Judy Finnigan's biggest career regret which she and Richard 'should've refused'
Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan have been reminiscing about their time working together on a new show Richard and Judy: Our Best Bits - In Our Own Words
Richard and Judy open up about infamous O. J. Simpson interview
Judy Finnigan has opened up about a controversial interview she and husband Richard Madeley were prevented from conducting in the way they wished by the powers that be calling it "the biggest regret of my entire career". The TV power couple were the first people to secure an interview with former American football star OJ Simpson following his 1996 murder trial.
The chat was for a new ITV show called Tonight with Richard and Judy and reflecting on it in the Channel 5 show Richard and Judy: Our Best Bits - In Our Own Words she said: "It was the biggest regret of my entire career because it made us look stupid."
The pair explained ITV bosses had insisted they cover two interviews on the programme, despite landing a worldwide scoop with Simpson who could have easily filled the whole show.
"One of the producers had got the interview with OJ Simpson. It was huge, the first interview he had given," Judy recalled. "ITV insisted because it was the first show and we were setting out, we had to have more than one item on it. We had to have Neil Diamond," she reflected.
"We wanted to do the full show with OJ Simpson, as did our production team," Richard chimed in. "And in the middle of the afternoon of the day of transmission we get an order from the then boss of ITV.
"He decided it was just too much to give a controversial figure like OJ Simpson half an hour of ITV air time, and he insisted that we do two interviews in the show, another one with with Neil Diamond," he recalled.
"Now I have to say that to me today, I would have said, then we're not doing the show. Because it's impossible to do OJ Simpson at that stage in 12 minutes, which is what we ended up with, 12 minutes.
"It's ridiculous, and we should have refused to do the show. We should have stood our ground.
"But it was the first of a new series. There's a lot riding on it. We had a big team, so we very, very reluctantly agreed," he admitted.
Don't miss...
Game of Thrones star admits financial struggles before landing role on show [EXCLUSIVE]
Kim Wilde admits 'working hard to get mobility back' in health update [EXCLUSIVE]
Brian May sparks backlash after Martin Brundle 'snub' at British Grand Prix [INSIGHT]
The documentary intercut the archive interview footage with Richard and Judy's recollections and OJ was visibly sweating at one point.
Richard intimated he thought the interview was "going well" and remembered that OJ had started to "wobble a bit" with "beads of sweat on his top lip".
However ultimately the couple recieved huge backlash for the chat as Richard remembered.
"We were slaughtered for it weren’t we, the next day. Absolutely slaughtered for it. It is the biggest professional regret of my entire career because it made us look stupid. Going to a commercial break and coming back with a singer."
Richard and Judy: Our Best Bits - In Our Own Words is available to watch on My5.
