Career: Rippon moved to BBC South West in 1966, then became a BBC news reporter. Although often wrongly credited as the first female newsreader, she became the face of BBC One's Nine O'Clock News when she began presenting it in 1975. She branched out to present the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977, and a year later hosted Top Gear. In 1983, she was part of the TV:am team but left, along with other presenters, shortly afterwards. A move to America led to work for a station in Boston, Massachusetts, where she wrote the Victoria Plum books. Rippon has also presented Cash in the Attic, Come Dancing, worked for Watchdog and the Holiday programme, and famously appeared alongside Morecambe and Wise in 1976. She also had a brief spell as a Dancing on Ice contestant in 2011.