Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were once morning television's golden duo. By their final week presenting together, they had become a punchline even in the House of Commons.
“We all know what’s going on with her and her leader,” said deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden on Wednesday in a jibe at Labour counterpart Angela Rayner. “It’s all lovey-dovey on the surface, they turn it on for the cameras, but as soon as they’re off, it’s a different story. They’re at each other’s throats. They are the Phil and Holly of British politics.”
What went so badly wrong that Schofield ended his 20 years on This Morning without so much as an on-air goodbye? With Willoughby he had seemed to find a relaxed, light-hearted chemistry that was praised by the BBC's entertainment reporter Steven McIntosh as "precisely the dynamic needed on mid-morning television".
