ITV1's 'This Morning' aired an 'interview' (if the car crash of epic proportions presented could be called such) with the disgraced 'entertainer' Michael Barrymore - an oddity who has previously appeared on a television show dressed up as Hitler and in an episode where he worshiped at the feet of the now late paedophile Jimmy Savile - on Thursday 3rd August 2023 at 12 noon GMT.

 

Conducted by a toady bleach blonde named Josie Gibson and her sidekick a one-time rugby commentator called Craig Doyle (who announced earlier in the show that he'd had to be caked in makeup as he'd been out on a booze-a-thon the night before with a rugby club and had a bit of a hangover), the 9:49-minute interview (available to view on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq5U6LIu_hQ) was beyond shocking.

 

Barrymore - whose then bungalow home in Roydon, Essex was the scene of the brutal rape-murder of father-of-two Stuart Lubbock on 31st March 2001 during a drug fuelled party attended by a total of nine - appeared looking disheveled in a stained jumper. He slurred his words, did not seem to know quite who he was talking to and what he was talking about and came across as heavily medicated or having been out on a bender in the hours prior.

 

At one point, another presenter, Gok Wan, attempted to intervene to move on to a different segment, but a cackling like a hyena Gibson and the drippy Doyle continued. Here, one can surmise, was a nothing but a repeat of 'This Morning's' condemned as "irresponsible" 22nd October 2008 Kerry Katona interview in which the since disgraced presenter Phillip Schofield made a fool and mocked a lady suffering with very visible mental health issues.

 

Gibson and Doyle and the production team of 'This Morning' - headed by Martin Frizell, a man called out for mocking the Schofield scandal by comparing it to his dislike for aubergies - ought to have known that Barrymore was unfit to be placed on air when he arrived at their studio. They ought to have intervened and never even placed him in the green room; they should never, ever have allowed him on air.

 

Aside from inflicting the substantial familial viewing audience (including children and elderly folk) with this scary spectacle of mentality, Gibson and Doyle also failed to use this 'interview' for public good. They did not ask one single question about what Barrymore knows - and he has stated he has knowledge he hasn't previously shared in the past - of what occured the night Stuart Lubbock was raped and murdered at his then home. They did not ask him why he fled the scene of the rape and murder before the police arrived even. Instead, this useless pair of toerags banged on about how much their families loved Barrymore and encouraged him to spout frankly nonsensical drivel.

 

In the wake of Martin Frizell - a man whose presenter wife Fiona Phillips has most curiously been a longstanding close friend of Michael Barrymore - and his team being dragged before Dame Caroline Dinenage's Culture, Media and Sport Committee for a grilling over the channel's handling of matters sexual concerning Phillip Schofield, how on earth was this allowed to happen?

 

Formal complaints have been made to Ofcom concerning Gibson, Doyle, Barrymore, Frizell and 'This Morning' by a number of individuals, but it is now time that ITV acted and cancelled this toxic show for once and for all. 'This Morning' has had its day and it is now time that this ghastly show was replaced with something actually relevant to a contemporary viewing audience.