Rav Wilding

Rav Wilding (born 16 October 1977) is an English television presenter and police officer who, since June 2004, has been a presenter on "Crimewatch".

Early life

Wilding was born in Canterbury, Kent and is the second of five children. His father is from Mauritius and his mother is English. Both were nurses when they met. He attended Fulston Manor and Borden Grammar Schools in Sittingbourne, Kent just 10 miles from where he lives now. After secondary school he took an apprenticeship in construction before joining the British Army at 17. Due to his stature and physical fitness he was selected to undertake parachute training but a broken leg sustained on a training run cut a career in the Airborne unit short and after 4 years he left after medical staff advised him that it would be highly unlikely that his leg would ever be back to full fitness.

On leaving the army in 1999 Wilding started working at Harrods store in Knightsbridge as part of the security team. After approximately 9 months at Harrods, Wilding's application to join the Metropolitan Police Service was accepted and he started training school. Wilding joined the Service at the start of 2000 and was posted to Peckham in South London.

After two years as a policeman he responded to an advert for people to partake in a jungle adventure, to live for three months in an Australian rain forest for a new television programme on Channel 4 called "Eden". After numerous auditions and around 50,000 applicants Wilding was picked for the programme and flew out to New South Wales.

After three months in the jungle Wilding returned to Britain and went back to work in the police but this time in to the CID. Working within the CID, Wilding was posted to units focussing on robbery, burglary and major investigations as well as currently working on a Sapphire unit dealing with rape and sexual assault allegations. He was quickly selected for Detective training and soon became a Detective Constable.

"Crimewatch"

Wilding had to go through numerous interviews and auditions as well as formal television presenter training before being offered the part on BBC "Crimewatch", where he has been a regular since 2004.

In addition, Wilding has also appeared in various magazines and publications, including full page pieces in numerous editions of Heat magazine. In January 2008, he appeared on, and won, a celebrity edition of "The Weakest Link" and "Ready Steady Cook".

Wilding took a break from the police in 2008 to concentrate on TV work, and is now a regular reporter on crime issues for BBC One's "The One Show". He is also a popular corporate speaker.

Since 21 April 2008, Wilding has been co-presenting a new programme called "Missing Live", shown every weekday morning on BBC One.

In August 2008, Wilding hosted a hugely popular twenty-episode fly-on-the-wall series following the lives of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, 'Helicopter Heroes' on BBC One.

It is also rumoured that he has been approached by Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice, however this is currently unconfirmed.

After the popularity of Missing Live in 2008, it was brought back for another series and Rav is currently working on that. It is due in early 2009.

Wilding was also approached to front a daily Crimewatch show, which he is currently working on, targeting outstanding crimes in specific towns and cities across the UK. This is also due to run in early 2009.