Holly Willoughby makes a Mary Poppins entrance into This Morning for reunion with Phillip Schofield

They’ve enjoyed a long summer break and Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield marked their return to This Morning with a bang on Monday.

The ITV duo pulled out all the stops for their first show back after eight weeks off, enlisting the cast of West End show Mary Poppins.

After Phil did his best Bert impression with a dubious cockney accent, Holly, showing off new longer locks, flew down with Mary’s umbrella, via the magic of CGI.

Phil had a less grand entrance, popping out of a door on the set which had been set up outside Television Centre in London.

The This Morning veteran tried out a Dick Van Dyke accent as he exclaimed ‘winds In the East, mist coming in, where’s Mary?’ before Holly appeared with an umbrella in hand. 

After making it inside the studio, the close pals shared a hug as Holly gushed: ‘I’ve missed you lots and lots and lots.’

There he is: Phil had a less grand entrance, popping out of a door on the set which had been set up outside Television Centre in London

Phil then commented on Holly’s new longer locks, which the blonde joked were all natural. 

‘Well all that sun, and a little bit of glue and a little bit of help from my hairdresser friend and voila, it’s magic!’ she laughed. 

The presenting duo were replaced by a variety of stand-ins through the summer, after finishing up for the summer in July. 

CGI magic: The This Morning veteran tried out a Dick Van Dyke accent as he exclaimed ‘winds In the East, mist coming in, where’s Mary?’ before Holly appeared with an umbrella in hand

Speaking ahead of their autumn return, Phillip described the show as a ‘support group’, quipping: ‘It’s like ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!’ Everyone knows everything about everybody, and that’s nice…so I always miss that friendship group.

”This Morning is more than just a show, it’s such a lovely group of people to come to work with and you do miss that – it’s not really a job!

‘It’s more than a job, it’s much much more than that… and I’m not gonna lie, This Morning is one of my support groups and that’s a lovely thing to have.’

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! The ITV duo pulled out all the stops for their first show back after eight weeks off, enlisting the cast of West End show Mary Poppins

While Holly echoed her pal as she described the show as ‘one big family’, detailing how she feels refreshed after the break.

She explained: ‘When I come back in September I’m ready to start again. It’s a real re-set for me.’

Sharing that they have a ‘boxset watching group’ and another for being a bit more ‘outrageous’, Phillip revealed that he and Holly keep in touch by ‘telling each other stories and update on things that we’ve done and sending pictures of where we are’.

And with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions meaning that they can interact more with guests on the show now, the presenter jested that he had ‘forgotten how to socialise’.

New do: Holly showed off new extensions in her blonde locks, joking on air: ‘A little bit of glue and a little bit of help from my hairdresser friend and voila, it’s magic!’

He described his joy at being able to hug guests again, and said of Covid: ‘I think it all scarred us all in some way and I don’t think we’ll ever forget that it happened because it was damaging on so many different levels… and some say, ‘I’ve almost forgotten how to be sociable’ so it might take a few of us a while to get there and back to “normal”‘.

‘It feels like the good old days. Although you still have that moment when someone walks towards you when they come on the sofa…I follow their lead really if they go in for a handshake or a hug,’ echoed Holly.

The pair have been presenting together as a duo for over 15 years, starting out on Dancing On Ice in 2006 before Holly joined Phillip on This morning three years later.

And gushing over their close friendship, the latter described his co-host as ‘sensitive, kind, intuitive, spiritual, and a friend’, while Holly said he was ‘playful, very loyal, kind, very funny…and a friend.’

Back to work: Holly was back posting her daily outfit pics on Instagram, as she wished her followers good luck with the school run and revealed her daughter Belle was starting Year 7

They are notorious for their antics on the breakfast show, sending fans into fits of laughter as they arrived to the show in the clothes from the night before following a boozy night at the National Television Awards back in 2016.

And with the award show coming up, the show could be headed for a 12th consecutive gong – with Holly sharing that ‘it would be incredible to win again’.

But admitting it’s too early to tell whether another boozy night and morning is on the cards, Phillip teased: ‘Our nights are always very organic! There’s never a plan, never has been, whatever has happened has just happened… it depends how the night goes, the dynamic and who’s there and whether or not we get led astray.’