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Age: five-and-a-half. First broadcast Monday, 3 October 1988.
Frequency: every weekday morning, September to July, 10.35am-12.20pm.
Creator: David Liddiment, then head of entertainment at Granada TV.
Formula: husband-and-wife team Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan host the show live from Liverpool's Albert Dock. Studio interviews, fashion features and phone-ins mingle with pre-recorded segments that call on an established team of regular wine-tasters, hairdressers and agony aunts.
Unsung heroes and heroines of the supporting cast: Fred Talbot, frontier weatherman, delivers his forecasts atop a large map of Britain, half-submerged in the stormy waters of the dock. His death-defying leaps from England to Northern Ireland often bring gasps of amazement from the dockside, and are widely believed to be subliminal propaganda for an end to the Union. A scale model of Ely cathedral poses further danger. No-nonsense financial adviser Anne Ashworth and psychotic cook Susan Books also pack a considerable emotional punch.
But the real stars are? Richard and Judy, of course: the Torvill and Dean of the misguided makeover,...