Liz Barker

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Elizabeth Jane Barker (born 16 May 1975) is an English television presenter.

Born in Cambridge, Barker grew up in the village of Oakington, near Cambridge and attended Impington Village College before undertaking a philosophy degree at the University of Southampton. After this was completed, she became a runner for independent production company Lion TV, a researcher, and eventually the sports presenter for BBC Choice programme Backstage.

Career[]

On 23 June 2000 Barker joined the children's television programme Blue Peter. During her six years on the programme she reported from Vietnam, Morocco, Brazil, Austria, Greece, India and the US. Her adventures included an inverted spin in a jet, lawn mower racing, paragliding, walking a circus high-wire, cleaning windows at London's Canary Wharf tower.^[1] and won a bronze medal in the two-woman Bob at the British Bobsleigh championships.

She interviewed top celebrities, including David Beckham and Quentin Blake. She flew to Las Vegas to present Elton John with a Gold Blue Peter badge and once held the Guinness World Record for putting a duvet cover on. She met the Queen at BBC Television Centre, where her colleague Simon Thomas presented Her Majesty with a Gold Blue Peter badge. She also raced former Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton at go-karts.

During her time on Blue Peter, Liz took on a number of acting roles, including three 60-minute Christmas specials, adventure serial The Quest and cameos as Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and Beatrix Potter.

In 2003, Barker won the Children & Youth category in the CRE Race in the Media Awards for her film on Auschwitz for the Holocaust Memorial Day with survivor Kitty Hart-Moxon.

On 25 May 2004 Barker announced that she was pregnant with her first child, by husband Michael Todd. A boy, Dexter Jack Barker Todd, was born on Saturday 4 December 2004^[2] and featured on the show many times, including at just 13 days old, on his first birthday and on Barker's leaving date. While Barker was pregnant, scan images were also shown. She became the first presenter to rejoin Blue Peter after having a baby, but on 23 January 2006 she told viewers that she would be leaving the programme at Easter and moving away from London so she could spend more time with Dexter and the rest of her family. She was replaced by Zöe Salmon, who originally took Liz's place in December 2004 when she had her baby.

During her six years on Blue Peter Barker presented with Konnie Huq, Simon Thomas, Matt Baker, Zöe Salmon and Gethin Jones.

On 11 April 2006 Barker left the programme with a special This Is Your Life-style show devoted to her, featuring former presenters, family, friends and people she had met along her Blue Peter travels, including Kitty Hart-Moxon. She also announced, on her last live show, that she would be co-presenting a new CBBC show, Totally Doctor Who, with CBBC's Barney Harwood; the first episode was broadcast on 13 April 2006.

She has gone on to do voiceovers, such as on the Sony PlayStation game Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party.

On 18 September 2006 it was announced on Blue Peter that Liz was due to have another baby and on 20 February 2007 it was announced on Blue Peter that she had given birth to a girl called Poppy.

She has since given birth to Rocco Winston Todd in 2011 and Gus Lennon Todd in 2013.

After she left TV Barker spent several years decorating cakes at her family's chain of bakeries. She is currently a radio presenter on radio station Cambridge 105.^[3]

In July 2019, she appeared in the WriteOn production Sink or Swim at the Corpus Playroom, Cambridge.^[4]

She presents the annual Fiver Awards, held in London, and was the voiceover artist for the 2016, 2017 & 2018 NMG Awards, held in Cambridge.

Personal life[]

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Liz is married to Michael Todd and they have four children. She has one younger sister, Suzanne (Suzie). She has two rabbits named Cosmo and Thumper, two cats named Coco and Purdy, and three chickens called Marilyn, Ethel, and Gwen. She is a member of the Barker family that owns a well-known chain of bakeries in and around Cambridge.

Filmography[]

References[]