Jason Manford

Jason Manford to return as Olivier Awards host for 2020

Jason Manford will return to host the Olivier Awards this year, presenting the ceremony for the third time.

Jason Manford speaks out over scrapped Scarborough

Jason Manford has said he was disappointed that his television series Scarborough was not given a second outing as he thought it served an "often forgotten" demographic.

Curtains The Musical needs to pull itself together

This production has been barrelling round the provinces for six months and fetched up at Wyndham's due to the premature demise of The Man In The White Suit. Both the show, and the show-within-the-show, are early Christmas turkeys.

Jason Manford in the West End for Curtains

Jason Manford is heading to the West End with the murder-mystery musical Curtains. It is replacing The Man In The White Suit - the Ealing comedy remake starring Stephen Mangan which this week announced it was closing early amid poor ticket sales.

Will justice prevail at the hair salon, where Lisa Marie (Harriet Webb) has been falsely accused of stealing Mrs Bookham's money? Meanwhile, Mike (Jason Manford) and his boss are struggling to hire for the amusement arcade. Looks like exciting job opportunities in Scarborough are rather limited.

A slightly wooden Jason Manford returns in this wry take on a couple reunited from Derren Litten, creator of Benidorm. This week, Manford's Mike is finally taking the leap and moving back in with Karen (Catherine Tyldesley). But it doesn't come without its challenges, namely his gormless flatmate Bigsy.

PC Merrick (Chewing Gum's Olisa Odele) does a good camp Columbo in this episode, but otherwise it's life as usual in the overcast Benidorm. And that's exactly how fans of Derren Litten's not-quite-comedy like it. Can Mike (Jason Manford) help Marion (Stephanie Cole) with her glut of corned beef hash?

TV review: Scarborough, BBC One

I've been a touch tardy publishing my review of Scarborough and I've not been able to avoid some of the reviews that Derren Litten's new sitcom has received. There have been good ones and bad ones and, I have to say, I side more with the good ones.

TV review: Scarborough series 1 episode 1

Perhaps it will improve as it goes along, and it certainly has a strong cast who all turn in great performances. But elements of it feel a bit too cartoonish (Bigsy and Karen's workmates especially), the majority of the cruder jokes feel like the kind of thing that's been done countless times before, and the more dramatic parts just didn't work for me, so unless I start to hear that it's suddenly become enormously funnier it's something I won't be bothering with again.