Holly and Phil- do we care?

I don’t watch their show and don’t find them interesting.

I remember Schofield from when he was on children’s TV, but I don’t know who Holly is, so obviously I don’t care.

I have no interest in them whatsoever. I find her vacuous and him creepy. End of….

Good grief. I never watch morning TV, but don’t care for Schofield. If they’ve done something wrong then that should be addressed by the BBC.

But I do care very much about what’s happening here. These social media witch hunts serve as a reminder and a warning about just how alarming the pack mentality can be, and what harm it can do.

Blondiescot

I really couldn't care less, to be honest - but what does concern me is the level of personal abuse which has been levelled at them on social media. It seems the #BeKind message didn't last very long, and brings back memories of what happened to Caroline Flack.

Yes, I agree Blondiescot

It's called Tall Poppy Syndrome
Just because they're famous and on television doesn't mean they may not be vulnerable. They have families too.

I don't care at all whether they did or whether they didn't. I Do care about the Kangaroo Courts of Gotcha Journalism, which I find utterly disgraceful.

Holly Willoughby I wouldn't recognize if she danced across my porridge.
Philip Schofield, way back in the Broom Cupboard days, my old mum used to really like. Personally, I preferred the gopher.

No, I don’t care except to say that if they had given a proper and truthful explanation right at the start of these shenanigans all the upset would probably have been avoided. At the end of the day it’s simply the gutter press trying to sell papers.

I think it's mostly been Twitter hasnt it.

I never watch This Morning and have only seen Phil and Holly on Dancing on Ice, which I think they do very well.
If it's true that they did somehow inveigle their way into seeing the Queen's coffin without queuing, then that's reprehensible.
But the way we turn on people in the public eye makes me squirm and be thankful that I'm not famous. Sometimes it's really unpleasant. And it's not fair on their families.

people always forget the be kind thing don't they? even people on gransnet forget about it

how difficult is it to be kind anyway, surely it should be your default setting

I think the Witch hunt is alful.

Criticism is best not prolonged. They have got any messages that were put out there. It should be forgotten or least said sooner mended.

Luckygirl3

Who are Holly and Phil?

That was my initial reaction, too!
I wouldn’t know Holly if I bumped into her in the street, and only realised the other day from an article in the paper that Phil is Philip Schofield.

TBH I find him profoundly irritating now - have to turn the Classic FM volume right down when his ad for We Buy Any Car! comes on.
Though to be entirely fair, the same applies to many of the ads on Classic.

Perhaps what’s occurring evidences hidden memories, subliminal remnants of when there were public stocks and public hangings. An opportunity for people to express, assuage their frustrations and anger (of all kinds of things) through witnessing the punishment and vilification of others.

I don’t watch TM. Never have. I’m not interested in these people or in what they do. I’m not sure anyone should have had the opportunity to miss the queue, including MPs. Just the family, that’s all. I don’t know what is being said on Twitter as I don’t do it and never will.

Whilst I don't particularly care about the current 'scandal' and am not in a position to know whether they are sinned against or sinning, I'm not sure that it's a witch-hunt - more a case of 'live by the media, die by the media'.

Schofield is from all accounts not very pleasant, yet he affects a kindly 'man of the people' persona, which earns him a fortune. He uses the media to create this image, and if he has made enemies along the way by being nasty to 'underlings' he shouldn't be too surprised when they move up in their careers and aren't sympathetic, so expose his weaknesses when they get the chance.

I find it uncomfortable when people who are very rich patronise members of the public with 'how would you spend £500 if you are lucky enough to win it after risking making a fool of yourself by getting idiotic questions wrong in front of all your neighbours?' and he does this all the time. The phone-in thing on This Morning is horrible - a wheel of fortune where people get sneered at if they aren't suitably grateful for winning a few quid and a bag of merchandise that even the presenters say is 'shizzle'. Holly is very similar, but there are fewer rumours about her unpleasantness. I'm not surprised that viewers are sick of them, and given that their careers are built on a pretence of being the couple next door, when that is blown out of the water it's inevitable that the careers will go with it. They can't have it both ways.

Never watch daytime TV, the Queens death was an exception, so don't know who these people are, but witch hunts have always been the same, right back to James 1st and beyond so in that respect, nothing changes. Mathew Hopkins in the 17th century was horrifying. Why do people use Twitter? It sounds quite ghastly.

My understanding, which to be honest, has been gleaned totally from social media, so isn't likely to be a fair representation, is that the issue "the people" have with this incident, is that Willoughby and Schofield lied.

They were seen (and video evidence exists) to show them walking past the queue of people, and into the building. They were also seen (and again, video evidence apparently exists) to show them walking past the coffin.

When this was raised and the question asked "why should they have been fast tracked", they said that they didn't jump the queue and that they didn't file past the coffin, but were there "working". They said they were only standing on the media platform at one end of the chamber.

The "story" grew legs and ran away, with social media imploding with indignation, resulting in ITV issuing a statement saying that Willoughby and Scholfield were asked to film a piece to be shown in their programme, and as such were entitled to use the Press fast-track process.

Unfortunately, there was no filming allowed in the chamber where the coffin lay, and in any event, they were not accompanied by any film crew. The only footage which has been seen, is what appeared to be a "selfie" video, shot on a mobile phone, of Willoughby and Scholfield after they had been through the chamber, saying what a "profound moment" it had been. No professional film and sound crew to record the moment.

They said they were filming a piece to be shown on the programme for people who were unable to be there themselves. Unfortunately, they were filmed on the Friday (they apparently - I don't know, as I don't watch it - don't present This Morning on Fridays) and therefore the first opportunity they would have had to show the piece would have been on Tuesday - the day after the funeral, so unlikely to have been of any interest to those who hadn't been able to attend in person. The same people who could have watched the whole thing practically 24/7 since the coffin arrived at Westminster Hall.

The general consensus of opinion appears to be that if Willoughby and Schofield had held their hands up and said "yes, we did go and view the coffin and we did bypass the queue, and we're really sorry, we misjudged this totally" then the whole thing would have died down as quicky as it came to life.

And this is what happens when you have a week off work, with nothing to do - I ended up getting sucked into the increasingly hysterical posts on Twitter, Facebook, Mumsnet and TikTok. I feel I know far more than is healthy about this non-story.

Thanks for your selfless research hurdygurdy.

The only bit of gossip I know is that RL had raised concerns that he was infatuated with a very young male runner on the program and this was whilst he was still married but I may have read that on here

HurdyGurdy, didn't you even manage to get a trip in to a Graden Centre and accidentally eat a slice of cake in the cafe?

JaneJudge

The only bit of gossip I know is that RL had raised concerns that he was infatuated with a very young male runner on the program and this was whilst he was still married but I may have read that on here

He was having a full blown affair with the runner. He groomed him when he was underage.
That’s why he had to come out.
It’s no secret.

Matthew McGreevy
www.politicalite.com/entertainment/revealed-phillip-schofield-came-out-after-affair-with-runner-was-about-to-be-exposed/

Now I do disapprove of that being made public. How sexuality has nothing to do with anyone else, and nor does his private life. I see that as very different from comments about his behaviour towards the public, who are, ultimately, his viewers and bread and butter.

FannyCornforth

Matthew McGreevy
www.politicalite.com/entertainment/revealed-phillip-schofield-came-out-after-affair-with-runner-was-about-to-be-exposed/

it wont let me read the full article, it keeps opening another tab
by underage, you mean under 16?