MEDIA: LIVE WITH ... CHRIS MOYLES - AN EXPERT'S VIEW. Blokey appeal cannot disguise Live With ... Chris Moyles' lack of anything new, Jeremy Lee says

Chris Moyles does what used to be the Steve Wright in the Afternoon slot on Radio One and makes topical jokes about the Welsh warbler Charlotte Church.

Looks a little bit like those other fat blokes off the TV who resemble someone you could meet down your local pub - Phil Jupitus, Peter Kay, John Thomson off Cold Feet.

Presumably it's this blokey appeal that Five thought would get the audiences in for its new concept TFI Friday show called Live With ... Chris Moyles.

TFI Friday had clearly run its course so it was bizarre to repackage the format and get Chris Evans in to produce it.

When a cheesy continuity announcer declared it was "the show where anything could happen" I knew I was likely to be in for a disappointment. This just smacked of desperation and the "we're totally bonkers, we are" attitude that I thought and hoped had been left behind forever.

When Moyles' mum added an "hilarious" link forbidding her son from swearing on the show my heart sank. Carling Live's sponsorship credits rolled and the show started proper.

In true Evans style, it was set in a pub (where else?), members of the production crew were in shot and there was an audience of ordinary people who were encouraged to participate in the show. Except they weren't really your average studio audience - no, wait for it, they were student nurses. Phwoarrr!

Moyles started with a review of the day's papers. This was obvious filler - Matthew Wright in The Wright Stuff does a better job with better gags eight hours earlier on the same channel.

Five's controller of entertainment, Andrew Newman, was interviewed over the phone about Dawn Airey's departure. Except he wasn't, you see. He was in the control room all along and Moyles rushed down to catch him out! How anarchic!

Moyles is clearly an important man - he found it difficult to not talk about himself, his weight, his salary and the ten kilometre run he'd just completed.

T-Mobile provided the prize of a mobile for a phone-in competition that was too long and self-referential.

The winner was invited down to the studio to watch the show on Friday with accommodation at the Holiday Inn. I wasn't sure if this was a joke or not.

When the ad break came I was intrigued to see what brands had been enticed by Five's new offering. The sponsor Carling once again appeared, as did COI Communications (Army recruitment) and then another promo for a Five programme.

There were a few technical hiccups but it would be churlish to dwell on these. The format was the problem.

Now I understand why the posters promoting the programme show Moyles with an empty speech bubble.

Jeremy Lee, ±±¾©Èü³µpk10's media reporter, claims he could beat Chris Moyles over ten kilometres anytime.

Broadcaster: Channel 5

Frequency: Monday to Friday at 7pm (repeated each night at around

midnight)

Audience: 400,000 (2.2 per cent share)

Advertisers include: Carling Live (sponsor), Wrigley's, The Army

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