With various restrictions continuing to ease around the country, a lot of us are still adapting to a new way of doing things – and apparently that includes Richard Madeley.

After months of interviewing Good Morning Britain guests over Zoom and video-link, it seems Richard is still getting to grips with having actual people in the studio with him IRL, as evidenced during his latest live broadcast.

Welcoming Albie Amankona of the organisation Conservatives Against Racism For Equality to one of GMB’s debates on Thursday morning, the presenter declared: “Let’s talk to a Tory!”

Richard then began introducing the discussion, all while staring straight down the camera lens, despite Albie being on the same desk as him, slightly to the right.

“We’ll talk to you about the big bubbling under story of the week, the racism story, in a couple of minutes, but as a Conservative, what do you make of this?” he asked.

“Do you see this as the wagging finger of the nanny state or a perfectly reasonable…?”

Trailing off, Richard seemingly clocked co-host Susanna Reid staring over his shoulder to the right of the studio, as he then said: “Oh! You’re there! Sorry, I thought you were on [the screen]. I’m talking to you like you’re in Winchester or something!”

Evidently curious as to whether he was onto something with his Winchester prediction, Richard then asked: “Where are you from, actually?”

“I’m from Chiswick,” Albie explained. “So not far away from there.”

Putting a big Richard Madeley cherry on top of the Richard Madeley cake, the host then added: “I sort of saw you in Chiswick in my mind’s eye.”

Obviously, the exchange didn’t go unnoticed by GMB viewers, many of whom took the opportunity to once again compare Richard to Steve Coogan’s comedy creation Alan Partridge: 

Richard has been sporadically serving as a GMB anchor since Piers Morgan’s departure earlier in the year, but sadly, he’s said he wouldn’t be interested in taking on the role full-time.

GMB airs every weekday from 6am on ITV.