Keeping up with the Jones
The One Show’s Alex Jones and new co-hosts Ronan Keating and Jermaine Jenas on the chemistry that got them the job... just in time to cover her maternity!
Should we feel sorry for The One Show presenter Alex Jones, or envious about the year she’s had? Since her long-term presenting ‘husband’ Matt Baker departed to spend more time with his sheep, she’s been a single lady on the show.
Oh, she’s had plenty of partners on the sofa (actually sofas, and very spaced-out ones now thanks to social distancing) but no Richard to her Judy, so to speak. For the past year, Matt’s seat has been taken by an ever-changing array of guest presenters. One day Alex, 44, has been joined by singer Michael Ball, the next by sports presenter Alex Scott. She’s been paired with, variously, reality show stalwart Rylan Clark-Neal, actors Kym Marsh and Martin Clunes, and dancer Jordan Banjo. It’s been hard to keep up – and surely hell for the very capable Alex?
Most of her co-presenters haven’t been trained journalists or seasoned TV presenters, more personalities who have segued into TV. Now it’s time for the single lady to settle down though. Sort of. She says herself she’ll miss her ‘dating days’ but it’s time for some commitment. ‘I think of the last year as telly Tinder,’ she says with trademark cheer.
Her new working arrangement will be less of a traditional marriage though, because she will have two TV husbands. Singer Ronan Keating and former footballer Jermaine Jenas have been appointed as permanent presenters on the show. From Monday, Alex will continue to present for five days a week, while her new permanent co-stars will join her on set days – Monday to Wednesday for Jermaine, Thursday and Friday for Ronan. While there will inevitably be days when other presenters will be called in from the subs’ bench, these three will make up the core team.
‘It’s all about giving the viewers stability,’ says Alex. ‘It’s been lovely to mix things up, and I’ve got to work with some brilliant people, which was right for the time.
‘Matt left just as we went into lockdown and then the programme changed. All our lives changed. The world changed! But the challenge now is taking the show forward, and it will be lovely to have a gang of us, a solid team.’
Is there a pecking order in this new team though? Surely Alex will be boss, captain and lead singer? She shakes her head, protesting. ‘No, no, no…’ but Ronan, 44, and Jermaine, 38, nod just as vigorously, so we can take it that Alex is still firmly at the helm.
The guys explain that their previous stints on the show were more on an ad hoc basis (‘We’d just get the call,’ says Ronan). Now there will be a rota. ‘It’s a revamp, just doing something more solid, so there are familiar faces every week rather than it being as transient as it has been over the past while,’ says Ronan.
You can see the attraction for both men. The part-time nature of the role will allow them to continue with their other careers. Ronan, whose life in showbiz started with Boyzone, also presents shows on digital radio station Magic Radio and will continue with his singing commitments when the entertainment world opens up more. Ex-England star Jermaine earned his first cap at 19 while playing for Newcastle before moving to Spurs. He regularly appears on Match Of The Day, but says he shifted other sports TV work to allow for this job. ‘It’s by far the biggest thing I’ve done, so it was a case of moving other stuff out of the way.’
The new dream team will still need some tweaks though. Alex is expecting her third baby, a girl, in the autumn (she fittingly announced the news on the show after a segment on lockdown babies). While she’s on maternity leave there will be more juggling of roles. She chats about the impending new arrival and no, she and her husband, insurance broker Charlie Thomson, did not plan it. It was ‘a surprise, but a lovely surprise,’ she says. ‘If I could have taken a picture of our faces when we got the results. But it’s been a year for surprises – some good, some horrendous – so you have to embrace the positive. We couldn’t be more pleased now.’
Alex already has two boys – Teddy, four, and Kit, who turns two this month. They weren’t altogether thrilled to hear of another sibling. ‘Teddy said, “Mama, we already have a baby, we don’t need another one. Send it back.” But then I explained that they’re both boys and this one will be a girl, so that was okay. A girl was easier to sell to them!’
