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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
John Plunkett

Evan Davis on Today: one week in, your verdicts please

It is one week since Evan Davis made his debut as a full-time presenter on Radio 4's Today. So what do you think of the new boy so far?

"Hell to begin with," said the headline on Gillian Reynold's review in the Daily Telegraph today. "But Evan is warming up."

I agree with Reynolds that Davis made a distinctly hesitant start in the job, as I wrote in our live blog last week.

Matt Wells, in the MediaTalk podcast, thought "hesitant" was being overly generous

But things are improving, said Reynolds, after Davis was paired with Ed Stourton on yesterday's programme - as he was today - and given the plum 8.10am interview. "Davis did it with real skill," she says.

The Observer's Miranda Sawyer thought Davis was getting into his stride by the end of last week, and even managed the odd joke. I particularly liked Sawyer's take on Davis' handover to Today's veteran sports man, Garry Richardson.

"Garry Richardson prides himself on being Today's wit, and didn't take too well to Davis's daft introduction.

"'And from one literary phenomenon to... Garry Richardson, with the sport!' An ominous pause. Uh oh. 'Thank you. How nice. How kind,' patronised Richardson. "'Evan, you can come again.'"



The Guardian's radio reviewer Elisabeth Mahoney also thought Davis made a jittery start. But I agree with her verdict that he is just the thing the programme needs.

"Davis has great likeability and is the counterpoint the current Today team certainly needs... Unusually for a Today presenter, Evan Davis feels like one of us."


Davis himself said he was "shocked" to discover we were live blogging his debut last week. Sorry about that, Evan. You could at least have dropped us an email, or left a comment, although you may have had better things to do.

Davis, the BBC's former economics editor, interviewed the new one, Stephanie Flanders, on Thursday. It was, said Flanders in her Observer diary, "the passing of the torch - not just the Olympic one but the sacred flame of BBC economics."

"Evan and I have both spent our first week learning the ropes," wrote Flanders. So how do you think they are doing?

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