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Richard and Judy is the informal name for married British television presenters and columnists, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. They co-hosted the ITV [1] program This Morning from 1988 until 2001 and the daily chat show Richard & Judy from 2001 until 2009.
Madeley and Finnigan met in 1982 when they worked on separate television 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 is a mix of celebrity interviews, household tips, cookery, and phone-ins. It 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, promoting 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 teatime slot.
The show was produced by Cactus TV, run by Jonathan Ross' 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 decided 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 happening for two series of the show. The couple both denied being involved in the scam. [2] 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, and ended on 22 August 2008. However, they signed a contract for a new prime-time 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. Two hundred thousand people watched the first episode, with numbers declining to 53,000 for the second. Viewing figures consistently fell, eventually declining to 11,000 viewers; whereas their Channel 4 programme had seen figures as high as 2.5 million. [3] 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." [4]
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." [5] He has been described as a neocon, [6] Blair's “self-appointed apologist,” and Blair's “yapping Pekingese.” [7] Madeley has condemned the former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. [8] [9]
In an interview, Madeley named Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the person he most despises. [10]
Richard and Judy are mentioned in the song "Away from Here" which was released by the British band The Enemy [11] in 2007.
Richard and Judy are mentioned in the Vicar of Dibley, Animals, Season 1 Episode 06.
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 ITV's This Morning (1988–2001) and the Channel 4 chat show Richard & Judy (2001–2008). Madeley's solo projects include the series Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway (2007) and covering for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. He was the main relief presenter of Channel 5's The Wright Stuff (2012–2017), and since 2017, he has been one of three main relief presenters of ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain.
Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE was an English television and radio presenter, writer and producer. From the 1980s to the late 1990s he was a regular face on British television, and in two years appeared in 50 weeks of the year.
Yvette Paula Fielding is an English television presenter, producer, actress, and writer. In 1987, aged 18, she became the youngest presenter on the BBC television programme Blue Peter. With her husband Karl Beattie, she presented the Most Haunted series on the Living channel, via their own production company, followed by Ghosthunting With..., establishing Fielding as 'first lady of the paranormal'. She has appeared in a wide range of other programmes, from The Wright Stuff to Through the Keyhole and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.
Fern Britton is an English television presenter and author. She co-presented Breakfast Time in the 1980s and hosted the cookery game show Ready Steady Cook between 1994 and 2000 on BBC Two.
Elizabeth Sarah Greene is an English television presenter. She co-presented Blue Peter from May 1980 until June 1983, and hosted the Saturday-morning series Saturday Superstore and Going Live!.
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 in Ireland by Virgin Media One. The programme features a variety of news, showbiz, fashion, health and beauty, lifestyle, home and garden, food, tech, live phone-ins, and competitions.
Richard & Judy is 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.
Sarah Louise Cawood is an English television presenter, voice over artist and narrator. She is best known for presenting the BBC children's Saturday morning show Live & Kicking.
ITV Play was a short-lived 24/7 participation television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV plc. It aired as an interactive gaming channel, what its sister channel was planned to air before it was changed. The ITV Play name continued as a strand on the main ITV Network until December 2007.
The Mint was a live, late night, interactive quiz show with celebrity guests and live studio contestants filmed on a large extravagant set designed to look like the inside of a mansion. The programme, which was dogged by criticism that its questions were ambiguous and arbitrary, aired on ITV and ITV2, Sunday to Wednesday. On 26 February 2007, ITV announced that The Mint would return to screens later in 2007, however an announcement on 12 September 2007 confirmed that the show, along with similar late night phone ins, would not be returning.
Amanda Ross is a prominent British television executive known for her significant contributions to the television industry, particularly in developing long running formats, food and book-related programming.
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.
This is a list of British television related events from 2001.
Chloe Susannah Madeley is an English personal trainer and reality television personality. She is the daughter of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.
Quizmania is a British interactive game show. The show was devised by Chuck Thomas, Debbie King, and Simone Thorogood and produced by FremantleMedia 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.
ITV News Calendar is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Yorkshire.
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 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.