Monica Rose

Biography and showbusiness career Rose was born in White City, London in 1948. Her father was a London Underground train driver and her mother a cleaner at White City Stadium. In 1963, at the age of just 15, whilst working as a young accounts clerk, she was given tickets for a recording of the Hughie Green quiz show called Double Your Money. The show offered a choice of 42 subjects and offered £1 for the answer to a question given by the host with the chance to double their money from £1 up to a maximum of £32. The top prize was £1,000 . Rose was plucked from the audience to take part and despite only winning £8 (on her chosen subject of 'Famous Women') she had the strength of personality to persuade Green (he was "impressed by her cockney charm and manner") to invite her back as a guest hostess on the show six weeks later. She was quoted as saying "Coming from a rough council estate, it was a lot to take in. Being picked up in a Rolls (referring to a Rolls-Royce motor car) and travelling by private plane." She stayed for three years until leaving although returned to the show before it was taken off air in July 1968 as a result of the broadcaster, Associated-Rediffusion, losing their franchise later that month.

Personal life Rose left show business in 1977 and was admitted to hospital three years later suffering from a nervous breakdown. In 1982 she married Terry Dunnell a Baptist lay preacher and officer of a religious group called the Frontier Youth Trust. Dunnell wrote several books on Christianity including Mission and Young People at Risk: a Challenge to the Church written in 1985. Rose became a Christian and settled with him in Leicester where she worked as a checkout operator in a supermarket. She paid regular visits to a local young offenders' centre up until 1993.