Comedy gold: Jason Manford's Live at Manchester Apollo

Perhaps there should be more respect for comedians who do the same old thing extremely well. For truly, you won't find a less innovative standup currently at work than Jason Manford.

He's funny, is Jason Manford. He sometimes pushes it a little bit, but he's actually quite an old-fashioned gentle kind of comedian. He comes on, tells funny stories; quite often you can see where they're going before they get there. There's not an enormous amount of edge to Jason. But he's very likable, and he has a nice way with words: "Kids are well thick... early doors they'll believe anything," he says before telling us that his dad used to tell him the ice cream van did the tune when they'd run out of ice cream.

Maybe standup can be reassuring, and make you laugh, and quite like the person standing up, rather than make you squirm and feel uncomfortable. Or maybe I'm just an old git.

If the producers of The One Show were looking to replace Adrian Chiles with a host who displays a similar enthusiasm for the minutiae of modern life, then matey Mancunian comic Jason Manford should be a sound appointment. Here, the 8 Out of 10 Cats star is captured at the Manchester Apollo on his 2009 stand-up tour, pondering the unspoken rules of the living room, the road and the men's room; imagine Michael McIntyre, except not so well-spoken and with more gags about parallel parking. Manford's humour is gentle - he elicits few gasps or belly-laughs - but his eagerness to interact with the audience is genuine and it's a pleasure to spend an hour in his company.