OFI Sunday

Did you not see his little stunt with her at this years Brits? excruciatingly embarrassing to watch. And after watching his performance at the Brits and Comic Relief he's definitely lost his touch with live TV. he could have got away with anything - but her didn't. He just ummed, errd and stumbled his way through the autocue while trying to pretend it's still 1995.

Chris Evans' hotly anticipated return to regular TV presenting on ITV1 next weekend with OFI Sunday will be "about now, right now, and almost celeb-free".
But the key phrase is "almost" celeb-free. Evans has also admitted he will "probably invite a few mates to come and have a laugh with me", and newspaper reports have suggested his ex-wife Billie Piper, Robbie Williams and James Nesbitt have all agreed to appear.

Evans, writing in the latest edition of the Radio Times, also reveals that he "decided not to beat about the bush" and changed the show's name from ONI to OFI Sunday "to welcome on screen the long-awaited distant cousin" of his old Channel 4 programme, TFI Friday.

"This show is about now, right now, and almost celeb-free. I'll probably invite a few mates to come and have a laugh with me. The show will have music - music that people will want to watch," he writes in the Radio Times in the form of a diary of how the new show evolved.

"We decide the show will be heavily research-based, so we start to look for people with Radio 4/documentary/film-making backgrounds.

"I think if a show is based around a person, the show should be an extension of that person. Right now, I'm older, I'm a little wiser and I think the world is a very interesting place, so why don't we do something around it?"

OFI Sunday will be filmed live in front of a studio audience at ITV's London Studios, on the South Bank.

The theme tune and opening credits to OFI Sunday both play on the fact that Evans has not been a regular fixture on screen since TFI Friday ended nearly five years ago - although he has done one-off presenting gigs in the past year, including The Brit Awards and Comic Relief.

"I write the theme tune, but don't worry: I don't sing it. It's an uplifting I Love Lucy kind of number, telling the story of where I've been and why I'm back," he writes.

"We decide on animated titles. They start with me flying down from a purple make- believe sky to begin a journey that takes me down the streets through my life, finally ending up on my new show.

"The set is coming along. We need it to match the titles. I want the show to come from the top of a skyscraper in a make-believe town. Not London, not New York, but somewhere in between. Think Bewitched, I tell our designer."

ITV1 has given OFI Sunday a prime spot in its schedule, starting right after the launch episode of the new series of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! at 10.30pm this Sunday, November 20.

Without wishing to come across as a wimpy lefty, do you maybe think we could let him actually do one of these shows before slagging him off and condemming it to a fate worse than Celebrity Wrestling?!

Absolutely agree with that. I never understand why people do slate programmes before they've even aired. Who knows, it could be a great new entertainment programme.