Aircheck Tracker
Profile: Kara Noble: Born in 1954, the daughter of actress mother Marianne Stone and her late father Peter Noble, (editor of movie trade publication Screen International), Kara Noble's godmother is none other than Hollywood star Shelley Winters. Her first outing in the headlines came in 1971 - she was fined £5 by Bow Street Magistrates Court after admitting assaulting a policemen during a fracas which broke out between Hell's Angels and Porters at a Covent Garden Market press launch.
Ten years on, Kara was captured posing in lingerie, draped around a city businessman as one of London's first 'Kissogram' girls - at the time she claimed to have come up with the idea of a 'suspendergram'. Her big radio break edged closer in 1985 when she got a job as an assistant at Euston Tower's Capital Radio Headquarters in London - two years later, her big break arrived - joining Chris Tarrant's Breakfast Show as traffic and weather reporter in 1987. The duo soon carved out a popularity between them, as Tarrant, ever the quick-fire one-liner provider constantly teased and wound his female counterpart up, arguably in typical 'radio breakfast show' mode. It's believed one of Chris' breakfast show lines saw him comparing Kara's face to that of King Kong's backside. Ever responsive, Kara, known for her appealing, breathy voice, went on to carry out what turned out to be particularly regular voice-over work. As well as her radio work, she also provided the voice for children's TV character Wizziwig and appeared in the BBC TV medical drama 'Accident', in episodes 'Jack In The Middle' as a nurse, and as a junior nurse in 'Terri', broadcast in November 1979. Her role as a junior nurse in the show was reprised in December in the episode titled 'Purple One'.
Her work with Chris on Capital FM Breakfast carried on as far as 1995 - she once claimed that working for Tarrant was like being one of his 'harem': "I was kept in my place - sometimes I wasn't allowed to have an opinion - but if he didn't like it, he wouldn't talk to me" she is once reported as saying. After 8 years at Capital, 1995 saw Kara jump ship to fledgling new London radio station Heart 106.2 whilst Chris was joined by new, but short-lived co-host Zabe Newsome. Heart 106.2 station management, who went on to sign other ex-Capital Radio presenters, lapped up the publicity stemming from Kara's reference to her partnership with Chris who she claimed was "very selfish, rude and insensitive", alleging that he even refused to congratulate her on her new job at Heart - even claiming he tried to ban ads featuring her voice from his show. Kara commenced work with ex-Virgin Radio presenter Jono Coleman - achieving considerable success, but never beating Tarrant's high-flying audience figures over on Capital FM.
May 1999: Having maintained a lofty and popular position at Heart 106.2, Kara took a step which would fling her radio career in the engineer's spares box, as she dragged both herself and former co-host Chris Tarrant into a 'right royal scandal'. Whilst working at Capital Radio in 1988, Kara befriended a publicist by the name of Sophie Rhys-Jones, who would later become the bride of Prince Edward. One average day in 1988, in what was everyday banter, a photograph was taken by Kara of Chris lifting Sophie's bikini top. It was not until 11 years later that Kara decided to sell these photographs to national newspaper The Sun - just at the time Sophie & Prince Edward were preparing to marry. Tarrant immediately used his show to launch a strong tirade towards his former co-host: "To the person who has sold these pictures - you know who you are. Kara, how will you ever be able to look Sophie in the face again? I don't feel angry, I don't feel disgust - I feel deeply saddened. I am totally sickened by everything that has happened in the last 24-hours. The world is a less happy place than it was yesterday. There is a taste of dirt in my mouth this morning."
Despite the public flare-up, there was no grudge held by either Sophie or Prince Edward, according to a close friend of Sophie's, and the couple had 'moved on' from the incident. However, Buckingham Palace was less impressed and immediately made it clear that a complaint was being made to The Press Complaints Commission about The Sun publishing the aged photograph, reportedly sold by Kara for £100,000. Arguably, Kara's boss, Chrysalis Radio, owner of Heart 106.2 was even less impressed - they sacked the Breakfast Show co-host for selling the pictures. A former boss of Miss Rhys-Jones, Brian MacLaurin, who introduced Sophie to Prince Edward, commented how the couple thought it was time to forget the issue and that Sophie wanted to ensure Kara was left alone and not subjected to further media attention. Sophie & Chris had spoken and were fully aware of the pursuing paparazzi. Mr MacLaurin commented how the Royal couple felt Kara had suffered enough and that she should not be hassled - Sophie herself fully experienced at being hounded by the media: "Kara was stupid, silly and misguided - but she is not a traitor.".
The Sun, heavily criticised for using the picture, subsequently published a full-page apology the day after the photograph was published, and offered to donate all profits from the syndication of the pictures to two charities nominated by Sophie Rhys-Jones.
Back on the radio, there was a hole to fill at Heart 106.2 - after 5 years at then station, Kara's position was filled 'temporarily' by Erika North. Kara meanwhile slipped off into radio obscurity, only to reappear in the limelight briefly in 2001 as a contestant on a 'Controversial Celebrity' Edition of 'The Weakest Link'. It's believed Kara appears on the shareholder register of the exclusive London Cobden Club.
She's certainly kept herself busy over the years, appearing on ITV1's daytime talk show 'Loose Women' and programmes for GMTV, Living TV and the BBC. Over the years, her voice has graced shows and TV channels including: 'Wipeout' (BBC) 'Miss World 1999' (five) 'Star Test' (Channel 4), 'The Brit Awards' (ITV), TV Travel Shop, 'The Good Sex Guide' and as a weather presenter for Travel. Kara Noble's voice has also been associated with products for brands as famous as British Airways, Kelloggs, Mirror Group Newspapers, McDonalds, Kraft, Volkswagen, Littlewoods, Durex, British Gas, Mattel, and people behind the dough-boy 'Pillsbury'.
Her accolades include a Gold SONY for Best Breakfast Show in 1995 and 1997, Gold and Silver Awards in five further categories, a Sony Gold Competition Award in 2000, a Gold New York Radio Award for Best Breakfast Show, and Silver & Bronze in 6 further categories in the same Award ceremony series.
Whereabouts: Kara now lives in Los Angeles, and is registered with www.interactivevoices.com ( http://karanoble.interactivevoices.com/) (Thanks to 'Toadstool' Steve for updating AIRCHECK in September 2005) Her agent is based in Beverley Hills - details from her website at www.karanoble.com. She describes her voice as 'British - husky, sexy or bright and enthusiastic' and can work in either English or French, with appropriate English, French or American accents and provides a service for multimedia sectors including telephone hold, voicemail, audio books, TV and radio. Kara thoroughly enjoys her voiceover work, but misses the vibe of wearing headphones each day as she did during her radio work.
Having spent time flying between the US and the UK over the last three years on voice-over work, Kara has dropped some further roots in the South of France (having launched property rental business www.nobleapartments.com) - situated in the old part of Nice and premises that she completely renovated in 2005. She is also promoting apartments in Costa Rica and Greece.