Yahoo News Richard and Judy remember This Morning's coverage of Princess Diana's death
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan have recalled their This Morning shows in the week after Princess Diana's death, with Madeley saying the tragic times were an example of the presenters 'at their best together'.
The daytime TV legends, who presented the show from 1988 to 2001, appeared on Kate Thornton's White Wine Question Time podcast, saying they'd had a 'back with a bang' show planned for its return after the summer break it used to have.
But after their son came into their bedroom on the Sunday morning her death in Paris was announced, Richard said: "From that moment, in many ways the world changed.
"And our day certainly changed. And we had crash meetings."
WATCH: Richard & Judy on the biggest story of their careers, the death of Princess Diana
Having been asked about what legacy they wanted to leave, the pair both agreed that a happy family was the most important thing they could create in their lives.
But Richard said: "If you want an example of something that I think we did at our best, and got the tone, the judgement right, at our very best together, I would say that it was the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, on This Morning, after the Sunday when it was announced that Diana had died."
Princess Diana had died in Paris on August 31 1997, when the car she was travelling in was pursued by paparazzi and crashed.
He said the couple imagined when going to bed on the Sunday evening that at least half of Monday's show would be given to the story.
"Well," he said, "we did, of course, the whole show [about Diana]. And then we had a meeting afterwards, [we thought] tomorrow, we'll probably do half the show on that. We did the whole show [on Diana]. Same on Wednesday, same on Thursday, same on Friday."
Saying it was 'the biggest story' he ever covered, Richard explained how the story changed throughout the week, going from the 'horror and the sadness and the tragedy of what had happened' on the Monday, to more complicated issues emerging in the following days.
He added: "You couldn't have predicted that by Wednesday morning we'd be having a massive national argument about the royal family per se not coming down from Scotland, to show to show their grief...
"It actually did look as if maybe the monarchy was going to implode in the space of a week. Of course it didn't, and it was never going to but it felt like it.
"I think the way that we covered that story and the guests that we got on to talk about it. Humbly I think that the tone that Judy had, and hopefully that I had, adapted to that rolling story, with sensitivity, but also with hard news values. And I would say that was the best week's work we ever did."
WATCH: Richard & Judy on family life, how they first met, and encouraging the next generation of talent
