Phillip Schofield facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Phillip Schofield
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Schofield presenting This Morning in 2013
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| Born |
Phillip Bryan Schofield
1 April 1962 Oldham, England
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| Citizenship |
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| Occupation | Television presenter |
| Years active | 1982–2024 |
| Employer | ITV (1993–2023) BBC (1985–1993, 2001–2006) |
| Television | Going Live! This Morning Dancing on Ice The Cube |
| Spouse(s) |
Stephanie Lowe
(m. 1993; separated 2020) |
| Children | 2 |
Phillip Bryan Schofield (/skoʊfiːld/ SKOH-field; born 1 April 1962) is an English television personality, known for presenting a wide range of high-profile programmes for the BBC and ITV from 1982 to 2023; presenting BBC programmes from 1985 to 1993 and 2001 to 2006 and ITV programmes from 1993 to 2023.
Born in Oldham and raised in Newquay, Schofield became the first in-vision continuity presenter for Children's BBC (CBBC) on weekdays for two years from 1985 in the Broom Cupboard, accompanied by Gordon the Gopher, whom Schofield worked with on several other projects including a CBBC series. He left in 1987 to present Going Live! on Saturday mornings between 1987 and 1993, also hosting the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party between 1988 and 1991. From 2002 to 2023, Schofield presented This Morning, where he was accompanied by several co-hosts including Fern Britton and Holly Willoughby. His other television work included Dancing on Ice, All Star Mr & Mrs and The Cube. Besides television, Schofield performed in the musicals Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Doctor Dolittle, hosted The British Soap Awards from 2006 to 2022, and did numerous adverts for We Buy Any Car.
In February 2020, Schofield came out as gay and separated from his wife of 27 years.
Contents
Early life
Schofield was born on 1 April 1962 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 career
1985–1993, 2001–2006: BBC presenting
Aged 19, Schofield moved with his family to New Zealand, where he made his television debut as the initial presenter of the youth music programme Shazam! on 23 February 1982. He also spent two years working for the Auckland-based radio station Radio Hauraki.
In 1985, he returned to Britain, where he became the first in-vision continuity presenter for Children's BBC (CBBC) on weekdays for two years from September 1985 in The Broom Cupboard, the former studio presentation for the BBC Children's services, which introduced his friend and colleague Gordon the Gopher. Schofield left The Broom Cupboard in 1987, with Andy Crane succeeding him in the role. He then presented Going Live! on Saturday mornings between September 1987 and April 1993. From 1988 to 1991, he was the host of the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, a pop-magazine awards show. 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. He co-authored the book that came out of the series.
In 1991, Schofield hosted a series named after Gordon which was shown on CBBC on BBC One and BBC Two and ran from 3 January 1991 to 28 March 1991, only lasting for a series of 13 episodes. The series was shown twice on BBC One, the first time being in January to March 1991 and again from 26 October to 21 December 1992. It continued where BBC Two left off with lunchtime repeats in Summer 1991. BBC Two have also repeated the series at lunchtimes four times from 18 June to 23 July 1991, 20 September to 6 December 1993, 9 March to 1 June 1994, and 17 January 1995 to 28 March 1995. It has not been repeated since 28 March 1995 on the BBC.
In the following decade, Schofield presented the National Lottery Winning Lines programme for BBC One between June 2001 and October 2004. Between 2002 and 2006, he co-hosted the BBC quiz show Test the Nation with Anne Robinson. In July 2006, he 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 he was replaced by Danny Wallace.
1993–2023: ITV presenting
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In August 2002, Schofield became a presenter on the ITV daytime show This Morning, joining John Leslie and Fern Britton on Fridays. In October of that year, Leslie stepped aside from the programme after allegations about his personal life, and Schofield replaced him as Britton's co-host, first on a temporary and then a permanent basis. In May 2008, Schofield's father died from a long-standing heart condition, after which Schofield took a break from presenting This Morning. John Barrowman stood in for him until his return. In 2009, Holly Willoughby replaced Britton as Schofield's co-host. Schofield and Willoughby had a close friendship, with Schofield describing her as "the sister he never had", and they presented the programme together from Monday to Thursday mornings until Schofield's departure in May 2023 and Willougby's departure four months later in October 2023.
