This Morning with Richard Not Judy

This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ is a ITV and BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC Two. The name was a satirical reference to ITV's This Morning which was at the time popularly referred to as This Morning with Richard and Judy. The show was a reworking of old material from their previous work together (radio and TV) along with new characters. Presented in a daytime chat show format in front of a live studio audience, the programme also featured a number of pre-recorded location sketches. It was structured by the often strange obsessions of Richard Herring; examples include his rating of the milk of all creatures and attempting to popularise the acronym of the show (TMWRNJ) (in the style of Tiswas). The show featured (and acknowledged its use of) repetition, with regular and vigilant viewers being rewarded by jokes that would make no sense to casual viewers. The show seemed to oscillate between the intellectual and puerile. However, irony was often used, even though the citing of irony as an excuse was mocked by the show's stars in one of many self-referential jokes. Kevin Eldon also reprised two of his characters from the earlier Lee & Herring series Fist of Fun, Simon Quinlank (the "King of Hobbies") and his portrayal of "the false Rod Hull" as a jelly fanatic with a false arm and giant chin. A run of sketches featuring Eldon as the false Rod Hull was filmed for the second series, but dropped when the real Rod Hull died just prior to the start of the series. A new sketch was filmed as a tribute and featured as the closing item of the last programme in the series. (Rod Hull had taken this in good humour and had featured in one episode of Fist of Fun as a guest, pouring scorn on the false Rod Hull.) TMWRNJ was the subject of many complaints on Points of View, largely due to the surprisingly adult content for a programme shown at Sunday lunchtime. The Jesus sketches were much remarked upon on Points of View due to the time of broadcast and uncertainty as to whether they were making fun of Jesus or people's take on the scriptures themselves. Like Fist of Fun it remains a cult series fondly remembered by fans.