Richard Madeley
Encyclopedia
Richard Madeley is a British television presenter and columnist. With his wife Judy Finnigan
, Madeley has presented This Morning
and later the weekday chat show Richard & Judy
. Solo projects of Madeley's include the ITV
show Fortune - Million Pound Giveaway and standing in on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show
on BBC Radio 2
.
, Essex
on 13 May 1956. His mother is Canadian. His sister, Liz Lawrence, is a teacher at The Anglo European School. He attended the Coopers' Company School
in Bow, London
, now relocated to Upminster
, Essex
.
Madeley began his media career in local newspapers, before moving to BBC Radio Carlisle
at the age of 19 as a news producer and presenter. He soon moved to nearby Border Television
as a reporter on the Lookaround
local news slot, before fronting its equivalent Calendar
with Richard Whiteley
on bigger Yorkshire TV
, and then on to Granada Reports in the early 1980s. Here he met Judy Finnigan who was assigned to assist him on his first day.
from its inception in October 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
, broadcast from the Albert Dock
in Liverpool
. Production moved to London
in 1996. The couple were so closely associated with the show, that many people referred to the programme as Richard and Judy, rather than This Morning.
Since leaving the show, Madeley has been featured as a guest, publicising his autobiography. The couple joined the show's subsequent presenters, Phillip Schofield
and Holly Willoughby
, in October 2009, to celebrate its twenty first birthday.
to host a similar show, 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.
In February 2007, the Madeley and Finnigan apologised live on air due to the discovery of a TV quiz phone scam regarding the daily phone in You Say We Pay. 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 admitted the scam may have been in force for two series of the show. Whilst Madeley and Finnigan urged callers to continue entering, it was confirmed that winners were picked in the first ten minutes of the show. The couple both deny being involved in the scam. This 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 successful "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. After seven years in production, the show ended in August 2008
, game show Connections
, the daytime quiz Runway
as well as a series on the world's wildest weather, Eye of the Storm. He hosted the ITV1
show Fortune - Million Pound Giveaway, and was presenter for the unaired pilot of the home video show You've Been Framed
.
Madeley hosted the popular news quiz Have I Got News For You
on 14 December 2007. He sat in for Richard Bacon on BBC Radio 5 Live
. Madeley also covered for Dawn Patrol presenter Sarah Kennedy
during the week of 27–30 April 2009, for Zoë Ball
for two months until 27 February, and for Chris Evans
' Breakfast Show, 26-30 September 2011, all on BBC Radio 2
. He appeared on Piers Morgan's Life Stories
in April 2009 and was a guest on BBC Question Time
in January 2010.
In 2002, the couple co-wrote their autobiography, Richard and Judy: The Autobiography, published by Hodder & Stoughton
. In 2008, Madeley wrote the book Fathers and Sons, which charts his family history; it was published by Simon and Schuster.
Madeley met Judy Finnigan in 1982 when they worked on separate programmes for Granada TV. At the time each was in their first marriage. The pair married in 1986 in Manchester. They have two children together, both born in Manchester: Jack Christopher (born 1986) and Chloe Susannah
(born 1987).
In 1994 Madeley was arrested for failing to pay for items, including champagne, on two separate occasions at a Tesco supermarket in Manchester. He was later acquitted of all shoplifting charges after citing lapses of memory.
In an interview, Madeley named Cuba
n leader Fidel Castro
as the person he most despises.
Judy Finnigan
Judith "Judy" Finnigan is a British television presenter and columnist. She has usually co-presented with her husband, Richard Madeley, and the two are collectively known, informally, as Richard and Judy...
, Madeley has presented This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
and later the weekday chat show Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy was a British magazine/chat show which was presented by married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. It originally aired on Channel 4 from 2001 to 2008 but later moved to digital channel Watch in October 2008. It featured the world's most famous stars, along with their Book Club...
. Solo projects of Madeley's include the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
show Fortune - Million Pound Giveaway and standing in on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show
Chris Evans Breakfast Show
The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is the flagship show on BBC Radio 2 in the United Kingdom. It is presented by Chris Evans from 11 January 2010, when Evans took over from Sir Terry Wogan who ended his stint as Breakfast presenter at the end of 2009...
on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
.
