John Richard Whiteley OBE (December 28, 1943 – June 26, 2005) was a British television presenter and journalist, most famous for presenting Countdown, a letters and numbers arrangement game show on Channel 4. An edition of this show was the launch programme for Channel 4 and he was on record as saying he wanted to be remembered for being the first person to be seen on the channel.

Born in Bradford in Yorkshire, Whiteley was educated at Giggleswick School in Yorkshire, and at Christ's College, Cambridge where he received, in his words, "a crappy third". The suits and ties he wore for Countdown had a reputation for their garishness, and it was fairly frequent for his co-presenter, Carol Vorderman, to comment on this. Whiteley also told many anecdotes and puns, which were often met by groans from other presenters and members of the audience. He had a cameo role as himself in the film About a Boy.

He was nicknamed Twice Nightly Whiteley, in reference to the time when he would present Yorkshire Television's Calendar News and the Countdown programme in the same evening, which continued until 1995. In a self-deprecating joke, he often altered this to Once Yearly, Nearly.

Whiteley had moderate international fame from a much-used clip of him being bitten by a ferret in a 1977 Calendar interview. He was also one of the first journalists at the scene of the 1984 Brighton bombing, having been in Brighton's Grand Hotel at the time of the explosion. He secured the scoop of being the first journalist to interview the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, after the bombing.

He held the honorary title of "Mayor of Wetwang".

Whiteley presented the most television programmes in history, and was awarded an OBE in the June 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to Broadcasting.

His partner was Kathryn Apanowicz, an actress.

He died on 26 June 2005 at Leeds General Infirmary shortly after an operation to combat an infection in a heart valve following a serious case of pneumonia. Shortly beforehand he had missed his first shows on Countdown in 23 years.

Mr. Whiteley will be greatly missed by all of his many, many fans. If you would like to make your own private tribute to the master of countdown, then scratch his name onto wooden surfaces and the like.I am quite sure that even the smallest tribute to him will mean a great deal to his friends, family and the one they call CAROL VORDERMAN.

R.I.P RICHARD WHITELEY.