Richard and Judy

Britain's best-loved TV couple, Richard Madeley and Judi Finnigan are prominent British television presenters, authors and journalists, most recognised for co-hosting the popular talk show 'Richard & Judy'.

Ed Miliband needs to show us he is confident in his own ability says Richard

R SUE Townsend, creator of the Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, aged 13¾, would have struggled to match Ed Milliband’s cringe inducing notes-to-self found in his dressing room after the election leaders’ debate.

Ed Miliband GETTY

Ed Miliband's notes from the live debate were leaked, leaving the Labour leader red faced

They are beyond parody.

“Happy warrior. Calm, never agitated. Me vs DC… decency, principles, values.”

Even the put-downs were laboriously scribbled onto scraps of paper in case he forgot. It was verbatim, word-for-word stuff.

“Nick, we’ve heard it all before.

Before the last election you warned that the Tories’ plans were dangerous, and after the election you went along with them.”

Surely an aide memoir such as “Lib Dem hypocrisy/broken promises” would have sufficed?

What was Ed worried about?

“Brain fade” to match Green Party leader Natalie Bennett’s meltdown on LBC Radio last month?

It would be merely funny, albeit in a toe-curling way, if there wasn’t the real possibility of a Millibandrun country in a few weeks.

How will he manage? If he has to take a midnight transatlantic phone call from Obama, will he hurriedly reach for a sheaf of notes kept in the bedside drawer; a handy range of replies to cover all the bases?

Ed had responses written down for all eventualities last week.

One unused line was: “I can take five more weeks of attacks on me, but the British people can’t take five more years of you.”

Desperate stuff. Of course, what Ed’s leaked notes reveal is a deeply worrying lack of confidence and self reliance.

His car-crash of a leader’s speech at the party conference last autumn is probably partly to blame.

He winged it then, speaking entirely without notes, and as a consequence rabbited on weirdly about talking to strangers in parks, and clean forgot about the deficit.

Now he’s over-compensating and writing everything down in just in case.

You can almost see his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as he scribbles down his cribs and “ad libs”.

I have no idea if SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon privately confided to the French that she doesn’t think Ed has what it takes to be prime minister.

But if she did, it’s one of the few things she’s said of late that I unreservedly agree with.

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Judge Rinder ITV

Judge Rinder can be brutal to the people who appear in his courtroom

His car-crash of a leader’s speech at the party conference last autumn is probably partly to blame. He winged it then, speaking entirely without notes, and as a consequence rabbited on weirdly about talking to strangers in parks, and clean forgot about

R Since leaving daytime TV I must admit, if I’m honest, to not watching much of it.

That’s not a criticism – it’s just that freelance life doesn’t leave much time for telly between breakfast and teatime.

But - (oh yes - there is an enormous “but”) - if I’m around for the ITV lunchtime news, I will sometimes find an excuse to linger so I can watch the sensational Judge Rinder, right, who comes on at 2pm.

Have you seen him? He’s the camp-butstern arbiter of a sort of televised small claims court, where people go head-to-head in disputes over unpaid rent, dodgy building work and the rest of it.

It sounds boring, but it isn’t.

That’s because Rinder (pronounced to rhyme with “tinder”) can be silkily lethal in his questioning and then brutal with his summing up.

My favourite case so far involved a deeply annoying, stroppy young office girl who had tried to weasel out of paying an older colleague for the perfectly roadworthy car she bought from him.

She pretended it was faulty after belatedly discovering she couldn’t afford to insure it, and sold it on.

Her evidence was inconsistent and disingenuous, her tone bordering on insolent. Rinder listened to the girl in mostly ominous silence.

His occasional deadly-polite questions were met with evasiveness and impatient headtossing.

Then he looked smilingly at the injured party, a decent bloke who merely wanted what he was owed.

“I find in your favour because,” (here he turned to glare ferociously at the now furious, sulky girl) “it is obvious to me that you sold your car to a moron!”

She gasped in shock. Clearly, she wasn’t used to being told her fortune the way it is. I cheered.

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Special signs that tell us that a loved one is still here 

J As we reach the end of Easter week, sitting in the sun in our Cornish garden, bursting signs of earth’s spring renewal everywhere, I find myself thinking about our friend Caron Keating, who died from breast cancer at the age of 41 a full 11 years ago this month.

We still feel her here in her beloved Cornwall and the white feather we inexplicably found on our landing on the day she died still nods at us from its perch attached to the barometer on our wall.

Caron’s belief in angels meant that white feathers had a special meaning for her.

She said they were calling cards left by your guardian angel.

When we found one so soon after her death, we couldn’t help but see it as a sign.

Coincidentally this Easter, I’ve been reading extracts from the broadcaster Paul Heiney’s immensely moving new book, One Wild Song: A Voyage in a Lost Son’s Wake.

