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Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a British married couple who are both television presenters and columnists. They presented the daytime television programme This Morning from 1988 until 2001, and then hosted the daily chat show Richard & Judy from 2001 until 2009.
Madeley and Finnigan met in 1982 when they worked on separate programmes for Granada Television. Both were married at the time. After divorcing their previous partners, the couple married in 1986 in Manchester. The couple had two children together, both born in Manchester: Jack Christopher (born 1986) and Chloe Susannah (born 1987).
They hosted This Morning from its inception in 1988 until 2001. The series, a mix of celebrity interviews, household tips, cookery and phone-ins lasted approximately two hours each weekday morning on ITV. It first aired in October 1988 and was broadcast from the Albert Dock in Liverpool, although production moved to London in 1996. They were so closely associated with the show that the programme was often referred to as Richard and Judy, rather than This Morning.
Since leaving, Madeley has appeared on the show by himself, publicising his autobiography, and the couple joined the show's then-current presenters, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, on 5 October 2009, to celebrate its twenty first birthday. They returned to the programme for a one-off 25th birthday show.
In 2001, they quit This Morning, having been approached by Channel 4 to host a similar show, simply called Richard & Judy , shown for an hour in the early evenings.
The show was produced by Cactus TV, run by Jonathan Ross's brother Simon and his wife Amanda Ross. In February 2007, the couple publicly apologised live on air due to the discovery of a TV quiz phone scam regarding the daily phone in You Say We Pay, in which winners were selected early on but viewers were encouraged to continue calling the premium rate entry number. On the same show, Madeley and Finnigan took the decision to suspend the daily quiz until further notice. Later that week, the news media confirmed that police investigations would be pursued, meaning the couple could be subject to a police interview. Channel 4 have said that the scam may have been in force for two series of the show. The couple both denied being involved in the scam. [1] The scam was revealed by the Mail on Sunday newspaper after it was sold the story through media publicist Jonathan Hartley.
The TV show also launched two ‘clubs’, the Richard & Judy Book Club and the Richard & Judy Wine Club, both of which are similar in style to those used by Oprah Winfrey. The book club featured literature by new and unknown writers. One book was reviewed each week and the winner, named "Read of the Year," was announced at an awards ceremony.
In July 2008, Finnigan underwent a knee operation and took a short leave of absence from the show in order to fully recuperate from the surgery. During this time, Madeley was joined by guest presenters Emma Bunton and Myleene Klass and presented one edition of the show on his own (Wednesday 23 July 2008). Madeley said of the show which he'd presented himself, that "it was probably one of the best shows I've ever shot, but without a doubt the best show I've ever watched".
In 2008, it was announced that their Channel 4 series which began in June would be the last for the programme, which ended on 22 August 2008. However, they signed a contract for a new primetime show on UKTV's new channel, Watch. Their new show still contained features such as the "Book Club" and "Summer Read".
After seven years at Channel Four, Richard and Judy began hosting a topical prime-time chat show on UKTV's new digital channel, Watch. From 7 October 2008, Richard and Judy’s New Position was broadcast on weeknights at 8.00 pm. 200,000 people watched the first episode, with numbers declining to 53,000 for the second. Viewing figures consistently fell, eventually declining to 11,000 viewers; their Channel 4 programme had seen figures as high as 2.5 million. [2] Consequently, on 8 May 2009 it was announced that the show would end in July, the presenters saying in a statement that viewers "simply couldn't find us". [3]
Both co-wrote their autobiography, Richard and Judy: The Autobiography, in 2002, published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Madeley has expressed strong support for the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and applauded the Iraq War, claiming international law on the issue was "incredibly complicated". [4] He has been described as a neocon, [5] Blair's “self-appointed apologist”, and Blair's “yapping Pekingese”. [6] Madeley has condemned the former Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. [7] [8]
In an interview, Madeley named Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the person he most despises. [9]
Richard and Judy are mentioned in the song "Away from Here", which was released by the British band The Enemy [10] in 2007.
Anthony Howard Wilson was a British record label owner, radio and television presenter, nightclub manager, impresario and a journalist for Granada Television, the BBC and Channel 4.
John Leslie is a Scottish former television and radio presenter. Debuting on the Music Box channel in 1987, he later presented BBC One's Blue Peter, and ITV's This Morning and the gameshow Wheel of Fortune. He was also the studio host for the first series of the UK version of Survivor.
Judith Adele Finnigan is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's This Morning and the Channel 4 chat show, Richard & Judy (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard Madeley. Her debut novel Eloise, published in 2012, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, I Do Not Sleep, was published in 2015.
Richard Holt Madeley is an English television presenter and writer. Alongside his wife Judy Finnigan, he presented This Morning and the chat show Richard & Judy. Madeley's solo projects include the ITV series Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway and covering for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2.
Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE was an English television presenter, radio presenter, writer and producer. During the 1980s he was a regular face on British television, and in two years appeared in 50 weeks of the year.
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This Morning is a British daytime magazine programme that is broadcast on ITV. It debuted on 3 October 1988 and is broadcast live every weekday from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The programme features a variety of news, as well as show business, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, home and garden, food, tech, live phone-ins, and competitions.
Richard & Judy was a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 August 2008, but later moved to digital channel Watch from 7 October 2008 to 1 July 2009.
Quiz Call was a late night/early morning phone-in quiz TV show, produced by Ostrich Media for Five, Five US and Five Life.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show, created by David Briggs, Steven Knight & Mike Whitehill for ITV. The programme's format sees contestants taking on multiple-choice questions based upon general knowledge, winning a cash prize for each question they answer correctly, with the amount offered increasing as they take on more difficult questions. If an incorrect answer is given, the contestant will leave with whatever cash prize is guaranteed by the last safety net they have passed, unless they opt to walk away before answering the next question with the money the cash prize they had managed to reach. To assist in the quiz, contestants are given a series of "lifelines" to help answer questions.
ITV Play was a short-lived 24/7 participation television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV plc. The ITV Play name continued as a strand on the main ITV Network until December 2007.
A quiz channel is a television channel that focuses on phone-in quizzes. The quizzes usually focus on puzzles, such as filling in blanks, identifying subjects, or other forms of word puzzles. The channels make money by encouraging viewers to call a toll phone number for the chance to play.
Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast is a 50-minute television comedy special, written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood. It was broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day 1992.
W is a British free-to-air television channel owned by BBC Studios. It originally launched on 7 October 2008 as Watch and until 2022 was a pay television channel. On 15 February 2016, the channel was rebranded as W. The channel currently broadcasts crimes, dramas, game shows and documentaries.
Chloe Susannah Madeley is an English personal trainer and reality television personality. She is the daughter of Richard and Judy.
Quizmania is a British interactive game show. The show was devised by Chuck Thomas, Debbie King, and Simone Thorogood and produced by Fremantle Media for Information TV and ITV. Similar to other premium-line call-in shows, viewers on the TV version of Quizmania were encouraged to phone a premium-rate number in order to provide an answer to a quiz question.
The 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal, sometimes referred to in the press as simply the phone-in scandal relates to a series of controversies regarding the use of premium-rate telephone numbers by several British television and radio broadcasters. The first revelations began in February 2007, regarding the Channel 4 television programme Richard & Judy. However, over the following weeks, more allegations emerged regarding misconduct by major British broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The programmes affected included phone-in competitions and public votes conducted over a period of several years, dating back to 2001. As a result, adjudicators Ofcom and ICSTIS conducted several investigations, resulting in millions of pounds worth of fines and a reform in the use of PRS by broadcasters.