Jason Manford

You know when gameshow hosts make that tired old joke that goes along the lines of, "We called up the biggest names in showbiz ... but they were all busy"? Well, that's no longer a joke, more something they are legally obliged to declare. Jason Manford and Peter Andre are among those picking the "Odd One In" from up to four possible candidates, such as guessing who is the real hula dancer or cockney from a lineup. Gameshows are supposed to kill time, this one makes time run backwards.

Jason Manford & Alex Jones talk about The One Show

Christine Bleakley may have made enemies at the BBC after quitting The One Show.
But she's done wonders for the careers of stand-up comic Jason Manford and little-known Alex Jones.

Comedians ribbing each other about far-fetched tales - it's what Friday-night telly was made for. And this week's gathering of deceivers and doubters may be the sharpest yet. Joining chalk-and-cheese team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack are Ruth Jones (of Gavin & Stacey fame), Jason Manford (The One Show) and comedians Jack Dee and Peter Serafinowicz. In short, every one's a winner. Tonight's best round involves a mystery guest called Ian. The question is, did he save Jones's tortoise from death, sell batteries to David Mitchell via eBay, or get attacked by schoolchildren alongside Manford? Finding out is a blast. Plus there's a new round where host Rob Brydon has a go at fooling the teams himself. But did he really once steal Catherine Zeta-Jones's dinner money?

Full marks to whoever booked the panellists on tonight's Would I Lie To You?. It's a solid gold line-up this week. Joining David Mitchell, Lee Mack and Rob Brydon are Ruth Jones, Jason Manford, Jack Dee and Peter Serafinowicz - taking a break from what is practically a full-time job of filling the Twitter-verse with surreal one-liners.

This week they're all bringing their best poker faces to some very tall tales involving Ray Charles, a tortoise, a human sausage, a cheese and onion sandwich, Lee Mack's life expectancy, and David Mitchell's battery-buying habits.

And Rob Brydon's getting in on the act as well with his own true or false questions - did he really once steal Catherine Zeta-Jones' lunch money?

Television at this time of year is a bit like my lawn at this time of year - patchy, barren, brown, cracked; you get the idea. Weekends are especially desperate. If you don't like sport, you're screwed - lost in a parched desert of nothingness (as opposed to one of those deserts that are full of stuff). Hell, you may even have to drag your fat arse off the sofa and do something different - go and water the garden, perhaps. Sprinkler - it's a nice word isn't it? It has some lovely consonant clusters.

What's this, then? Odd One In (ITV1, Saturday): yet another new gameshow. I see, so of these four nuns, only one is a real nun, and the teams - Peter Andre and Jason Manford v Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Katherine Kelly off Corrie - have to guess which one. Same with the guys with the beard; three are real beards, one is a fake. Which one, though?

So it's basically the odd one out round from Never Mind the Buzzcocks stretched into a whole programme. Hmmm. Oh, and made a lot more rubbish, because Bradley Walsh is no Simon Amstell; and Pete, Laurence etc are nothing like the funny people they have on NMTB. I predict a short life.

Well, we said it was light entertainment silly season. First in a double bill of new gameshows is this, hosted by Bradley Walsh. The "Home Team" of professional nice guy Peter Andre and likeable One Show recruit Jason Manford, plus an "Away Team" of two guest celebrities (first up are Coronation Street's Katherine Kelly and daytime dandy Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen), try to pick the person with a skill or secret out of a line-up by asking probing questions.

He's funny, is Jason Manford. He sometimes pushes it a little bit, but he's actually quite an old-fashioned gentle kind of comedian. He comes on, tells funny stories; quite often you can see where they're going before they get there. There's not an enormous amount of edge to Jason. But he's very likable, and he has a nice way with words: "Kids are well thick... early doors they'll believe anything," he says before telling us that his dad used to tell him the ice cream van did the tune when they'd run out of ice cream.

Maybe standup can be reassuring, and make you laugh, and quite like the person standing up, rather than make you squirm and feel uncomfortable. Or maybe I'm just an old git.

If the producers of The One Show were looking to replace Adrian Chiles with a host who displays a similar enthusiasm for the minutiae of modern life, then matey Mancunian comic Jason Manford should be a sound appointment. Here, the 8 Out of 10 Cats star is captured at the Manchester Apollo on his 2009 stand-up tour, pondering the unspoken rules of the living room, the road and the men's room; imagine Michael McIntyre, except not so well-spoken and with more gags about parallel parking. Manford's humour is gentle - he elicits few gasps or belly-laughs - but his eagerness to interact with the audience is genuine and it's a pleasure to spend an hour in his company.

He may be seen as a surprise choice to co-host The One Show, but Jason Manford has a homeliness and likeability that should suit the early-evening BBC1 crowd. Obviously his act here is post-watershed stuff (jokes centred around the groin area), but the way he banters rather than spars with his heartland audience at Manchester's Apollo Theatre is a winning tactic and immediately puts them at their ease. The topics he covers - driving lessons, childhood fears and funny things your dad says - inevitably invite comparisons with Peter Kay, but Manford feels the less nostalgic of the two. Some may regard his laid-back style as lacking edge, but it must take a lot of practice to appear so relaxed.

Jason Manford cheats death after tyres blow out on car

Jason Manford was lucky to escape death after a dramatic incident in which two of his hire car's tyres blew out on a motorway.