Friday Night With Jonathan Ross

Jonathan Ross sues over chatshow claims

Jonathan Ross is suing Telegraph Media Group for defamation over an article claiming that celebrities rejected invitations to appear on his chatshow.

Jonathan Ross walks the tight rope on TV return

But in last night's comeback Tonight With Jonathan Ross, Ross showed some of the chops that got him that much-mentioned £18.5m contract with the BBC in the first place. After the most high-profile spell on the naughty stair in recent broadcasting history - a three month suspension, £1.1m in lost wages and all the peevish umbrage the Daily Mail could throw at him - Ross picked up his broadcasting career with a rueful yet resilient, "Now - where were we?"

But the biggest flaw of all was the tone. Not being prudish here, but Tonight With Jonathan Ross was obsessed with smut. Nothing wrong with that in essence of course, yet here it came over as really contrived and unoriginal, as well as actually being far from amusing. Every guest was forced to spend more or less their whole time in discussion about genitals or sex or other body parts.

But within all this clutter there was a lot of substance. A team of four writers provided more hits than misses in the way of jokes; and Tonight With Jonathan Ross has retained that sharpness in delivery and response that can salvage the lamest of punchlines and the flakiest of interviews.