Talking Telly: Where does James Corden really bring the funny?

It’s hard to miss James Corden this summer. Since being featured on Sport Relief in the spring, he has been a one-man ambassador for ITV’s coverage of the World Cup, culminating in his World Cup Live show that’s been scheduled after their World Cup late games (for those who haven’t watched World Cup coverage on UK telly, the BBC and ITV have alternated the airing of matches, and each one had two of England’s. Corden also did the official England World Cup song with Dizzee Rascal, which was the UK No. 1 for two weeks, and which debuted during the Britain’s Got Talent final. Add to that an assistant managing gig for the England side on Soccer Aid, an appearance on Alan Carr: Chatty Man and, of course, a big guest starring role on Doctor Who.

The World Cup Live show has scored really well for ITV, giving them record ratings on ITV4 (where half of the show airs after ITV1 goes to news.) Now the Daily Mirror has reported that they are anxious to keep Corden going by offering a golden-handcuffs deal worth around £6 million for three years. According to the Mirror (who should be regarded as about as accurate as the Daily Mail in their reporting, so not so much) Corden is going for a better deal than Adrian Chiles got recently when he jumped from the One Show for a £6 million/4 year deal.

The talk (and the grumbling) is that Corden’s show is basically a reboot of Chris Evans’ TFI Friday show on Channel 4 in the late-1990′s. If it is, Evans clearly doesn’t care – he not only appeared on World Cup Live (and was exceptionally manic in a way that gives me hope for his upcoming gig doing The One Show on Fridays) but was quoted by The Sun as saying he’s “the perfect man for the job.”

But even with Evans blessing and good ratings, is this show and ITV the right fit for Corden? Yes, the show is enjoyable. With a mix of celebrity guests (although it would be nice if more of them have a clue about football), silly games and audience stunts, it reminds me also of Ant and Dec’s (and Cat Deeley’s) breakout Saturday morning show SM:TV, and it’s actually tame enough for kids to watch. Corden has to win awards for being the most cheerful and understanding England fan through the whole World Cup, doubtless because he spent a lot of time with team members filming segments before they went to South Africa. Basically, it’s not a stretch to say that it’s a show that Smithy (Corden’s character on Gavin & Stacey) would have fronted if he were real-life.

But that brings us back to the thing that made Corden famous in the first thing – the amazing sitcom that he and Ruth Jones created and wrote for BBC. He’s a funny and sweet guy, but it could be said that his true brilliance is in writing and acting. Even in his Doctor Who appearance, in an episode that clearly was meant to be filler between big blockbuster CGI eps, he made a lovely turn as a call-center manager who rented the Doctor a room when he was stuck on earth. It wasn’t big laughs, and neither was his character on Gavin & Stacey much of the time. But he had the ability to make characters who could be caricatures or sidelines have a real part. And on Gavin & Stacey (which I’m currently watching the first series of for the first time, embarrassingly) all of the characters are written with great depth.

So should Corden go for the money, expand on his short-run zoo show of the moment and try to build himself into the next big presenting star? He could do it and do it well, although many would say that he is either shameless light entertainment or grating. But I hope that somewhere in that deal would be something that would let him create a new sitcom or dramedy for ITV. Because it’s a shame to let that comedic writing talent be put on the shelf. And if I were the BBC, even with their budget situation, it would be time to consider making a play for a similar deal for him themselves.