Entertainment

Richard and Judy: Is This Morning return the start of a TV comeback?

The couple are to reprise their roles as hosts of the daytime show.
The couple are to reprise their roles as hosts of the daytime show. The couple are to reprise their roles as hosts of the daytime show.

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan have said their return to This Morning is not the start of a TV comeback for the presenting duo.

The married couple will reprise their roles as hosts of the daytime show on Friday.

ITV said it will be the first time in 18 years that the couple have presented together from the famous sofa.

Madeley, 63, and Finnigan, 71, launched This Morning, now hosted by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, 31 years ago.

They fronted the show for 13 years before moving on in 2001, but have said their brief return does not mark the start of a comeback.

“There’s no agenda here – ITV asked us to do a show, we thought ‘What the hell, why not?’ and it’s as simple as that,” they said.

The couple said they feel “no nerves at all” because they are doing it “purely for fun”.

Reflecting on the best thing about working on This Morning, they said: “Knowing, almost from the start, that this would be a groundbreaking concept – the beginning of US-style daytime programming in the UK.

“Granada Television gave us massive backing, there was real ambition to make it a success.

“We had a great launch team, great launch editor and total self-belief. So it worked.

“It was so important to get it right. If we’d screwed it up, that kind of daytime TV would have gone back into the fridge for years.”

They said they will treat their return as a “totally normal Friday show”, adding that there will be “no look-backs down Memory Lane, no cheesy compilations. We’ll just take the day as it comes, exactly as we used to.”

Richard and Judy will guest host This Morning on Friday October 25 from 10.30am on ITV.