UK NEWS
RICHARD AND JUDY TO SPLIT… BUT DON’T WORRY, THEY WON’T BE APART AT HOME
Richard and Judy
By Jane Clinton
CHAT show couple Richard and Judy could soon be going their separate ways.
Richard Madeley revealed there was little left for them to do as a team and said they would eventually pursue solo projects.
“I think we both feel we have done pretty much all we can do as a partnership in terms of the talk shows but I think probably we both feel the need to diversify,” he said.
“It has been over 20 years doing the same kind of thing and there are tantalising possibilities in terms of solo projects or doing one-off projects together. I am not saying we would never work together again – I’m sure we will. I am just beginning to write a novel which just dropped into my head one day and I am really enjoying it so writing is very important to me.”
The couple – columnists in our sister paper the Daily Express – enjoyed huge audiences with This Morning and then Richard and Judy.
But their recent move to UKTV digital channel Watch with their show Richard and Judy’s New Position has not been without difficulty.
“We knew before we went that however it panned out the viewing figures would be minuscule,” Richard, 52, said in today’s pre-recorded Desert Island Discs on Radio 4.
“We hadn’t jumped into this not knowing and we don’t mind. The only disappointment is the channel as a whole hasn’t really got traction.
“If I thought the show was a pile of old rubbish then I would feel embarrassed and so would Judy. But it is a good show and we are getting really good guests and we have to cross our fingers and hope the audience will build.”
Known for his confidence and his occasional on-air gaffes, Richard revealed that he was not always so self-assured.
“It was all very much an act,” he said about his early days as a BBC reporter. “I was very tense but you just have to crack on and hide it. I was very, very insecure.”
One guest he and Judy Finnigan, 60, had was the American actor OJ Simpson in 1996, after he had been acquitted of his wife’s murder. Richard thought the interview would put an end to their careers.
“We took the hit and had the worst reviews, totally understandably, of our careers,” he said. “I actually thought our careers had come to an end. It was the worst moment bar none.”
Among the music he chose for today’s programme was the Pie Jesu from Fauré’s Requiem, which both he and Judy want to be played at their funerals.
“It is something that Judy and I have fought over,” he added. “But I guess the first one to die will get it played.”
Desert Island Discs is on Radio 4 at 11.15am.
