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Eamonn Holmes
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Eamonn Reginald Holmes (born 3 December 1959) is an Irish television and radio presenter based in England. His prolific presenting across many programmes and channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland and hectic schedule was often parodied in the media to the extent that he was said to hold a monopoly.
ent to St. Malachy's College in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This Catholic Grammar School located in inner city Belfast is the second oldest Catholic all boys school in Northern Ireland and the school itself has produced famous faces other than Eamonn including footballer Martin O'Neill.
es 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.
Holmes later moved on to network presenting in the 1980s Open Air on BBC1.
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Encyclopedia
Eamonn Reginald Holmes (born 3 December 1959) is an Irish television and radio presenter based in England. His prolific presenting across many programmes and channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland and hectic schedule was often parodied in the media to the extent that he was said to hold a monopoly.
School
He went to St. Malachy's College in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This Catholic Grammar School located in inner city Belfast is the second oldest Catholic all boys school in Northern Ireland and the school itself has produced famous faces other than Eamonn including footballer Martin O'Neill.
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.
Holmes later moved on to network presenting in the 1980s Open Air on BBC1. He is to date best known for presenting GMTV from 1993 until 2005. He has also occasionally presented Songs of Praise. He also presented How do they do that? with Jenny Hull in the 1990s.
He started at GMTV in 1993. 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 interview which was memorable for all the wrong reasons occurred when a monosyllabic David Blaine appeared on the show on 29 August 2001.
It was while presenting GMTV that former Doctor Who actor Tom Baker famously criticised Holmes 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 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.
Holmes joined Sky News in October 2005 to present the new-look Sunrise programme. Other commitments at that time included the National Lottery quiz Jet Set, a Radio Five Live programme on Saturday mornings, a column in a national newspaper and a Sunday afternoon slot on London radio station Magic 105.4.
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. Recently 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.
In December 2005, he opened the eulogies at the funeral of football legend George Best. He is a lifelong fan of Manchester United. Eamonn Holmes' autobiography was released in May 2006. 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.
In February 2004, Eamonn co-hosted the BBC One show Would You Pass The 11+, produced by Wild Rover Productions. Holmes was the guest host for an episode of The Friday Night Project for Channel 4.
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.
Since August 2006, Eamonn has co-presented the ITV1's daytime series This Morning, alongside long-term partner Ruth Langsford or Fern Britton. From September 2008, he will present along side Ruth every Friday, as Phillip Schofield will now mirror Fern Britton's Monday to Thursday schedule.
In April 2007 Eamonn and Ruth appeared as fictionalised versions of themselves in Rob Brydon's satirical sit-com on life behind the cameras on a topical news quiz, Annually Retentive.
Currently Holmes has been writing a column for The People newspaper.
In 2007, he presented Eamonn Holmes' 50 Film Favourites shown on EMAP Performance TV's music channels, including The Hits .
In 2008, he made a guest appearance in the BBC Three sketch show, Little Miss Jocelyn.
In September 2007 he received criticism for publicly describing footballer Joey Barton as a "cunt" during an interview with Maxim. . 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 as 'half-lesbian'
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.
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