Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes in 2009
Born	3 December 1959 (1959-12-03) (age 50) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Occupation	Radio/Television presenter
Years active	1988–present
Spouse(s)	Gabrielle Holmes (divorced)
Domestic partner(s)	Ruth Langsford (1996–present)

Eamonn Holmes (born 3 December 1959) is an Northern Irish journalist and media personality. He is known for his work on UK and Irish television, notably presenting GMTV and This Morning.

[edit] School

He went to St. Malachy's College in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Holmes studied journalism at the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, and worked for a business journal before joining Ulster Television, where he hosted Farming Ulster before becoming a presenter on regional news magazine Good Evening Ulster.^[1]

Holmes later moved on to network presenting in the 1980s Open Air on BBC1.

[edit] GMTV

He started at GMTV in 1993, after making his TV debut in 1992 as an earnest police constable in Inspector Morse. 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.

One infamous interview occurred when monosyllabic David Blaine appeared on the show on the 29th of August 2001. It was while Holmes was presenting GMTV that former Doctor Who actor Tom Baker famously criticised him in an interview with the Metro 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 reportedly 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.

[edit] Sky News

Holmes joined Sky News in October 2005 to present the new-look Sunrise programme.

[edit] Partnership with Ruth Langsford

Since August 2006, Holmes has co-presented the ITV1's daytime series This Morning, alongside long-term partner Ruth Langsford (or Fern Britton). Starting in September 2008 he and Langsford were became regular Friday presenters after regular co-host Phillip Schofield moved on to the same Monday to Thursday schedule as Britton.

Holmes and Langsford as fictionalised versions of themselves in Rob Brydon's satirical sit-com on life behind the cameras on a topical news quiz, Annually Retentive. They announced their engagement on 27 March 2009 during a live broadcast of This Morning.

[edit] Game Shows

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. He has also presented the BBC Two early evening quiz show, Sudo-Q that combined contestants' abilities to complete a modified Sudoku puzzle and to answer general knowledge questions.

He was the presenter of the National Lottery quiz Jet Set. On 20 May 2006, Eamonn's National Lottery programme, was invaded by Fathers 4 Justice protesters just as the lottery draws were about to take place. Holmes earned some media criticism for hiding behind his female co-presenter, Sarah Cawood, 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.

In 2007 he was a contestant on "Celebrity fit club", but due to work commitments had to drop out, though it has been reported that the real reason for his hasty departure was that he had actually gained weight in the first two weeks of the show.

In February 2004, Eamonn co-hosted the BBC One show Would You Pass The 11+, produced by Wild Rover Productions.

In 2006, Holmes hosted the US version of The Rich List which lasted just one episode before being cancelled.

[edit] Other TV Appearances

He has occasionally presented Songs of Praise.

In 1995 he replaced Des Lynam as co-host of How Do They Do That? with Jenny Hull in the 1990s.

Holmes was the guest host for an episode of The Friday Night Project for Channel 4.

In 2008, he made a guest appearance in the BBC Three sketch show, Little Miss Jocelyn.

In 2007, he presented Eamonn Holmes' 50 Film Favourites shown on EMAP Performance TV's music channels, including The Hits.

In 2008, he authored a film for ITV1 called The Troubles I've Seen in which he and other famous faces from Northern Ireland recalled growing up in there during the Troubles. The film was nominated for a Sandford St Martin Award in 2009. The Troubles I've Seen was a Bite Yer Legs production.

In late 2009, he presented The Friday Show, a six-part entertainment series for BBC Northern Ireland.

[edit] Radio

Holmes presented the The Eamonn Holmes Show on BBC Radio 5 Live on Saturday mornings between 9 and 11am for 6 years. The last edition of this programme was aired on 30 May 2009 as Holmes' contract with the BBC was not renewed.^[2]

He has also presented a Sunday afternoon show on London radio station Magic 105.4.

[edit] Writing

Currently Holmes has been writing a column for The People newspaper.^[3]

Eamonn Holmes' autobiography was released in May 2006.

[edit] Manchester United

Holmes is a lifelong fan of Manchester United. In December 2005, he opened the eulogies at the funeral of football legend George Best. He also introduced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at his testimonial against R.C.D. Espanyol.

[edit] In Popular Culture

Holmes's nickname is the Pillsbury Dough Boy, as it is said that he resembles the fictional cartoon logo from the 70's.

He has been parodied in the magazine Viz in relation to his weight and an implied predilection for pies. Even so, he appeared in the unsuccessful 2004 film, Fat Slags. He made a further and even less flattering appearance in the August 2009 edition of Viz. During a recent radio interview Holmes also admitted being a closet fan of the popular female artist Kelis.

In September 2007 he received criticism for publicly describing footballer Joey Barton as a "cunt" during an interview with Maxim. ^[4] He was also criticised following a live interview gaffe in which he misheard Salma Hayek describing herself as 'half-Lebanese', mistakenly believing she had identified herself as 'half-lesbian'. [1]

[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

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Eamonn Homes at itv.com
• Eamonn Holmes at the Internet Movie Database
• Eamonn's programme is invaded by Fathers 4 Justice on 20 May 2006
• Eamonn leaves GMTV on 27 April 2006
• Tom Baker's Metro interview
• Northern Echo, 8 May 2006.
• Eamonn's final split from show and wife