Tina Heath (born 1953) is a British actress and former television presenter. She and husband Dave Cooke have two children.

Early career

Her first television appearance was in 1969, when she appeared in ''Broaden Your Mind'' on BBC 2 alongside

Graeme Garden David Graeme Garden OBE (born 18 February 1943) is a Scottish comedian, actor, author, artist and television presenter, best known as a member of The Goodies and a regular panellist on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. Early life and education ...

and

Tim Brooke-Taylor Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE (17 July 194012 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian best known as a member of The Goodies. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and became president ...

. A one-off appearance in ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...

'' followed in 1970. She appeared in the ''

Look and Read ''Look and Read'' is a BBC Television programme for primary schools, aimed at improving children's literacy skills. The programme presents fictional stories in a serial format, the first of which was broadcast in 1967 and the most recent in 2 ...

'' serial '' Cloud Burst'' in 1974.

''Lizzie Dripping''

In 1973, she played the title role in the children's television serial ''

Lizzie Dripping ''Lizzie Dripping'' (released in its second year under the title ''Lizzie Dripping Again'') is a British television children's programme produced by the BBC in 1973 and 1974 (the second series was broadcast in 1975). It was written by Helen Cress ...

'' after first playing the character in an episode of '' Jackanory Playhouse'' in 1972.McGown, Alistair D. & Docherty, Mark J. (2003) ''The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama - An Encyclopedia'', BFI Publishing, , p. 76 Her character was supposed to be 12 years old, but in fact Heath was already 20 at the time.

Further Television Appearances

The BBC serial production of '' Jane Eyre (1973 TV series)'', (1973), followed, and Heath played the character of Helen Burns, the fourteen-year-old boarding-school girl who is cruelly birched by Miss Scatcherd, and who befriends the ten-year-old Jane when Jane is a newcomer to Lowood Institute. Other television appearances included a BBC ''

Play of the Month ''Play of the Month'' is a BBC television anthology series, which ran from 1965 to 1983 featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays (or adaptations) which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different wo ...

'' production of '' The Linden Tree'' by J.B. Priestley, in September 1974; '' Crown Court'', ( Regina versus McDowell), 1974, (which replaced 'The Traffic Warden's Daughter', which wasn't originally aired); ''

Churchill's People ''Churchill's People'' is a series of 26 historical dramas produced by the BBC, based on Winston Churchill's ''A History of the English-Speaking Peoples''. They were first broadcast on BBC1 in 1974 and 1975. It was produced to mark the centen ...

'' in 1975; Muriel Spark's '' The Girls Of Slender Means''; and '' The Sweeney'', in 1976.

''The Sunday Gang''

Her first television presentational role was on

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

's ''The Sunday Gang'' which ran from August 1976 on Sunday mornings, a role that continued for two years, where she met her future husband, Dave Cooke, who worked as musical director on the show. (Cooke took part in the 1981 ''

A Song for Europe A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...

'' contest as part of the group 'Headache', placing 7th of the 8th entrants.) Heath continued to act during this period, appearing in BBC Two's ''Maiden's Trip'' in 1977.

''Blue Peter''

On 5 April 1979, she joined the children's series, '' Blue Peter'', and left on 23 June 1980 to have her daughter, Jemma Victoria Cooke. She was the first incumbent ''Blue Peter'' presenter to become pregnant. During her 14-month stint, she had an ultrasound scan live on television and climbed to the top of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

, while heavily pregnant.I Love Blue Peter - Tina Heath presenter biography
bbc.co.uk; accessed 25 July 2020. In 1981, she returned to ''Blue Peter'', to model corsets alongside her successor,

Sarah Greene Elizabeth Sarah Greene (born 24 October 1957) is an English television presenter and actress. She co-presented ''Blue Peter'' from May 1980 until June 1983, and hosted the Saturday-morning series '' Saturday Superstore'' and ''Going Live!''. E ...

. In 2001, she appeared in the special ''Blue Peter'' pantomime ''Rock n' Roll Christmas'', where she played the role of 'Miss Dripping'.

References

External links

* 1953 births Living people Blue Peter presenters English television presenters English Christians Audiobook narrators {{UK-tv-bio-stub