Jason’s TV battle is hard to beat

As you’d expect from a presenter, singer, actor, stand-up comic and dad-ofsix, Jason Manford is having a busy year.

The 41-year-old is back on our screens this week for a brand new series of his hit quiz show Unbeatable.

We caught up with the star to chat as his youngest child was having a trim at the barber’s.

“I’ve got to do five or six things at the same time,” he laughed as he talked to us on the phone.

The first series of Unbeatable, in which players pit their answers against one another in knowledge-testing battles, was a big hit.

Jason thinks part of the show’s charm is that the contestants are great fun to watch.

He said: “I think what went down well last time was not having the same old faces. There are a lot of people who come on our show who have never been on telly before.”

As well as filming Unbeatable, Jason is also going on tour soon with his stand-up comedy show, Like Me.

“It takes me a while to write a stand-up show, so I do that about every three years,” he said.

“So I’ve got a two-year window where I can do musicals and various TV things.”

His children are now beginning to become more aware of what Dad does for a living, but seem unaffected by it.

“We’re a bit out of it. We’re in a little village on the outskirts of Stockport and they’re not media kids,” he said.

“They loved The Masked Singer, although for most of it they didn’t know it was me as I wasn’t allowed to tell them!” [Jason was Hedgehog in 2020].

“My girls are at the point where lads they know of 13 or 14 are watching stand-up, so they’re finding out who their dad is. That’s a new challenge for me, because I have to adapt my material a little. If I’m talking about the family, I’ve got to think if it’s worth it, and who it involves. It’s a learning curve for us all.”