Janet Ellis Biography
Janet Ellis is an English television presenter, actress, and writer best known for her work on the children’s television shows Blue Peter and Jigsaw from 1979 to 1987. She has two novels out, The Butcher’s Hook and How It Was.
How old is Janet Ellis? – Age
She is 67 years old as of 16 September 2022. She was born in 1955 in Chatham, United Kingdom.
Janet Ellis Family – Education
Her father was a soldier who was stationed in various locations throughout Britain and Germany during her childhood. Sharon, her younger sister, is two years her junior. As a result, she attended seven schools in both countries, including Russell House School between the ages of five and seven, St Hilary’s between the ages of 11 and 13 (both in Sevenoaks, Kent), and Richmond County School for Girls in London between the ages of 13 and 17. She had expressed an interest in acting since the age of five and was accepted by the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, but her place was postponed for a year due to her age.
Who was Janet Ellis married to? – Husband – Children
Ellis met her first husband, TV director Robin Bextor, when she was 16 and married him when she was 21 in 1977. Sophie, their daughter, was born in 1979. During her time on Blue Peter, the couple split up. In 1986, she met TV producer John Leach, and their son Jackson was born in 1987. Ellis married Leach in 1988 after leaving Blue Peter. He was the managing director of the television production company Sunset+Vine, and they had another child, Martha, in 1990.
Janet Ellis Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $5 Million.
Janet Ellis Books
Ellis attended a writing course run by the Curtis Brown agency in early 2014, fulfilling a long-held ambition to write fiction. During the course, she began writing her first novel, which she finished and submitted to publishers under the pseudonym Jo Winter, the name of one of her grandmothers. Ellis landed a six-figure two-book deal with Two Roads after a bidding war. The novel, The Butcher’s Hook, was published in February 2016 under Ellis’ own name. She was named one of The Observer’s 2016 New Faces of Fiction. The book was nominated for the 2016 Bad Sex in Fiction Award in November 2016.
Janet Ellis Come Dine with Me
Ellis also competed in the Come Dine with Me celebrity Christmas special, which aired on Channel 4 on December 22, 2010.
Janet Ellis Doctor Who
She also appeared as “Teka” in the Doctor Who story The Horns of Nimon that year. Ellis left Jigsaw after four series to join Blue Peter on April 28, 1983. She co-presented with Simon Groom, Sarah Greene, Peter Duncan, Michael Sundin, Mark Curry, and Caron Keating over a four-year period.
Janet Ellis Illness
Janet has revealed that the grief that followed the death of her husband, John Leach, from cancer was ‘exhausting’. She also revealed that John, who she claims was not fond of public displays of affection, wrote a loving speech before his death and asked for it to be read at his memorial service. In her speech, Janet joked that John never wrote her any love letters during their marriage because it was not his style.
Janet Ellis Blue Peter
Ellis left Jigsaw after four series to join Blue Peter on April 28, 1983. She co-presented with Simon Groom, Sarah Greene, Peter Duncan, Michael Sundin, Mark Curry, and Caron Keating over a four-year period. She became the first civilian woman in Europe to free fall from 20,000 feet (6,100 m) during the race, but not before breaking her leg during training.
Her last performance was on June 29, 1987. It is sometimes claimed that Ellis was fired from the show because she was unmarried and pregnant with Jackson, but Ellis has stated in recent years that she was fully supported by the Blue Peter production team and that her decision to leave the show was her own.
Ellis reduced her presenting commitments after leaving Blue Peter in order to spend more time with her family. During this time, she hosted the BBC’s Open Air programme, co-wrote a book called How to Get Married Without Divorcing Your Family with her friend and ex-Blue Peter co-host Caron Keating, and provided voiceovers for a variety of advertisements.
She also co-hosted Danny Baker’s BBC Radio 1 show for three years and presented the Daz Challenge in TV commercials. In 2018 Ellis wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian newspaper in which she characterized Blue Peter as offering “…a view of a world worth growing up in”. She performed in the play “Once Seen on Blue Peter” at the Edinburgh Festival in 2018. “How It Was,” her second novel, was released in August 2019.
Janet Ellis Career
In 2000, Ellis appeared on television again. In a 2001 episode of the first full series of Waking the Dead, she played a TV reporter. Since 2002, she has been a regular panelist on the Channel 5 (then Five) show The Wright Stuff and BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House. She also hosted Housebusters on Five from 2003 to 2005. The documentary series Life Blood, which aired for a week in 2004 and was also on Five, and the Channel 4 series The Great Garden Challenge followed in 2005.
Together with Alexander O’Neal, Ellis made an appearance on the BBC reality singing show Just the Two of Us in January 2007. She was the second celebrity eliminated on January 3, 2007, despite being “saved” by Stewart Copeland on the first night. On that night, judge CeCe Sammy said that she had the vocal qualities of “a cat on speed.” Despite the defeat, Ellis maintained her sense of humor by declaring that she had “fun, a lot of fun.” Ellis narrated the BBC documentary about Kit Williams, The Man Behind the Masquerade, in December 2009. She appeared alongside her daughter Sophie on BBC’s Antiques Road Trip and was the voice of numerous Mexican gerbils in El Nombre; Cash in the Attic and the Bargain Hunt
Janet and her daughter Sophie appeared on The Million Pound Drop Live on Channel 4 in December 2010. Ellis participated in the celebrity Christmas special Come Dine with Me, which was also broadcast on Channel 4 on December 22, 2010. The prize, worth £1,000, was given to charity. Ellis came out on top, defeating singer Tony Christie and actress Susie Amy to take joint second place. Goldie, a musician and actor, came in last.
In order to raise funds for Maggie’s Centres, Ellis starred in a production of Alan Bennett’s comedy play Green Forms for a week at the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick in January 2012, returning to her first love of acting. Ellis took a Curtis Brown agency writing course in the beginning of 2014 to fulfill a long-held desire to write fiction. She started writing her first novel while she was in the class. When she finished it, her agent Gordon Wise sent it to publishers under the pseudonym Jo Winter, which was the name of one of her grandmothers. Ellis won a bidding war and signed a six-figure deal with Two Roads for two books. In February 2016, the novel The Butcher’s Hook was published under Ellis’s own name. She was selected as one of The Observer’s 2016 New Faces of Fiction. The book was included in the 2016 Bad Sex in Fiction Award’s shortlist in November 2016.