Judy Finnigan - Biography

In a nutshell

Judy Finnigan is one of the most recognisable faces of British television thanks to her partnership with Richard ? you know, the one who dessed up as Ali G and made a whole nation cringe into their cuppa.

After attending school in Manchester and going onto University in Bristol, Judy got a job at Granada TV as a researcher before moving to Anglia TV where she worked as a reporter of their regional news programme. She met her husband, Richard Madely, in 1982, a time when she was already married. By 1986 ? voila! ? they'd married each other and history was being written. Hooray!

They couple have two kids alongside the twin sons that Judy had in her first marriage. So, what to do with two journalist types? Give them their own show of course. This Morning started on ITV in 1988, broadcast from the docks in Liverpool. A massive hit, they moved down to London in 1996 to attract bigger stars to come and sit on the sofa.

After quitting ITV, Judy (with Richard mindlessly chatting alongside) jumped across to Channel 4 where they produced and presented their new show, Richard & Judy, until it ended in 2008. Now, even though we love Judy, it all went a little bit wrong when they decided to do yet another new show on satellite channel, 'Watch'. One of their worst nights brought in just 20,000 viewers to the show ? ouch.

Okay, the boring bits are out of the way so now we can talk about boobs. At the 2000 National Television Awards, in front of millions of viewers, Judy's dress just popped open when she went to receive the award for Most Popular Daytime programme. We don't wear dresses so don't have a clue how one can just 'pop open', but that's exactly what it did. Judy didn't realise until Richard had to kindly cover her up...

Did you know?

Judy is regularly horrified by some of the things that Richard comes out with. But when she 'exposed' herself at the TV awards he promised that if they won again next year she'd show the other one...