Richard Madeley In 1994, Madeley was charged with shoplifting champagne from Tesco, and he says this was a typical example of his overconfidence. The family were going away that day, they had 1,001 things to do, and he was convinced he could squeeze the shopping in, too. In short, he paid for the food in the trolley, forgot to pay for the champagne. “I was just not concentrating. I put the food through the till, I forgot to take the champagne out. It was, I can handle anything, I can juggle eight balls in the air, and actually I came a horrible cropper. I can joke about it now.” He was eventually cleared in the crown court. “But that year was horrible. The publicity was mortifying. If I’d been accused of robbing a bank, at least it’s got a bit of glamour to it, but fucking shoplifting… It’s like wanking in a public toilet. Just horrible.”