Anita West

Anita West is a British actress and former television presenter.

Personal Life

Anita was married to Ray Ellington for six years. They had a son, Lance, and a daughter, Nina. They divorced in 1962 due largely to his constant touring.

Blue Peter

On 7 May 1962, she joined the British children's television show Blue Peter as co-host, following the departure of Leila Williams. She remained with the programme for only sixteen editions, the last being shown on 3 September 1962, later that same year, making her one of the programme's shortest-serving presenters (other than stand-ins Ann Taylor, Tony Hart and Sandra Michaels). She voluntarily resigned from the series because of her imminent divorce from the musician Ray Ellington and her own worries of the inappropriateness for a presenter of a children's programme in this era. West never divulged her reasons for leaving to the producers, who deemed her "unprofessional" for simply walking out on the show.

The length of time West presented Blue Peter was so short that, for many years, she was not officially recognised as a Blue Peter presenter, only being added to the official list of presenters upon the show's fortieth anniversary in 1998. In contrast, her replacement, Valerie Singleton, ahead of whom West had come in earlier auditions, became the show's longest-serving female presenter until Konnie Huq.