Yahoo News This Morning's Richard and Judy on a time Kate Thornton stepped in after Brit Awards
Former This Morning duo Richard and Judy have reminisced about their time on the show, with Kate Thornton remembering a time she stood in for Judy while hungover from the Brit Awards the night before.
Richard and Judy spoke to Thornton on her White Wine Question Time podcast about their broadcast careers, and conversation turned to the time they worked together on This Morning.
Thornton recalled turning up at the ITV studio to find out Judy was off sick, and Richard asked her to stand in for a lot of the show.
"We were doing haggis tasting," Thornton said. "And I really thought I was going to throw up on air. And I really didn't want to say to you — I'm sure I stank of booze — 'Richard, I can't do this'. Because I was standing in for the great Judy Finnigan. But I was hanging."
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She said the couple, who married in 1986, had always 'paid it forward' and that their encouragement 'meant the world' when she was just starting out. Thornton went on to be a regular stand-in presenter on the show.
After a night at the Brit Awards, Thornton said she had been up all night making a video piece for the daytime TV show, and was planning to go and do her four minutes on the sofa.
She said: "I can get away with that, and then I'm going to go home and faceplant. And what happened was this, I go into the studio, and Judy was sick. And [Richard] said: 'Oh, Kate, lovely to see you. Come on, step in.' And you basically brought me in for most of the show."
Richard replied: "I do remember you sitting in but I don't remember you suffering at all. I don't remember that bit at all. Happy days!"
Thanking the pair for the support they had offered her and other young journalists at the start of their careers, she said the couple, who presented the show from 1988 until 2001, didn't take credit for ideas put forward by youngsters or pass them on to someone else.
She said: "You encouraged all of us to grow, and you endorsed us and even just coming out of a [video segment] when you'd say 'great work', that meant the world when you were just starting out. So you really did pay it forward."
Judy, who ended her broadcast career in 2015, said she had 'always loved' working with younger people and seeing people shine, saying she could tell 'from very early on' who would go on to do well.
Read more: Richard and Judy remember This Morning's coverage of Princess Diana's death
She said she'd seen so many of the people who had come through their first jobs on This Morning go on to big jobs in TV.
"One of the really gratifying things," she explained, "is that you can always spot the good ones, you really can. You can always spot [it], virtually from their first day, if they're going to be do really well.
And it's a quality, it's certainly intelligence that's really important, but it's also a kind of quality, enthusiasm and openness, and willingness to work hard.
"It gives us huge pleasure to see people now in these wonderful, great positions while we're old and kind of faded."
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