Countdown Cath

Catherine Hytner was the original Countdown Girl for television's famous show hosted by Richard Whiteley and which was in due course to make Cathy's friend Carol Vorderman famous. Cathy was born the unwanted fourth daughter of a brutally handsome Yorkshire plumber and a terminally vain, arty, half Irish mother in a 1950's working-class, inner city suburb of Manchester. Her neglected childhood years were spent always finding somewhere else to be, often at a hidden cost.

The 1960's see Cathy wholeheartedly embracing the cultural revolution to the full, but not making it to London.

In the 1970's after a brief unsuccessful attempt to build security on a shaky foundation, she comes out of it with a daughter to fend for too. She now enters a world where she is exploited in the media, like so many others at this time. Even when she gets a regular gig, that on the surface would appear to be a success, she suffers at the hands of the men who wield the power,

Until, she finally says..." No more of this" and seeks a more cerebral and respected path...

These are Catherine's memories.