Life and career
Madeley was born in RomfordRomford
Romford is a large suburban town in north east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
on 13 May 1956. His mother is Canadian. His sister, Liz Lawrence, is a teacher at The Anglo European School. He attended the Coopers' Company School
Coopers' Company and Coborn School
The Coopers' Company and Coborn School is a 11-18 school in Upminster, in the London Borough of Havering, and is part of Essex.-Admissions:The school is a non-selective voluntary aided state comprehensive school describe by Ofsted as "an exceptional school of real excellence". The school excels at...
in Bow, London
Bow, London
Bow is an area of London, England, United Kingdom in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a built-up, mostly residential district located east of Charing Cross, and is a part of the East End.-Bridges at Bowe:...
, now relocated to Upminster
Upminster
Upminster is a suburban town in northeast London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan, and comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
.
Madeley began his media career in local newspapers, before moving to BBC Radio Carlisle
BBC Radio Cumbria
BBC Radio Cumbria is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Cumbria and broadcasts from studios in Carlisle.- History :The county of Cumbria, from which the station takes its current name, was not created until 1974...
at the age of 19 as a news producer and presenter. He soon moved to nearby Border Television
Border Television
Border Television is the ITV franchise holder for the Border region, spanning the England/Scotland border and covering Dumfries & Galloway region, a small part of the south-west area of Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders, parts of north and west Northumberland and the majority of Cumbria...
as a reporter on the Lookaround
Lookaround
Lookaround is a regional television news and current affairs programme, also including local sports news and local features of interest, produced by ITV Tyne Tees & Border at its studios in Gateshead, and serving the "Border" part of the region...
local news slot, before fronting its equivalent Calendar
Calendar (News)
Calendar is a regional television news and current affairs programme, produced by ITV Yorkshire at its studios in Leeds, serving Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and parts of the North Midlands and North West Norfolk...
with Richard Whiteley
Richard Whiteley
John Richard Whiteley, OBE DL , usually known as Richard Whiteley, was an English broadcaster and journalist. He was famous for his twenty-three years as host of Countdown, a letters and numbers arrangement game show broadcast most weekdays on Channel 4...
on bigger Yorkshire TV
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
, and then on to Granada Reports in the early 1980s. Here he met Judy Finnigan who was assigned to assist him on his first day.
This Morning
Richard Madeley and his wife Judy Finnigan presented This MorningThis Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
from its inception in October 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
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, broadcast from the Albert Dock
Albert Dock
The Albert Dock is a complex of dock buildings and warehouses in Liverpool, England. Designed by Jesse Hartley and Philip Hardwick, it was opened in 1846, and was the first structure in Britain to be built from cast iron, brick and stone, with no structural wood...
in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. Production moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1996. The couple were so closely associated with the show, that many people referred to the programme as Richard and Judy, rather than This Morning.
Since leaving the show, Madeley has been featured as a guest, publicising his autobiography. The couple joined the show's subsequent presenters, Phillip Schofield
Phillip Schofield
Phillip Bryan Schofield is an English broadcaster and television personality best known for presenting shows such as This Morning, Dancing on Ice, and various game shows including The Cube.-Early life and career:...
and Holly Willoughby
Holly Willoughby
Holly Marie Willoughby is an English television presenter and model, known for her work in presenting children's TV and entertainment shows. In her early career she modelled underwear and went on to present CD:UK...
, in October 2009, to celebrate its twenty first birthday.
Richard & Judy
They couple quit This Morning in 2001, having been approached by Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
to host a similar show, called Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy was a British magazine/chat show which was presented by married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. It originally aired on Channel 4 from 2001 to 2008 but later moved to digital channel Watch in October 2008. It featured the world's most famous stars, along with their Book Club...
, shown for an hour in the early evenings. The show was produced by Cactus TV
Cactus TV
Cactus TV is an English based television show production company.They produce the shows Richard & Judy for Watch, and "Saturday Kitchen" for BBC One.-Company:...
, run by Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...
's brother Simon and his wife Amanda.
