Richard Madeley

Why I won’t be replacing Piers Morgan

Piers Morgan may have been the UK equivalent of a TV shock-jock, but there’s another side to him. I’ve known Piers for more than 30 years — we went to the same journalism college — and he has a large heart. Years ago Judy and I and the kids were holidaying in Florida and, unknown to us, we were papped in a hotel pool. The photos were hawked around the tabloids and I had a call from Piers, then editor of the Daily Mirror: ‘These pool snaps… I’ve bought them, exclusively.’ ‘Cheers, Piers. I thought you were a mate.’ ‘No, no — I did it as a favour. I’m suggesting I send one of our snappers to your hotel, do some properly posed holiday shots of you all, and run those instead.’ I shook my head. ‘That’d set a precedent. Every time we’re papped like this, we’d have to do similar deals. Thanks but no thanks.’ ‘Is Judy there?’ I clicked on speakerphone and Piers said: ‘Hi Jude. Listen up…’ There was an odd, metallic tinkling sound. ‘Hear that? That was me chucking those photos in my bin. They’ll never see the light of day. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.’

Piers would later be sacked from the Mirror over those notorious faked Iraq torture photographs. Ten years on he got the chop at CNN after enraging the US gun lobby with unswerving attacks on them; now this. My analogy last week was with an F1 racing driver: Piers presents TV with his foot to the floor, going into bends at speed and skidding through the chicanes on full rubber-burning four-wheel lock. Drive a show like that and inevitably you’ll spin off the track. But he’ll be back.

Meanwhile I got the kiss of death from Paddy Power last week: the bookmakers had me as favourite to take over from Piers on Good Morning Britain, so I can say ta-ta to that.

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