Jason Manford’s big-headed about latest TV venture

JASON MANFORD has learned a valuable lesson during his 20 years in comedy — he will never be as funny as somebody falling over.

“You can write the best joke in the world, but somebody will fall over and that will always be funnier!” quips the 35-year-old.

With this in mind, his latest venture, Bigheads, is quite the comic dream.

Giving a new meaning to the idea of inflated celebrity egos, the six-part series takes the form of a high-energy game show, which sees members of the public transformed into celebs by donning giant heads.

Filmed in front of a live arena audience, the Bigheads compete against each other in a string of celebrity-inspired challenges.

Does it intellectually challenge the viewer? No. But that’s not the point. The point is to bring brilliant belly laughs to prime-time family TV.

“It’s so light, it’s floating off!” states Jason, who hosts proceedings alongside commentators Jenny Powell and Kriss Akabusi.

“We’re literally going: ‘For an hour, let’s have a laugh at people falling over with massive heads on.’

“If you like that, that’s what it’s about.

“If you don’t like that, you need to have a long hard look at yourself.”

As inspired as Jason Manford’s role in the show is, the real stars are the 25 Bigheads. And from Simon Cowell, Mo Farah and Victoria Beckham, to William Shakespeare, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, there’s certainly an eclectic selection of famous “faces”.

But Jason insists he’s not in the market to offend.

“The lesson I learnt week one of doing 8 Out Of 10 Cats, nearly 12 years ago, is if you’re going to do a joke about somebody who might be famous, then life has a way of making sure you meet that person at some point in the weeks following,” he says.

“It’s far too awkward to have that conversation, and for me, it’s not worth it.”

Jason’s pleased to be working on something more family-friendly too, so his kids can watch.

“You get to a point where you think: ‘I can’t keep doing Live At The Apollo and things where they don’t know what Daddy does,’” says Manford — who has three daughters and a son with his ex-wife Catherine, plus another daughter with girlfriend Lucy Dyke — chuckling as he recalls a recent cameo on CBeebies’ Twirlywoos.

“Gradually, I’ve been trying to move a bit before nine o’clock, so I spent last year doing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on tour and they came and saw that, and they’ve seen a few other musicals I’ve done.

“I feel lucky — I enjoy presenting, I enjoy stand-up, but then I’m back to singing and dancing and flying cars.”

Bigheads, ITV, Sundays, 7pm.