Schofield, Willoughby and the question of blame

Holly Willoughby returned to the This Morning sofa yesterday with a brief scripted statement on the fall of her long-time co-presenter Phillip Schofield: 

 I imagine that you might have been feeling a lot like I have – shaken, troubled, let down, worried for the wellbeing of people on all sides of what’s been going on, and full of questions, you, me and all of us at This Morning gave our love and support to someone who was not telling the truth, who acted in a way that they themselves felt that they had to resign from ITV, and step down from a career that they loved.

I met Holly at an awards bash, very pleasant she was too, but she was quite clearly not part of Phillip Schofield’s social circle

Not totally unsympathetic to Schofield’s predicament, but one can hardly see the pair reuniting, professionally or otherwise, for the foreseeable future. ‘Only himself to blame’, many readers will rightly say. 

The focus now is on who if anyone at ITV knew what he was up to with his young protégé. The tabloid press, rival TV channels and some MPs believe that heads must roll, in addition to Schofield’s, with Willoughby’s topping the list. 

Aeons ago, when working as an ITV exec, I met Holly at an awards bash, very pleasant she was too, but she was quite clearly not part of Phillip Schofield’s social circle that evening. I’d assume they were never that close; spending two-plus hours a day making nice with your professional work husband in front of millions of viewers would be enough for anyone. Most TV duos don’t feel it necessary to pal around outside work, and some actually disliked each other when the cameras stopped rolling; think of the likes of Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan, Eamonn Holmes and Anthea Turner, and TV foodies John Torode and Gregg Wallace. 

It’s difficult to think Willoughby didn’t have some suspicions regarding her co-presenter’s relationship with his much younger colleague – there is a photo doing the rounds of the assistant, Holly grinning on one side of the sofa, Phil on the other – but I doubt that she knew the full extent. I suspect that, like many in the industry, she could have turned a blind eye. After all, it was hardly Holly’s job to police This Morning’s dressing rooms for untoward activity. 

So who else, if anyone, should be questioned over what happened on This Morning? Rather than CEO Carolyn McCall, who will face the inquisition of the culture, media, and sport committee next week, my focus would be on other senior execs: This Morning editor Martin Frizzell, Emma Gormley, managing director of daytime, and ITV director of television Kevin Lygo. 

As CEO, McCall’s role is not to oversee the minutiae of programme production; she’s only supposed to get involved when the broadcaster’s public image and (most importantly) share price are at stake. She could only know something was amiss if that information was brought to her by underlings.  

So what about those directly involved in Schofield’s day-to-day work? It’s difficult to believe the editor of This Morning for seven years, veteran daytime TV executive Martin Frizzell, would know nothing of Schofield’s life off-screen, especially since a vital part of the gig is to keep the ‘talent’ happy and gee them through any potential issues. Likewise, Gormley, in charge of daytime output, should surely have been in any loop. It would stretch credulity to suggest that Gormley was unfamiliar with the This Morning set, the flagship programme for ITV’s daytime output. Then there is ITV director of television, Kevin Lygo. His assertion that no mistakes were made in the original 2020 investigation into Schofield looks questionable given ITV has now had to reopen its internal inquiry. Lygo is known for taking a keen interest in the lives of his on and off-screen talent, which is, after all, a core part of his job.  

But then, I’m pretty sure that most people who knew of This Morning’s inner workings will have had an inkling. A few years ago, Schofield appeared on stage at a television awards ceremony with the assistant in question next to him; ‘a dead giveaway’, according to one daytime TV insider. It’s unheard of for such a low-ranking member of staff to be invited to share the glory with on-screen talent and senior production staff. But then, like so much in life, it is often easier not to ask questions. The problem comes when it is your job to know what others would prefer was kept private.