Cathy McGowan

Cathy McGowan is best remembered as the presenter from 1964-6 of television’s ground-breaking rock music show, Ready Steady Go!  During that time she became a fashion trendsetter.

With its slogan ,"the weekend starts here", RSG was shown weekly on Friday evenings from 6-7pm. Cathy joined its original presenter Keith Fordyce in 1964.  She had initially been recruited as an advisor from among 600 applicants, had been working in the fashion department of the magazine Woman’s Own.  McGowan seemed to sum up the excitement of the mid-1960s - "the girl of the day", according to Eric Burdon of the Animals - and, thanks to her trendsetting fashion sense she soon acquired the eponym, “Queen of the Mods". After Fordyce’s departure in March 1965, McGowan continued to present RSG until it ended on 23 December 1966.

After RSG, McGowan continued to work in journalism and broadcasting. She was a board member of London’s Capitol Radio when it was launched in 1973. In the late 1980s she worked for the BBC's Newsroom South specialising in news from the entertainment world . In 1991 McGowan co-hosted with Alexei Sayle and Jonathan Ross a show by British comedians to mark the 30th anniversary of Amnesty International.

In 1970 McGowan married the actor Hywel Bennett star of such films as The Virgin Soldiers and the television series Shelley. They had a daughter, Emma. McGowan was divorced from Bennett in 1988 and, since the early 1990s, has been the partner of Michael Ball, almost twenty years her junior