Davina pays tribute to late TV fitness trainer
Davina McCall has revealed her sadness following the death of an award-winning television fitness trainer who was found dead at Beachy Head. The body of Angie Dowds, from ITV's weight-loss challenge show The Biggest Loser, was retrieved from the base of the renowned 535ft-high suicide spot by coastguards. The tough-talking 42-year-old had appeared on the programme since 2005 along with personal trainer Richard Callender and host Davina. A message posted on Davina's Twitter account read: "Rest in peace Angie Dowds @angechops. So so sad." Ms Dowds' agency, London-based Independent Talent, said she had touched and inspired many people, but had battled 'her own personal demons'. According to reports, Ms Dowds, from London, had contended with drink and drug problems and is believed to have parted from her lesbian partner earlier this year. Witnesses reported seeing a woman leap or fall from the top of the chalk cliffs near Eastbourne, East Sussex, just after 4.30pm on Sunday. Coastguards rescued her body from the cliff base about an hour later. Paying tribute, Richard said: "As an individual Angie was always fiercely loyal to her friends and that same passion with which she loved was also the same passion that made her such a successful trainer, mentor and inspiration. "She will be deeply missed."
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.