Critics warm to Manford's debut

Jason Manford’s debut as a One Show host has been broadly praised by critics.

The first episode he hosted with Alex Jones yesterday attracted 4.5million viewers to BBC One – up 600,000 on last week’s average for the show.

Reviewers noticed some mis-steps in both presenter’s high-profile debuts, but largely commented on the chemistry between the pair.

Opening the show, Manford commented: ‘This could go either way: Really well, or we'll be escorted off the premises after the show.’

Afterwards, he tweeted: 'My God,never been so nervous in my life but lucky Alex knows what she's doing and Whoopi was ace.Cheers for the lovely messages of support too'.

Polly Hudson in the Daily Mirror wrote: ‘There's already a nice chemistry between Jason and Alex, you can believe they'd go for a drink together in real life.

‘They were competent, more slick than I expected and I can't imagine many One Show fans not taking them immediately to their hearts. I think we've just witnessed the birth of a showbiz double act to be reckoned with.’

And in the Daily Telegraph, Michael Deacon concluded: ‘Manford is much jollier than Chiles – although, to be fair, so is a traffic bollard – and has an eager-to-please boyishness that is only slightly disconcerting in a man of 29 who has a wife and two children. His ad libs don’t feel very ad libbed but he can work on that.’

The Guardian said that ‘together they are as warm, unintimidating and friendly as the programme requires’.

However, the Daily Mail’s Amanda Platell was less enamoured than her collagues, writing: ‘Jones and Manford have about as much electricity between them as the Battersea power station, which was shut down almost 20 years ago The pair's rictus smiles were a dead giveaway. Jason's little cupid mouth was in a constant pucker.’

Published: 17 Aug 2010