CHASE at Gardeners' World June 2006. Each rose sold attracts a donation to CHASE. Schofield is also an ambassador for children's charity Kidscape and age-positive charity Royal Voluntary Service, previously known as WRVS

On 8 October 2012, Schofield became an Honorary Patron of the Blue Lamp Foundation, a UK based charity which raises money to support emergency services personnel who have been injured in the course of duty.

Schofield was a supporter of the Text Santa appeal and co-presented their annual telethon each December alongside Christine Bleakley on ITV. In December 2014, Schofield presented Phillip's Live 24 Hour TV Marathon for Text Santa, which saw him present a live show for 24 hours on ITV3. He also made appearances on shows including Good Morning Britain and Loose Women. Schofield also abseiled down the side of The London Studios and climbed to the top of The Shard, both in aid of Text Santa in 2014.

Controversy

On 8 November 2012, Schofield interviewed the then prime minister David Cameron on This Morning, and presented him with a list he had obtained from the internet of five people named as paedophiles in connection with the North Wales child abuse scandal ("Prime Minister, here's a list I found on the internet"). The names of several former senior Conservative politicians were said to be visible on the list. Cameron responded by warning against a witchhunt "particularly about people who are gay". Schofield was widely criticised for this action, with broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby describing his behaviour as 'cretinous'.

Schofield later apologised (via fellow presenter Ruth Langsford, blaming a misjudged camera angle). Schofield and ITV later paid £125,000 compensation to Lord McAlpine.

Awards

2003

2004

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Internet presence

Following his creation of an account with photo messaging service Snapchat in late-2016, Schofield found himself the subject of a series of memes due to his unique use of the application. Shared on Facebook, the memes reached peak popularity in mid-2017. His vivacious facial expressions gained him a cult following and inspired the post-modern multimedia cultural movement informally known as Schofwave.

Television