Picture the scene. A weary ‘This Morning’ production team is gathered in a meeting on a Friday afternoon, brainstorming ideas for Monday’s show.
Producer: “So, next week Big Ben is going to stop bonging and people are really going to lose their shit over it. How do we cover this in the most ‘This Morning’ way possible?”
A junior runner: “Maybe we could send Alison Hammond down...”
Producer [interrupting]: “No, she’s been having too much fun lately.”
Another runner: “Well actually, I know of this kid who can do a mean impression of the bing-bongs...”
Producer: “How good are we talking?”
Runner: “Like, you literally can’t tell the difference.”
Producer: “Get her on the phone now.”
Cut to Monday’s show, and an eight-year-old girl called Phoebe is sat on the sofa in Studio 8 of ITV’s headquaters with her dad, telling bemused hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford about how she reckons she should replace the famous bell.
What happened next saw ‘This Morning’ suddenly get even more ‘This Morning’, if that were possible.
Let’s just say it involved lots of “bim bom-ing” and an unexpected cameo from a gong.
Thank goodness for Phoebe, who is undoubtedly the best thing to come out of this whole sorry state of affairs.
‘This Morning’ airs weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.