Phillip Schofield 'returns to TV' months after dramatic This Morning exit

29 September 2023 , 21:47

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Phillip Schofield 'returns to TV' months after dramatic This Morning exit

Former This Morning star Phillip Schofield has made an unexpected television appearance after he stepped down from his broadcast career earlier this year.

The former ITV presenter has popped up in a new Netflix series, which showed a rerun of the star on This Morning alongside his former co-presenter and best pal Holly Willoughby. It's the first time Phillip has appeared on ITV since his shock exit from his This Morning role after 20 years earlier this year and the subsequent honest interview with BBC to discuss the fallout after news of an affair with a younger coworker emerged, which he said was "unwise but not illegal".

Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby feature in the three-part Netflix documentary 'Who Killed Jill Dando?' with a clip from This Morning last year (ITV / Netflix)

Appearing in the new three-part documentary 'Who Killed Jill Dando?' on Netflix which highlights the shocking murder of BBC Crimewatch presenter Jill Dando outside her London home in Fulham. The series covers what happened after her murder, the manhunt that ensued and that the real killer has never been identified or caught.

In the third part of the documentary, a clip from This Morning from last year airs with Phil and Holly looking sombre on the This Morning sofa. The clip is brief but sees Holly address the camera as she says: "What happened that morning remains a mystery, the crime unsolved, her killer never held to justice."

The clip is from This Morning last year when the 23rd anniversary of Dando's death was approaching in April. The introduction from Phil and Holly came ahead of an in-depth interview with investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas. Earlier this week, Jill's brother, Nigel, appeared on ITV's Lorraine where he discussed his own theory behind Jill's tragic death.

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In the clip used by Netflix, Phillip Schofield doesn't speak but looks solemn (ITV)

Jill's home, 29 Gowan Avenue, was up for sale at the time as she was rarely at the property but upon her arrival at 11.32am on the day, she was shot in the head with a single bullet. Her neighbour, Helen Doble, discovered her just 14 minutes later. At 11.47am, officers from London's Metropolitan Police arrived before Jill was rushed to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital.

However, at 13.03, she was declared dead by medical staff. But while some believe that Jill was the victim of a targeted attack, her brother has other beliefs. During an appearance on ITV's Lorraine, fellow journalist Nigel said: "We followed all the theories and the twists and turns of the case.

"But when you strip it right back and you look at the roads that the police went down to follow up these theories, at the end of the day, none of them really held water, there was no evidence. My theory, which I still stick to, I don't know how true it is, people may say it's quite fanciful but that Jill was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."Phillip sensationally quit This Morning back in May amid growing reports of tension between him and co-star Holly. There had also been claims of a 'toxic' atmosphere backstage on the ITV show, all of which have been denied by bosses. Just days later Phil sensationally cut ties with ITV altogether and was dumped by his management team YMU when he admitted to having an ‘unwise but not illegal’ affair with a much younger male colleague.

In a public statement in May, Phil said: "I am painfully conscious that I have lied to my employers at ITV, to my colleagues and friends, to my agents, to the media and therefore the public and most importantly of all to my family. I am so very, very sorry, as I am for having been unfaithful to my wife."

In June, he gave a tell-all interview to rival channel BBC in which he said he had brought about his own downfall and believed his TV career was now over. He told interviewer Amol Rajan: “I have brought myself down. I am done. I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart.”

Niamh Spence