Come the autumn then, she’ll have three children under the age of five. Is the panic rising? She laughs. ‘After the year we’ve had, how hard can three children be?’
While it’s happy personal news, for the show it’s a huge issue. Did it spark the decision to create a permanent presenting team? ‘Well, it happened organically,’ she says. ‘But it will make it easier for me to go off, knowing that these two love the show and want to take it forward.’ Whatever the team lineup, The One Show is at a critical juncture. As Alex is quick to point out, it’s one of the few TV shows that has actually gained viewers during the pandemic. Alex, Ronan and Jermaine all worked on the show through the pandemic, but Alex was at the helm (presenting from home at various
After the last year how hard can three hildren be?
stages when she had to isolate), and sums up that feeling of shellshock very powerfully today.
‘At the beginning I don’t think any of us really knew what we were dealing with. In those first few weeks of the first lockdown – late March going into April last year – things were changing on
a daily basis really. The team was pared down to just a handful of people, with everyone else working from home. It was odd coming into work because we were leaving our families, not knowing what all this would mean for them.
‘It was nerve-racking. In the office, you wouldn’t want to touch
the button in the lift. Everybody had masks on and you would really be conscious about keeping a distance. We didn’t know whether it would affect children. It was quite scary times. As things evolved, I think it felt more and more like this is what this show was meant to do, have a really strong connection with the audience. Our job was to lift people up a little bit after an hour of news. And sometimes that was really hard. To lift the mood and find the right tone is very tricky, but the audience responded positively, very warmly.’
The fact that Alex announced her pregnancy on the show speaks volumes about how much a part of her wider life it is. Indeed, it sounds as if it is no coincidence that both the permanent new signings have children. Ronan has five – three from his first marriage to presenter and former model Yvonne Connolly, and two with his second wife Storm. Jermaine has three girls, again from two relationships. ‘How many children do we have between us?’ Alex asks the others, losing count. It will be 11 when the new baby arrives.
Ronan says the births of his two youngest – Cooper, four, and Coco, 13 months – are linked to the show. ‘I was hosting The One Show on the day Cooper arrived. He was born in the morning at the Portland Hospital just down the road from the BBC. I got to spend a little time with him, then I went to do the show. It’s a blur. I hadn’t slept the night before. I can’t remember a thing about it! But the funny thing is that our little girl Coco was born at the same hospital just four days into lockdown. I remember walking down to the BBC again, just to get some air, and it was totally different. You came out into this Armageddon – a deserted London, almost like grass growing down the middle of the road.’
Ronan should have been on tour this year, but the cancellation of live gigs has kept him at home – something he’s now grateful for. ‘I got quality time at home, which I’ve really never had. I was always at the airport twice a week.’
Jermaine has a similar story. He has two children, Geneva and Olivia – who are eight and four – with his wife Ellie. He has another daughter Sancha, 13, from a previous relationship. Lockdown has meant spending time with them for him too. He says it’s only recently that he’s realised how much he’s missed as his career as a footballer and then sports pundit has taken him all over the world. ‘I feel a bit guilty saying it, but for me lockdown was a nice thing, a moment to reset and be with my kids. When I was playing I was all over the place. It’s the same with sports presenting because there’s a lot of travel involved. At one point my kids just used to call me “Bye”, as in “Bye Daddy”.
‘They said it so much it was kind of my name. So being at home with them has been amazing.’
All three say they have learned more about each other’s lives in the past year. ‘I think it does create a bond. We’re always chatting about our kids,’ says Jermaine. Bang on cue, Alex asks Ronan about his son Cooper’s birthday party the previous day. And we should expect more of this on air too – banter about family life is a firm part of the show. ‘I think it has to be. You have to be yourself and open up about that part of your life – I don’t think you can have a proper connection with the audience without it – and the events of the past year have reinforced that,’ says Alex. n The One Show is on weekdays at 7pm on BBC1.
Our job was to lift people up a bit… to lift the mood