In February 2007, the Madeley and Finnigan apologised live on air due to the discovery of a TV quiz phone scam regarding the daily phone in You Say We Pay. 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 admitted the scam may have been in force for two series of the show. Whilst Madeley and Finnigan urged callers to continue entering, it was confirmed that winners were picked in the first ten minutes of the show. The couple both deny being involved in the scam. This 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 successful "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
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
. 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. After seven years in production, the show ended in August 2008
Move to Watch
The couple transferred to new primetime show on UKTV's new channel, Watch. Their new show still contained popular features such as the "Book Club" and "Summer Read". From 7 October 2008, "Richard and Judy’s New Position" showed weeknights from 8pm. The show attracted very low viewing figures, with only 200,000 people for the first episode, and 53,000 for the second. Viewing figures since had consistently fallen, reaching new lows of just 11,000 viewers; their Channel 4 programme would see figures as high as 2.5 million. Consequentially, on 8 May 2009 it was announced that the show would end in July, the presenters claiming in a statement that viewers "simply couldn't find us".Other work
Whilst working on their daytime show, the pair have had time for other projects. Madeley presented several series of a TV version of the classic board game CluedoCluedo
Cluedo is a popular murder/mystery-themed deduction board game originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, England in 1949. It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham, England. It is now published by the United States game and toy company Hasbro, which acquired its U.S...
, game show Connections
Connections (game show)
Connections is a British television game show. It was produced by Granada Television and aired on the ITV network from 1985 to 1990.-Hosts:...
, the daytime quiz Runway
Runway (game show)
Runway was a daytime quiz programme that was produced by Granada Television and ran on the ITV network from 12 October 1987 until 19 February 1993...
as well as a series on the world's wildest weather, Eye of the Storm. He hosted the ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
show Fortune - Million Pound Giveaway, and was presenter for the unaired pilot of the home video show You've Been Framed
You've Been Framed
You've Been Framed is a British television show, produced by ITV Studios for ITV where viewers send in humorous home videos. It is currently narrated by the comedian Harry Hill....
.
Madeley hosted the popular news quiz Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
on 14 December 2007. He sat in for Richard Bacon on BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
. Madeley also covered for Dawn Patrol presenter Sarah Kennedy
Sarah Kennedy
Sarah Mary Kennedy MBE is a British TV and radio broadcaster. She presented her own daily early morning radio show, The Dawn Patrol, on BBC Radio 2 from 1993, before announcing her decision to leave the show on 3 September, 2010.Kennedy was honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2005, when...
during the week of 27–30 April 2009, for Zoë Ball
Zoë Ball
Zoë Louise Ball is an English television and radio personality, most famous for becoming the first female host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show and for her earlier work presenting the 1990s children's show, Live & Kicking.-TV career:The daughter of the children's TV presenter Johnny Ball and his...
for two months until 27 February, and for Chris Evans
Chris Evans
Christopher James "Chris" Evans is an English broadcaster, businessman and producer for radio & television.-Early life:Evans was born in 1966, in Warrington, Cheshire, England, the youngest child of bookmaker...
' Breakfast Show, 26-30 September 2011, all on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
. He appeared on Piers Morgan's Life Stories
Piers Morgan's Life Stories
Piers Morgan's Life Stories, also known as Life Stories, is a British television chat show presented by journalist Piers Morgan. Filmed in front of a studio audience, each programme is devoted to one special celebrity guest. The interviews are intimate, in-depth and emotionally-charged as Piers...
in April 2009 and was a guest on BBC Question Time
Question Time (TV series)
Question Time is a topical debate BBC television programme in the United Kingdom, based on Any Questions?. The show typically features politicians from at least the three major political parties as well as other public figures who answer questions put to them by the audience...
in January 2010.
In 2002, the couple co-wrote their autobiography, Richard and Judy: The Autobiography, published by Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.-History:The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged fourteen, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union...
. In 2008, Madeley wrote the book Fathers and Sons, which charts his family history; it was published by Simon and Schuster.
Personal life
Madeley's first marriage, at aged 21, lasted five years before the couple divorced. Madeley has stated that he believes the marriage was a mistake, and he had ten affairs. Ten days after Madeley's marriage began, his father died aged 49.Madeley met Judy Finnigan in 1982 when they worked on separate programmes for Granada TV. At the time each was in their first marriage. The pair married in 1986 in Manchester. They have two children together, both born in Manchester: Jack Christopher (born 1986) and Chloe Susannah
Chloe Madeley
Chloe Madeley is a British television presenter, freelance journalist, and model. She is the daughter of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.-Early life:Madeley was born in Manchester...
(born 1987).
In 1994 Madeley was arrested for failing to pay for items, including champagne, on two separate occasions at a Tesco supermarket in Manchester. He was later acquitted of all shoplifting charges after citing lapses of memory.
In an interview, Madeley named Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n leader Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
as the person he most despises.