Fern Britton

Fern Britton
Britton in 2009 at Wendy Richard's funeral service
Born	Fern Britton (1957-07-17) 17 July 1957 (age 59) Ealing, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom
Residence	Buckinghamshire, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Television presenter and author
Years active	1980–present
Employer	BBC (1994–2000, 2009– ) ITV (1999–2010) Channel 4 (2009, 2011)
Spouse(s)	Phil Vickery (m. 2000)
Children	4
Parent(s)	Tony Britton Ruth Britton
Relatives	Jasper Britton (half-brother)

Fern Britton (born 17 July 1957) is an English television presenter, best known for her television work with ITV and the BBC.

Britton came to national attention when she presented Ready Steady Cook between 1994 and 2000 on BBC One. Britton was presenter of ITV's This Morning programme from 1999 to 2009. In 2012, Britton participated in Strictly Come Dancing, where she was paired with professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev.

Britton was born in Ealing, London, to English actor Tony Britton and his first wife, Ruth Hawkins. She attended Dr Challoner's High School in Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire and the Central School of Speech and Drama, where she trained in stage management.

After working with The Cambridge Theatre Company, Britton began her broadcasting career in March 1980 in Plymouth working for Westward Television, the then-incumbent ITV regional company, as a continuity announcer and newsreader on the nightly local bulletin Westward Diary. After Westward lost its franchise at the end of 1981, Britton moved to the local BBC headquarters as a presenter with Spotlight in the South West, before moving to BBC One's Breakfast Time where she became the BBC's youngest-ever national news presenter.

Britton then went on to work at TVS in Southampton, co-hosting the South edition of the news programme Coast to Coast with Fred Dineage, as well as Coast to Coast People, The Television Show, Magic Moments and, as presenter with Stefan Buczacki, of That's Gardening. She stayed until the demise of TVS in December 1992.