Richard Madeley has revealed that his mother “hated” him for deciding to leave education as a teenager, a choice that nevertheless paved the way for a successful media career. The 69-year-old broadcaster made the confession during a discussion on A-level results day with Good Morning Britain co-host Charlotte Hawkins.
“Well, I left school at 16 to join the local paper,” Madeley said. “My mum thought it was a very bad move, my dad thought it was great. My mum hated me as I started work when I was 16 and she insisted that I go to night school and take A-Levels there. So, I took an English A-Level and I got a B, I think.”
Madeley’s decision to enter journalism at a young age proved fruitful: within two years he had been promoted to assistant editor at the paper, and just three years later he joined the BBC.
Earlier in the show, Hawkins shared her own A-level results with the audience. “I got three As,” the 50-year-old said, prompting Madeley to joke: “Oh there’s always one, isn’t there?” Hawkins added that her results exceeded expectations, as she had performed poorly in her mock exams. “We all went to the school to get them, it was really special and I was not expecting that at all,” she said. “I think having not done very well when it came to the mock exams obviously gave me some impetus to think, ‘Well, I need to get cracking on this.’”
The conversation comes as A-level top grades in the UK rose again in 2025, reaching a record high outside the pandemic years. More than a quarter (28.3 per cent) of entries were awarded an A or A* grade, up from 27.8 per cent last year and higher than the 25.4 per cent recorded in 2019, according to the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). It is the highest proportion outside the pandemic-affected years of 2020-22, with boys outperforming girls at the top grades for the first time in seven years.