Heiney’s son Nicholas took his own life when he was only 23.

He was a brilliant boy who developed serious mental problems.

Heiney and his wife, Radio 4 presenter Libby Purves, have, of course, suffered enormously.

This book tells of his father’s attempt to heal his heart by embarking on an epic sea voyage.

Heiney is a vastly experienced sailor and so was young Nicholas.

When he died, he left behind some arresting poetry about his emotions while at sea; and Heiney followed in his son’s footsteps, desperately hoping to re-connect with his boy’s spirit.

Heiney makes a point of trying not to be sentimental or superstitious, but nevertheless insists that his son’s presence revealed itself to him intermittently on his solitary voyage; there were times when he heard Nicholas’s voice in his head.

And especially one time when sailing off Patagonia, he watched a “snowy white bird” circle overhead.

It flew round and round him, swooping and almost landing on Heiney’s head, almost, he says, as if wanting to play.

Heiney recalls that in the “dark days” after Nicholas’s death, a similar white bird hovered in tight circles over the place where he died.

It was, Heiney says, “dazzlingly white with a radiance I had never seen in a bird before”.

It showed up day after day “swooping towards me so close that often I ducked; then back it went to that tragic spot, soaring and diving, holding my attention with such a force that I have no idea how long I watched its antics.

Then it was gone.” Heiney saw a sign; and when we lose loved ones those signs are immensely important.

They offer us a way to connect with the soul who has departed.

They are too powerful, too special, to be dismissed as superstition.

They bring us hope and wonder. And they are common.

Here at Easter we still feel the spirit of our friend Caron.

She still guides us to free places in packed car parks, bless her, as she always said her angels could. Ridiculous? Absolutely not.

The sense of calm induced by a “sign” is a deep pleasure; smelling my father’s pipe tobacco in church soon after he died gave me enormous comfort.

And at Easter, of all times, signs resonate deeply.

To anyone grieving Paul Heiney’s book offers huge spiritual solace. And it unites us in love and grief.

Samantha Cameron REX

Samantha Cameron opened up about the death of her son Ivan

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The PM's wife is a winner

J In all the frantic and unpleasant election fever swirling around our leaders as they fight to be the next prime minister, Samantha Cameron refreshingly comes across as a very nice woman.

I find it impossible to be cynical about her.

Her decision to talk about her disabled son Ivan, who died when he was six, must have been difficult, but I’m glad she did.

What she said was full of truth and love. I’ve only met her once, but I liked her very much. She seems grounded, sensible, and sympathetic.

Definitely Cameron’s greatest asset. I’d certainly vote for her.

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R Another day, another hunch-backed skeleton discovered under a car park, this time on the site of the Battle of Waterloo.

Turns out to be the remains of a German soldier fighting on the British side.

What is it about car parks and crook-backed witnesses to history?

There’s a big one near Notre-Dame in Paris.

Who’s to say Victor Hugo’s fictional Quasimodo wasn’t based on a real-life character? They should start digging.

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Cressida Bonas REX

Cressida Bonas decided not to marry Prince Harry as she feared it would stop her acting career

J Cressida Bonas looks ethereal and lovely as she dances confidently in a fashion video to promote Mulberry handbags.

Her relationship with Prince Harry seems definitely over, but I bet he bit his lip when he saw these pictures.

Cressida says that the media attention she attracted when she was going out with Harry “was not real.

It’s so important to remember that all it is, is noise – noise that can be very loud at times.”

Wise words from such a young woman.

It’s said she wouldn’t marry Harry, who was dead keen, because royal life would stop her ambitions to act. But I don’t see why.

Harry’s royal cousin, Lord Frederick Windsor, married actress Sophie Winkleman, and her career hasn’t stopped.

There’s room in the royal family for girls who are not just in training to be Queen, like Kate Middleton.

Harry’s already shown himself to be a wild spirit. In the 21st century, why can’t he marry a bohemian young woman with artistic ambitions?

Such a union would be, like Harry, a breath of fresh air.

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R Huge congratulations to first-time novelist Tracey Rees, winner of our first Search For A Bestseller competition with her Dickensianstyle story, Amy Snow.

She’s collected a £50,000 advance from publishers Quercus and her tory is in shops now.

We’ll launch another Search For A Bestseller soon – budding writers, get ready!

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R I can’t get enough of Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood. That gorgeous accent!

I could listen to it all day. It’s warmer than sunlight shining through a jar of honey.

If one of her press aides clips this paragraph out to show her, can I ask a favour, Leanne?

In the next TV leaders’ debate, will you preface a challenge to one of the others with: “Look, I’m not being funny or anything, but…”

I’m sure you know that’s actress Monica Dolan’s catchphrase as Welsh TV executive Tracey Pritchard in the hilarious BBC comedy series W1A.

Go on! I dare you!

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