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The husband and wife double act will step down when their contract expires next summer.

They are in talks with Channel 4 to present a spin-off series based on the Richard and Judy Book Club, as well as other one-off specials, including the British Book Awards.

The announcement comes a week after Richard and Judy turned their attention to children's books with the launch of a youth version of their Book Club.

Madeley said: "We are looking forward to making two new series of our show next year. The programme is still full of life, but we have taken the difficult decision to leave it on a high.

"After seven consecutive years, we both feel we have achieved everything we wanted with the show and next autumn, when the last series finishes, will mark almost exactly 20 years in this kind of daily programming.

"We want the chance to launch other projects in broadcasting and writing while we are still young enough."

Finnigan is understood to be looking to wind down her TV work to write books, which could see Madeley go on to pursue a solo presenting career.

Richard and Judy have been a regular feature on Channel 4's early evening schedule since they were poached from ITV in 2001.

The pair left their long-running ITV1 show 'This Morning' in 2001 after 13 years, to front the new Channel 4 format, produced by Cactus TV.

Their 5pm timeslot is currently shared with Paul O'Grady -- another high-profile ITV figure who was poached by Channel 4 last year.

O'Grady is signed up for 26 weeks a year, while Richard and Judy are on air for 20 weeks.

A Channel 4 spokesman said the pair's departure was a mutual decision, and the channel was eager to talk to them about other projects on the channel.

He said: "We're announcing this nice and early -- they've got another two runs of the series. It gives us some time to finalise our plans."

"We're not going to reinvent the wheel. You're not going to see huge dramas or Neighbours [in its place]. What you'll see is a similar type of programming to what we do elsewhere in daytime.

"We're very keen to carry on talking to them about doing other projects."

In February this year, the 'Richard and Judy Show' became embroiled in the premium-rate phone-in controversy, after it emerged that winners from the "you say we pay" competition had been selected before the phone lines closed.

Premium-rate phone regulator Icstis fined Eckoh, the company which operated the phone lines for the show, £150,000 -- the highest fine it had ever imposed.