The Big Interview: Judy Finnigan

While she’s still getting ready upstairs in their comfy Hampstead home, Richard is handing out a fluffy towel to dry my hair that’s been drenched by rain, offering to put my jacket in the dryer, and making a cup of tea. Every home should have one.

He talks 19 to the dozen – about the Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce affair, how much he loves doing radio (although he still does regular TV work), and his early days at Yorkshire Television.

He cut his reporting and presenting skills there before moving to Granada in Manchester, where seasoned presenter and journalist Judy Finnigan was asked to take him under her wing. They instantly had chemistry on screen, and over subsequent months became romantically involved. She was married with twin sons, and Richard was separated but had no children.

Once a year of angst, partings and reunions was over, they decided to go for it, quickly marrying and adding two more children. Their professional partnership went on to become the most recognised on British television, and they presented shows together from their sofa for 21 years on daytime TV until 2009 – first on ITV’s This Morning, then on Channel 4 and latterly a channel called Watch – which millions didn’t watch, presumably because it was so difficult to find.

Throughout their long tenure as the King and Queen Of The Sofa, Richard was the bouncy and puppyish one, full of enthusiasms and searching curiosity. Judy was the more emotional, empathetic, considered one – and sometimes she had to curb her husband’s effusions.

The audience loved to analyse the couple’s every glance, detecting the odd frisson of coolness or irritation, loyal but delighting in moments of disagreement. Richard is clearly very protective of Judy, and seconds before she appears at the door of the snug little sitting room says, sotto voce, “She’s really quite shy...”

Then he’s gone and she’s in the room, barefoot in black tunic and cargo pants, happy to talk about the success of her first novel, Eloise, which went into the top 10 bestsellers – much to Finnigan’s delight and relief.

“I enjoyed writing it, and it has given me confidence. One of the worst things about writing your first book is that you have no idea if you can write or not, you have no faith in your own abilities. I wrote it over a period of six years, and when I eventually showed the publisher the first half no one else had seen it but Richard, who was very helpful and encouraging. It was he who persuaded me to show it to a literary agent.”

The novel is set in Cornwall, where the couple have had a holiday home for many years. It deals in female friendship and intuition, with Cathy, the protagonist, becoming convinced that her best friend Eloise’s sudden death was not all it appeared to be, even though she had had breast cancer for years.

The story, or rather the emotion between the two women and the mother love that forces Eloise to reach out to Cathy from beyond the grave to protect the children she feels are in danger, was inspired by the grief Finnigan felt after the death from breast cancer of her dear friend Caron Keating.

Keating also had a holiday cottage in Cornwall, and the two families spent many idyllic days on the beaches and in the cafes or pubs of the South Cornwall coast. Finnigan was still, she says, in state of shock and grief when she wrote the prologue to her book two years later.

“I was sitting in bed in Cornwall and had long been thinking about a mystery tale set in the area, because I know and love it so much. But I was still working full-time in television, and so I did nothing for ages, just scribbling the odd few pages of notes and accumulating them in a box.”

When she and Richard decided to call it a day, Judy says it was a relief because she hadn’t enjoyed the latter part of her time on the box. Her second thought was: “At last I can get on with my book. I just wanted to find out if I could write one... at that point getting it published wasn’t even an ambition.”

By the time she left television behind and sat down in front of an A4 pad, the raw emotion about Caron’s cruel death aged only 41 had calmed.

“The story isn’t based on anything to do with Caron except the emotion between the two women and the fact that Eloise’s passion for her children is so strong that she begs Cathy to protect them. Caron was passionately maternal.”

Cathy is also married to a psychiatrist who has treated her for a breakdown and depression. He, a very unsympathetic character, thinks he has cured his wife only to find her babbling about seeing the ghost of her friend, giving dire warnings.

Finnigan writes perceptively about depression, which is hardly surprising because she suffered post-natal depression for 10 months after the birth of her fourth child Chloe before it was diagnosed and she was successfully treated with antidepressants.

“You never forget it. It’s the worst thing – you don’t know what’s wrong with you and think you must be going quietly mad because you have this lovely baby, family and husband and a good job But it’s as though the sky is permanently grey and heavy above your head and you don’t feel any joy or happiness in anything. You are permanently sad.

“It took me such a long time to go to the GP, who said it was ‘a classic case’ and gave me antidepressants. Within two to three weeks the clouds had parted and there was sunshine again, which is why I am ready to tell others to take the tablets.”

One of the more daunting aspects of awaiting the critics’ and readers’ feedback on her first novel is that Richard and Judy’s long-running Book Group ( a regular on the TV shows, which they still run through WH Smith) has involved the duo in giving their own frank views of other people’s work for the best part of two decades. The nod from Richard and Judy has made many a career, but there must have been many writers ready to criticise the critic turned writer.

“The Book Club thing did make me feel self-conscious and insecure. I knew people would say if it wasn’t any good, ‘My God, she spend all her time pontificating about other people’s books and can’t write for toffee herself’. Fortunately that hasn’t happened.” She is now writing her second novel, also set in Cornwall.

Apart from fulfilling a dream held for years, the challenge presented by the first book was that of putting herself out there alone.

“It’s both satisfying and nerve-racking,” says Finnigan. “I enjoyed it and learned a lot, but in another sense it was lonely and makes you feel a bit vulnerable. But I’m really pleased I’ve done something in my own right.”

Having had a rest from it, does she miss the daily round of TV? The reply is instant, head shaking. “I know some people find it difficult to leave behind because they’re used to feeling quite important, and some people need that feeling of being influential.

“I’ve never been like that – I’m much more internal... and, towards the end, I felt that if I had to interview one more soap star about their latest plot line I would go stark staring mad. I was more than ready to stop...it was draining too much of the contentment, ease and enjoyment of life out of me.”

Far from being empty nesters – their children range from 25 to 35 – three of the brood are still in residence, although Dan is buying a flat and moving in with his girlfriend soon.

Richard is also about to publish a romantic thriller, and Chloe is writing a book about her recent experience on TV’s Dancing With Ice, and is also taking a creative writing course. The house teems with words.

Finnigan clearly revels in the freedom of working from home. She also seems to count the days between trips to her beloved Cornwall and, and more recently, visits to see her adored first grandchild, four month-old Ivy.

“People tell you how fantastic being a grandmother is and that it’s the same love you feel towards your own. The first time we saw Ivy it was extraordinary, it’s as though she is part of you. This new life, a new generation, has made me feel very tribal.

“Part of the pleasure is that you don’t feel all those things like anxiety that you feel in early motherhood. You feel all that love and none of the anxiety.”

Judy Finnigan says she has reclaimed her life since leaving TV, although still occasionally being “papped” by photographers when out and about at the shops or a family outing to a local restaurant can still be an irritant.

One of the pleasures of promoting 
the novel has been meeting the many women who turn up at book events 
eager to talk about their own efforts 
to write.

“So many of them have written or want to write. I think it must be because women have an inner sense of passion and turmoil. Men tend to write books that are very different to women, often more factual and detached, but women have lots of emotion to express. I love hearing them talk about it.”

She attributes her long and happy marriage partly to good luck in meeting her “soul mate” and partly to the fact that she and Richard deliberated long and hard about how her sons would be affected by the new situation.

“You could hardly call it impetuous, when we eventually went ahead with our relationship. We both took it very seriously as something we were doing for life. Other than that, I think you sometimes have to keep your mouth shut and be tolerant, and have to genuinely respect and admire as well as love each other.”

Judy Finnigan will talk about Eloise at a Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch on Thursday, March 21 at The Pavilions of Harrogate. Information and tickets: 07731 690163, [email protected]