Richard Arnold

Richard is GMTV's resident TV critic

Richard Arnold joined GMTV in 2000 as the station’s TV Critic. Born in Hampshire on 24th November 1969, Richard grew up in Inverurie, Scotland, having moved there with his family in 1981. After school he attended Edinburgh University where he gained an MA in English Language and Literature before moving to London to study at City University completing a course in periodical journalism. Whilst at City University Richard joined ‘Inside Soap’ magazine on a work experience placement. He joined the publication as full time Editorial Assistant on leaving University, and worked his way up the ranks to Feature’s Editor before leaving the magazine in 1995. Upon leaving ‘Inside Soap’, Richard joined the presenting team of the BBC`s ‘The Sunday Show’ and combined this with freelancing on numerous national magazines, writing columns for TV Quick, New Woman, Heat and Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine. Richard has notched up hundreds of hours of live radio since joining BBC Radio Scotland as resident TV critic in 1994. He presented a bi-weekly TV review for Radio 5 for four years from March 1993, fronted Liberty London Radio`s daily music and lifestyle show from May 1997 to November 2000 and has freelanced regularly as TV critic for Radio 5 live, and guest hosted for Smooth FM. His TV credits include hosting numerous programmes for Living TV including two series of ‘Loose Lips’, alongside Melinda Messenger, plus ‘The Good Soap Guide’, ‘The Inside Soap Awards’ in both 2003 and 2004 and ‘Psychic Live’. Richard also fronted an hour long special of Living TV’s popular ‘Most Haunted Live’. His work on ITV1 and ITV2 includes ‘The Planet’s Funniest Animals’ (2004) and ITV1’s first live interactive TV quiz – ‘Soap Challenge’. In 2004, Richard presented ‘Will on Will and Grace’ - a celebrity audience with Will and Grace star Eric McCormack. Richard also fronted backstage coverage for Living TV during ‘Miss Universe 2003’, ‘Miss Teen USA 2003’, ‘Miss USA 2004, and ‘Miss Universe 2004’. In 2006 he co-hosted Animal Planet’s ‘The Animal Roadshow’, and was quarter finalist on Celebrity Masterchef’s first series. March 2007 saw Richard host ITV1`s popular ‘Soapstar Superchef’ series, along with a third series of Challenge TV`s ‘Take It Or Leave It’ quiz show. In 2008 Richard appeared in ‘Celebrity Are You Smarter Than A Ten Year Old’ on Sky One, where he won $100,000 for charity. His first appearance on GMTV was in 1997 as the station`s TV Critic. After a brief gap he returned in 2000. He is not only known for his daily ‘Talking Telly slot but has co-hosted ‘LK Today’ with Kate Garraway, presented ‘Richard`s Little Britain’ summer show in 2005 and fronted the 2006 GMTV wedding – ‘Married In The Morning’. In 2007 he was given his own show – The Richard Arnold Show – which returned again in the summer of 2008. Richard has recently branched out into acting with several cameo roles to his credit including ‘Hustle’, ‘Talk to Me’, ‘Footballers Wives’, ‘Shameless’ and ‘Rock Rivals’. Richard also writes a weekly column in ‘Woman’s Own’ magazine, and regularly contributes to The People newspaper. Richard lives in London.