Good Morning Britain viewers could hardly contain their glee as stand in host Richard Madeley was walloped three times on the ITV breakfast show earlier today.
People watching at home commented about how much they enjoyed seeing the 62-year-old – filling in while regular hosts Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan take a break – being smacked about during a segment featuring Britain’s oldest stuntman.
But of course, even though Rocky Taylor was pulling his punches during the faux combat demonstration, several observers joked about how they’d like to see Richard get clobbered for real.
And some fans also expressed a wish for Piers to be the next one in line to be clouted by 73-year-old film veteran Rocky.
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The James Bond stunt double demonstrated his cinematic fighting skills as willing punchbag Richard hammed it up by holding his jaw as if he’d been thumped.
He told Rocky – who has stood in for 007 stars Roger Moore and Sean Connery during his career – to pretend to be an action hero and make out like Richard was attacking him.
“We’re going to cast you in a Tom Cruise movie, this is a Jack Reacher film. I’m one of the villains and you’re Jack Reacher,” the former This Morning presenter said.
“Because Jack Reacher does everything with his elbows and fists, so you are going to give me a right hook to the jaw.”
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Fellow GMB host Kate Garraway – who for some reason was filming the theatrical scrap on her phone in a studio full of TV cameras – seemed convinced Rocky had made contact with Richard’s face with his fist.
She gasped: “That looked really real, are you okay?”
Richard quickly reassured her he hadn’t felt a thing, joking: “They’re all saying at home: ‘Why didn’t he connect? It was a golden opportunity!'”
But as it turns out, some people were indeed tweeting similar, slightly mean-spirited, sentiments.
“Wish he’d really hit him 😂,” laughed one viewer on Twitter.
“Think a lot of people would have made contact 😂😂😂,” echoed another.
A third commented: “You would have had plenty of volunteers to do that for real.”
The moment Richard gets punched in the face on live TV 😱@richardm56
Okay, not really – we promise no Richards were harmed in the making of this stunt… pic.twitter.com/4UWKMb0iuI
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) April 17, 2019
And a fourth said: “Bet there’d be a big queue wanting to do that.”
Getting in line to take a pop was also in mind for another social media user who asked: “Where does the queue start? And is Piers Morgan next?”
And there was another GMB Twitter respondent to bring up the show’s resident motormouth in relation to Rocky’s appearance, tweeting: “Bring back Piers and smash him several times, not Richard.”
– Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV from 6am
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