He died suddenly yesterday only two days after a heart operation. He had been hospital since last month after catching pneumonia but friends of the 61-year-old had thought him on the road to recovery.
Carol Vorderman was said to be "absolutely devastated" by his death. Her agent, John Miles, said he had spoken to her yesterday morning and Whiteley was fine. He then received a second call from her in the evening bearing the bad news.
"Carol is absolutely devastated, she is so devastated," he said. "He was such a good friend whom she loved dearly - they had 23 years of making programmes together, that’s about 4,000 programmes. He was very special to Carol."
He opened the first programme with the characteristically cheesy words, "As the countdown to the launch of a new channel ends, a new Countdown begins."
Born on December 28, 1943, in Baildon, Bradford, Whiteley won a scholarship to Giggleswick public school near Settle in the Yorkshire Dales before attending Christ’s College, Cambridge. There he made his first real steps into the media as editor of the student newspaper, Varsity, and came away with a "crappy Third" in English.
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