Comedians are all talk in the chat show world
Whatever happened to the great British chat show host? It should be such a simple art – entice interesting guests on to the sofa, ask them interesting questions, then give them chance to deliver equally interesting answers. And, most importantly of all, take the time to listen to what they have to say.
Michael McIntyre is the latest stand-up comic to throw his hat into the chat show ring. They all seem to make the same mistake, thinking they're the star, and not their guests. Yes, of course we need an injection of personality from the men or women at the helm, but if we wanted their stand-up routine, we'd be paying to see them on stage.
And the reason they're not on stage is quite possibly because not enough of us want to pay our money to see them there. So, they take what they think will be easy money on the chat show gravy train.
Talk show presenters should be facilitators, first and foremost, only falling back on their stock-in trade if they're wrestling with a particularly pesky guest.
It's rather amusing to look back now at Piers Morgan's rantings, when he stuck the knife into Graham Norton, Alan Carr, and Jonathan Ross, saying: "They're not great interviewers. Parky could do both – entertain and interview." Days later, Morgan was dropped from his American chat show slot, with executives quoting over-confidence as a factor in the fall from grace.
If you look at those who've tried talk shows since Parkinson made his debut 43 years ago, it's a giant tombstone. Maybe it's because they weren't journalists, who knows? Parky, currently presenting on Sky Arts, reckons there isn't one talk show on TV today that asks 'proper' questions or listens to answers.
And he does have a point. Slick exponents of the autocue or rehearsed routine like Davina McCall, Anthony Cotton, Sharon Osbourne, Nigella Lawson, and Lily Allen have all tried, and bombed.
Comedians and proper, serious, informative chat shows will never be a comfortable fit. Persuading a comedian to share the limelight is tough when they've been brought up on a diet of keeping all the best lines to themselves, yet chat shows live or die on the quality of their guests.
You can't help feeling the Beeb had low hopes for Mr McIntyre, sticking him in a dead-end Monday slot.
And no chat show debate is complete without a word for the legendary Terry Wogan, who hosted one of the UK's most successful shows, three nights a week, until it was replaced in 1992 by hapless Spanish soap Eldorado. A decision right up there with Decca rejecting The Beatles.
Wogan, with his easy-going Radio Two style, was the man who provoked fallen sports presenter David Icke to proclaim himself the son of God, and Ronnie Barker to announce his retirement.
When was the last time you heard something revelatory on a modern-day chat show which you hadn't heard, or read about before? Exactly.
