1 year
2 months ago
Carol Vorderman
Guest Director of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival 2009
Why did you decide to be Guest Director of the festival?
A: The Cheltenham Science Festival is fantastic. It’s quite an intimate science festival and it’s such a nice place to come to in all ways. I think it’s wonderful and this year I’m very proud to be Guest Director! What I love about the Cheltenham Science Festival is its purpose is to communicate science to the general public — be they children, or schools, or families. It is terribly important, even if you haven’t received a formal education in science that you begin to understand some of the issues.
You’ve helped to schedule some events for the festival. Can you tell me what they were and why you chose them?
A: One was geared towards children, called Magic Numbers. It was just some number tricks and card tricks, a bit of Sudoku and a bit of Countdown and gaming and stuff. That was quite nice and the kids love all that. Then in the afternoon, Facing Disfigurement was a debate with an audience of around 300 people. I am patron of CLAPA — the Cleft Lip and Palate Association because my brother Anton was born with a severe cleft lip and palate. I wanted that issue to be discussed. Anton came over from Holland and Felicity [Mehendale] who is a surgeon and specialises in cleft was also here. Henrietta Spalding from Changing Faces was talking about visible differences in people’s faces, and ‘normalising’ them. Working in the media, I see it from the other side as well, where there is a complete obsession with how somebody looks. We’re kind of fighting it on a double level.
Your Mum entered you for the game show Countdown. What do you think you would have done if that hadn’t have happened?
A: I had graduated a year before I started on Countdown, from Cambridge, with a degree in Engineering. I’d joined a company called Christian Salvesen and I was one of their graduate management trainees. Then Mum spotted this advert, wrote into Yorkshire Television who were making Countdown, and I ended up on the show! But I always thought at the back of my mind that computers — and I’m going back a long time, we were at the time when it was just mainframes — could really catch on, on a home basis. And also marketing always interested me. But I always thought that I could become an accountant if all else failed!
What exciting things have you got coming up? A: Well I thought I wouldn’t be working quite so hard this year, but I’m working just as hard! I’m heading a Task Force about maths education for David Cameron. And then I am writing my autobiography, which may not please some people when it comes out in October. I’m also working on things like Pride of Britain Awards, and The One Show. I’m deliberately doing a lot less telly this year and I am also establishing a new internet business. That’s taking most of my time… as well as guiding two children through A-levels, and SATs. And I’ve just finished building a house. So that’s kind of keeping me occupied!
Carol Vorderman talked to Sue Harris for The Times Cheltenham Science Festival on Thursday 4th June. Photography by Conor Cahill.
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We’ve tagged this post with Carol Vorderman, interview, science on Thursday 11 June 2009.
