Anneka Rice

Anneka shot to fame in the UK as the Sky-Runner in Channel 4’s “Treasure Hunt”, still Channel 4s highest rated programme. This firmly established her as Britain’s Action Girl. Before “health and safety” had been invented, she jumped out of planes, landed helicopters on submarines, pot-holed in treacherous conditions, climbed mountains and generally risked life and limb on a weekly basis.

She went on to devise the award-winning “Challenge Anneka” for BBC-l. Each week the Challenge team took on a seemingly impossible task which had to be completed entirely with the help of volunteers and donated materials and supplies. The 62 projects included the renovation of a Romanian orphanage, the equipping of a refugee camp in Malawi, and the building of bridges, soup kitchens, holiday camps for disadvantages youngsters, centres for the disabled, the list goes on. The Challenge programme raised millions of pounds worth of supplies and services for charities and communities and has left an amazing legacy around the world. The format has been sold on to many other territories round the world and Anneka is still closely involved with most of the projects..

When Anneka’s children were small she decided to change her life completely and took an extended sabbatical to raise her children and study at Chelsea College of Art.

Her radio work includes “The Waiting Game” for Radio 4, a nine-part series on pregnancy; “In the Life Drawing Class”, “Start the Week” and “Loose Ends” and she played herself in “The Archers” when the residents of Ambridge challenged Anneka to renovate their village hall. Earlier this year she was delighted to be invited back to open the newly refurbished village hall, 23 years on.

Anneka now presents The Happening on Radio 2 and is the regular stand-in on the Arts Show and Sunday Morning Love Songs.

She is busy revisiting many of her Challenge projects as they celebrate their 25th anniversaries. Some of these visits have been made into films for ITV and show a fascinating arc of social history and changing attitudes to important issues, such as disability and homelessness.

She has recently had her first painting exhibition, Exposure, and is working on her next one. She is part of Maggi Hambling’s Maste Class and her painting takes her all over Britain.