Morning Has Broken (This Morning)

Member Name: stoffy

Product:	This Morning
Date:	10/02/02 (293 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Richard and Judy

Disadvantages: Twiggy, Uneccessary nudity

It's 1988. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan are the two most powerful leaders in the world. Inflation is rising, and necklines were plunging. You try to sell the ITV network you're new morning programme idea. "Right, there's two main presenters, a Mumsy one wearing pastel shades, and a man who looks like he just stepped out of a C&A catalogue. They'll talk for 3 hours about topics like contraception and flower arranging, assisted by an elderly squinting agony aunt, and a weatherman stood in the middle of the Mersey river…". Well, someone was a damn good salesman, because This Morning somehow managed to burst onto our screens in the late 1980's.

Occupying the slot after Lucky Ladders or Runway (the 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' and 'Weakest Link' of their day), it became far and away the most successful example of mid-morning TV in the UK. Its success was probably down to the pot purri of features that it had on. Fashion on a budget ("Yes, avacado and fuschia is so the next the look for 1991…"), to real-life stories ("So Esmerelda, just take me through the accident in as much detail as you can"), to cookery slots, where down to earth Yorkshire lass Susan Brookes, er, cooks.

Rich and Jude have grown a cult following. Richard always interrupts poor Judy, although when the cameras stop rolling, you know that it is she who wears the trousers. For some reason, anything that either of them did away from their slot was doomed to failure. Their chat show bombed after first interviewee, the man 'cleared' of two murders, OJ Simpson, was hardly given the Paxman treatment. A consumer show presented by Judy in the same mould as 'Watchdog' failed to give Anne Robinson or Alice Beer nightmares. However, they have also seen off their rivals - 'Good Morning With Anne and Nick', a pale imitation featuring the ex-TVAM presenters, flopped badly in the
mid-1990's after a fearsome campaign. Both have now faded into relative obscurity.

Their highlights over the year included the first showing of a male testicle live on air (no, Noel Edmonds does not count…), the rap over the knuckles for showing marital aids while people are still digesting their muesli, and Richard's Ali G impersonation. Judy's best moment, though was outside the cosy Liverpool studio that became their second home. By revealing her bra at the National TV Awards, she went from being famous to infamous - gaining numerous newspaper column inches. Of course a cynic might say that the subsequent ratings boost was far from co-incidental…

Other highlights include several kitchen accidents, Anna Chancellor saying the F-word at 11am and Fred having various streakers interfere with his islands.

After a few years of basing the show in London, they decided to call it quits. Everyone got tired and emotional (so what's new?), and we all waited with baited breath to see who the replacements were - Fern and John? Brian and Narinder? Cherie and Tony? Well, considering most presenters would have killed for the spot, it went to ex-model Twiggy and ex-Nolan Colleen Nolan.

Twiggy. The name that strikes fear into the hearts and minds of every TV executive. So wooden, she makes a Welsh Dresser look animated. Although she only lasted a few months, she did enough in that short time to send the ratings into a spiral. Her interviewing technique, (as seen on 'Take Time With Twiggy', a show in the graveyard hours of Sunday) left a lot to be desired - I mean, did anyone give this woman a screen test??

Colleen wasn't much better, as she intently listened to what the director was saying on the other end of the ear-piece more intently than the interviewees. As the quality of guests diminished (did George Michael ring up to wish Twiggy every success in her 'other projects
9;?), the bosses stepped in, and Fern Britton was brought back from the maternity ward to salvage some pride.

Fern, or Judy Mach II, has managed to prove more popular than her two predecessors, and has managed to bring the ratings back up. However, the last 12 months go to show, that without Richard and Judy, there is no 'This Morning'. As their new chat show didn't do too well, maybe they'll come back in the future. Let's just hope that Judy remembers to get dressed if they do…

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