During his 2005 Room 101 appearance, Schofield made an attempt to place Gordon in Room 101 (i.e., consign him to the past), but in an audience vote Gordon was spared. Gordon also made a brief appearance with Schofield during a 1980s-themed edition of Dancing on Ice in February 2009. He also made a brief appearance on 5 February 2012 edition. Gordon appeared on This Morning on 13 September 2010 to celebrate Schofield's 25th anniversary of first presenting CBBC. Schofield said "I miss him". Starting in 2005, Schofield presented two series of Have I Been Here Before?, a daytime programme in which a celebrity attempted to use regression to get in touch with a previous life.
From 2006 to 2023, he presented The British Soap Awards. Between 2006 and 2008, he hosted the programme with Britton. During the run of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, he 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 cancelled the show, due to poor ratings. In April 2008, he and Britton began hosting 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.
Schofield presented Dancing on Ice on ITV with Willoughby from 2006 until 2011 and Christine Bleakley from 2012 until 2014. It was announced in the summer of 2013 that Dancing on Ice was to come to an end following the 2014 series. Schofield returned to co-present the show with Willoughby in 2018 following ITV's choice to bring the series back after four years away. From 2009 until 2015, he presented the primetime game show The Cube, which offered contestants the chance to win a top prize of £250,000. Schofield returned to present the show in 2020 following ITV's choice to reboot the series after five years away, although it was later put on hiatus again in 2022. The only winner of the series was runner Mo Farah, who successfully completed the final game on an episode of a 2012 celebrity series in which British gold medallist athletes competed for charity.
Schofield 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, He co-hosted the Christmas charity show Text Santa on ITV with Bleakley in 2011, 2014 and 2015 and Willoughby in 2012 and 2013. In December 2014, he 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.
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 aired in summer 2016 with the first episode titled "The Queen's 90th Birthday". He presented two series of the primetime game show You're Back in the Room for ITV in 2015 and 2016. In 2018, Schofield and Willoughby made a cameo appearance on Coronation Street, when they interviewed Rosie Webster, Craig Tinker and Gemma Winter on This Morning.
In 2016, Schofield travelled to South Africa with his wife Stephanie Lowe, as part of a series of short clips for This Morning. Following this, ITV aired three thirty-minute episodes in a primetime slot, called Schofield's South African Adventure. Since March 2017, he has presented 5 Gold Rings, a new game show format for ITV. In 2017, Schofield presented three-part factual series How To Spend It Well at Christmas with Phillip Schofield in which he tested the latest must-have festive gifts. The series concluded in 2022.
From 2011 to 2022, Schofield was involved in several television programmes about the British royal family. In April 2011 and June 2012, Schofield co-hosted ITV's coverage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with Julie Etchingham, and in May 2018 they co-hosted ITV's coverage of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle's wedding. In 2016, Schofield worked with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on the programme When Phillip Met Prince Philip: 60 Years of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the youth awards programme. Following Prince Phillip's death in April 2021, Schofield co-hosted the ITV tribute programme Prince Philip, Fondly Remembered with Etchingham. During the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, Schofield presented two programmes celebrating the occasion; first with Willoughby on This Morning at Windsor Castle and secondly the ITV programme The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebration, co-hosted by Etchingham.
Boris Johnson selfie
In December 2019, during the 2019 general election, Schofield and Willoughby were criticised for a "giggly" interview with then prime minister Boris Johnson. The co-hosts' decision to take a selfie with Johnson was also criticised, and viewers raised a "lack of professionalism" and "clear bias". Schofield defended the stunt writing: "Can I point out that if Mr Corbyn had asked for a selfie, we would have happily obliged." Viewers argued that the pair had been more critical when interviewing Jeremy Corbyn, who faced repeated calls to apologise for accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. Viewers noted that Islamophobia in the Conservative Party was not raised with Johnson. Ofcom received 149 complaints.
