British Comedy Guide
Jason Manford
Jason Manford

Jason Manford

  • 43 years old
  • English
  • Actor and stand-up comedian

Press clippings Page 48

Tonightly is bad. Really bad. It's 50% smug and 50% tundra. This has been picked up by the viewing public... or rather, the lack of. A paltry 500,000 viewers tuned in to watch Jason Manford (No Frills Peter Kay) desperately trying to kick water up hill. Still, there's a part of me that feels a bit sorry for him, thanks to the people that surround him.

mofgimmers, TV Scoop, 6th August 2008

The bosses at Channel 4 took an enormous risk with this stab at a British Daily Show when they chose Jason Manford to front it. To give him such a responsibility when we are all still getting used to him, seems a far reaching step for those in the board room and not to mention the comedian himself.

At first, I had mixed feelings. Manford is a confident host who has clearly been ready to front a show for some time, and confidence is certainly needed when delivering long monologues to camera as he is required to do for much of the first half of the show.

And while co-presenter Andi Osho's little ad-libbed asides were funny, it seems she needs to have a bit more faith in herself.

In an era of copy-cat shows and more food and lifestyle shows than anyone could possible keep up with, any channel and production team attempting a new format is absolutely to be applauded.

And a nightly comedy show looking at the news, recorded a few hours before transmission, is a rare beast indeed here in the UK.

Jemma Dobson, This Is Lancashire, 6th August 2008

Presenter Jason Manford was genial, funny, comfortable and confident. He started with some nice self-deprecating humour about how he's easy on the eye for the girls and the gays 'like Adam Rickett' and continued to be far more watchable than the other segments of the show.

Any hopes that it might be a British Daily Show were dashed pretty quickly, in the main thanks to the sub-par troupe of 'correspondents' hoping to become the next Ali G.

The Custard TV, 4th August 2008

Jimmy Carr returns with the sixth - yes, sixth - series of this consistently funny panel game, sitting smugly between the announcement of who's getting kicked out of the Big Brother house and the first evictee's chat with Davina.

Comedians Sean Lock and Jason Manford are still in the team captains' chairs and tonight they'll be joined by repeat guests (also known as show stalkers) Vic Reeves and David Walliams, who have appeared more than 10 times between them.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 13th June 2008

The inessential comedy panel show returns for an astonishing sixth series, with Jimmy Carr again marshalling six comedians as they recite jokes based on surveys and statistics. Returning as team captains are Sean Lock, generally the best spontaneous contributor by far, and Peter Kay-ish Manchester comic Jason Manford.

It's all a bit stilted and choppily edited, but it can attract decent guests (Vic Reeves and Griff Rhys Jones were on last year - David Walliams appears tonight) and will do well in the ratings.

Jack Seale, Radio Times, 13th June 2008

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