Cat Deeley has saved This Morning

Oh, but it’s good to have her back. This week, Cat Deeley has returned to British TV as the temporary-but-possibly-permanent co-host of ITV’s beleaguered This Morning, and, frankly, it’s like she’s never been away. Always an effervescent small screen presence, Deeley has reminded us over these past three days just what a pro she is. Presenting on Monday and Tuesday alongside Rylan Clark, the man with the hardest-working hair dye in the business, and with Craig Doyle earlier today, she is the human manifestation of a side wink and an arched eyebrow.

“Can you believe they’ve let two of the naughtiest people in television live on ITV?” the 47-year-old asked 35-year-old Rylan as they opened the show on Monday, Deeley seeming to convince herself that she’s a hand grenade in the style of, say, Chris Evans at his peak pomp 25 years ago, when, in reality, she’s simply a little bit mischievous in a manner that would tickle most people’s fancy.

Born in West Bromwich in 1976, Deeley had initially dabbled in modelling before she happened upon television. By 1998, she was larking it up on SM:TV Live, the Saturday morning kids’ show she helmed alongside Ant and Dec, and which proved so riotously entertaining that pretty soon its core audience was not children at all but rather hungover twentysomethings reluctant to start the weekend until it finished.

Deeley was in her element here, as capable at acting – in the exquisite Friends spoof, Chums – as she was interviewing surly pop stars who couldn’t quite understand why they were required to be awake so early on a Saturday morning but, when faced with her beaming smile, found themselves rather glad to be, nevertheless.

For UK viewers at least, Deeley soon became victim of her own success. By 2006 she was whisked away to work on American television, where she hosted shiny quiz shows that occasionally required her to wear ball gowns. Quietly, she married the Irish TV presenter and comedian Patrick Kielty, with whom she has two children, and so over here she was out of both sight and mind. We refocused our attentions on Davina McCall instead.

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Now she is based back in England, This Morning is a plum role for her. For three mornings so far she has been funny, relatable and empathetic, all the qualities required of morning TV show hosts, and has glided from subjects as jarring as bullying, Suella Braverman’s incendiary letter to the PM, and Mariah Carey owning Christmas with enviable ease.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a mantra that doesn’t really fit with This Morning. It is broke – Phillip Schofield misbehaved, there were rumours of a toxic culture behind the scenes, and Holly Willoughby quit – but they don’t want to fix it because they can’t. It’s too established as a brand. And, frankly, if This Morning isn’t going to continue jumping jarringly between agony aunt segments, double-entendre-quipping chefs and Miriam Margolyes recounting that time she farted in auspicious company, then what is it going to do?

Its producers’ conviction that it simply needs a new face, ideally two, is entirely sound, however. They certainly have a lot of talented contenders to choose from, among them Alison Hammond, and the aforementioned Doyle and Clark. In a few weeks’ time, after Josie Gibson has won I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, they’ll likely find themselves spoiled for choice.

In the meantime, if Cat Deeley has proved anything, it’s that familiarity breeds content, not contempt. On This Morning, she’s been a breath of fresh air. Her presence won’t necessarily bring in many new viewers – many of us who remember her glory days are working during the daytime, after all – but she could comfortably revive the brand, and also do what every great presenter must in such circumstances: make us forget about the former hosts and their inglorious exits, and make it her own.