TV review: Daybreak with Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly

Summary

ITV1's breakfast show Daybreak was re-launched today with new presenters Lorraine Kelly and Aled Jones.

Highlight

Little Mix putting their money where their mouth is by singing live.

Lowlight

Aled Jones's work-experience tie and suit, and that horrendous bright orange set.

Full review

When Daybreak launched two years ago this week with Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley at the helm, the guest with the star billing on the first show was Tony Blair.

Today, with that pair a distant memory and the show given a makeover, that slot went to X Factor winners Little Mix. So you can see the level ITV is aiming for here.

And that's fine, in principle. It indicates the network has learned a vital lesson.

You see, they started out in 2010 with the noble intention of trying to muscle in on BBC Breakfast's serious-news turf, beginning with a hammed-up, recycled story about the Farepak Christmas savings scandal.

But as the ratings proved, they just can't compete on that battlefield with the Beeb and ITV realised the programme needed a lighter tone to it.

And so to this morning's re-launch which, on first glance, appears to fulfil that brief.

Daybreak's new dawn

Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly, both very good TV presenters in their own right and each with an easy-going demeanour, are the new hosts and, aside from the occasional moment when neither knew whose line it was on the autocue, they were as professional as you'd expect.

Indeed, Lorraine is such a consummate TV pro that you could sit her alongside a three-legged ferret and she'd make it work.

But here's my beef with the new-look Daybreak. In Little Mix, the signs are that they are aiming for a younger audience (again).

Yet the hosts are 41 and 52 years old. So it all feels a bit too condescending, although thankfully there was no sign of a return to the gimmicks like Something Cool Before School, which was anything but cool.

Aled, wearing a suit and tie, looked like a work experience trying too hard to impress on his first day.

And while he delivered the anticipated cheeky-chappie routine - this man wouldn't look out of place in CBBC's old broom cupboard - you can see why he never went into stand-up comedy. He's the TV equivalent of limp lettuce.

There were problems elsewhere. They went to the trouble of sending Gethin Jones to The Shard for an abseil by Prince Andrew, but missed the whole thing (apart from the duke re-roping on the 29th floor).

That neon set, harking back to the days of GMTV, was brought to us by the word ORANGE, the colour ORANGE and, seemingly, the number ORANGE.

It doesn't exactly ease you into the working day.

The theme tune, which sounds like a polite version of Blockbusters, is going to get annoying in a hurry.

They have, in fairness, made the right move by poaching a cute weather girl from the BBC, Laura Tobin, who Aled Jones handed to by announcing: "From Little Mix to little minx." Nice line.

But nobody's going to be fooled by such irrelevant changes as where the hosts and guests sit on the sofa, which have swapped around. They're simply papering over the cracks.

And when the lights went out in the studio for a moment, Richard Arnold quipped: "The reviews are in."
Well, yes, to be blunt.

This is a format that falls between two stools. It's neither BBC Breakfast's heavyweight approach, nor the glorious days of Roland Rat and Wacaday.

And, having promised "the biggest names in entertainment", who have they got to lure viewers back tomorrow?
Richard and Judy. Hold me back.

• Verdict: It has a vague idea of what it wants to be but stands no chance of getting anywhere near BBC Breakfast's ratings.
  

  

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