Please don't call me a traitor but I didn't think the first epsiode of the new Friday night chat show fronted by Claudia Winkleman was very good. I'm sure it'll improve from here and as a big chat show fan I will be faithful to it, but despite all the effort that must've gone into getting the show right it is starting from a pretty low bar.

 

I could quickly list the things that were wrong with it. Despite it being made by the same production company that makes The Graham Norton Show – or maybe because of that –  they made a point of making the set look very different. Where Graham's show is bright and shiny, this one almost felt like it was filmed in the dark. The only thing blacker than the set was Claudia's trademark fringe.

 

And surely they could have bagged better guests for the first show than acts mostly on the promotional treadmill. Jeff Goldblum delivered his usual range of quirky asides, Jennifer Saunders trotted out a few anecdotes and plugged her new film. Devil Wears Prada star Vanessa Williams did the PR rounds not that long ago and didn't seem to bring anything new to the party. If only she'd brought her massive great dane along. Instead we had to do with a picture.

 

It was really left to Tom Allen to keep the conversational fizz up, seated on the end of the sofa – the traditional comic spot on the Norton show too. Allen was brilliantly quickwitted and spiky, even if his best anecdote, about the perils of buying a mattress, was pretty much a retread of a routine from his stand-up show. 

 

I hate to say it but the biggest problem was Winkleman. I don't blame her for being nervous but at times she didn't seem to be listening to her guests and appeared to plough on with her pre-planned questions rather than respond to their remarks. There was also a fair bit of pre-planned chat with the audience, but even there Tom Allen had the best line - after being ticked off by the woman that made the sofa he whipcracked back with: "This is what I live for as a gay man. Being insulted by an upholsterer.”

 

The funny thing is that everyone has talked of Winkleman in comparison to Norton and they have tended to overlook Jonathan Ross. Admittedly not all of his shows are great but last Saturday's show was a genuine zinger, with guests David Byrne, Sara Pascoe, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth and Dame Maggie Aderin really bouncing off each other. 

 

As I said, I'm sure Claudia's show will get better, but this was not a great start. Even her tie looked a bit off-centre, but maybe that was a design decision. As for the chat Winkleman should have started with a bang but instead started with a whimper.