WITH the post-Christmas gloom hanging in the air, January could be the cruellest month to start anything, be it losing weight or taking over a flagship Sunday politics show. Needs must, however, when one of your most well kent faces has left the building.

So it was that Sophie Raworth found herself yesterday making the news instead of presenting it, as the host of what was The Andrew Marr Show and is now the plainly titled Sunday Morning.

That is another downside to a January launch: there is so little else happening, newspapers run stories about your debut as if it was a new play or film. How, then, did it go for Raworth?

Before we could find out, politics show watchers began the day, as is traditional, with Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday. Having started his run last May as a maternity cover for Sophy Ridge, Phillips was the future once (copyright David Cameron). Now he is the longest serving presenter in post.

His first interview of 2022 was with Nadhim Zahawi, former Vaccines Minister now Education Secretary for England and, for this day only, Minister for the Sunday shows.

Mr Zahawi had already set the direction of the day with a Sunday Times interview in which he said it would be “helpful” if the quarantine period could be cut from seven days to five.

He also, according to the report, said free lateral flow tests were on the way out. In front of the cameras, though, he said that was not the case. Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, had already called the move to scrap free tests “utterly wrongheaded”.

READ MORE: Warning on free tests

Phillips’s running order also included João Vale de Almeida, the EU’s ambassador to the UK, on Northern Ireland and trade; the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, on differences in Covid restrictions around the UK; and Marvin Rees, mayor of Bristol, on the Colston statue verdict. It was a newsy mix that made for a lively hour.

Sunday Morning had Mr Zahawi and Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor, as well as an interview with a hospital chief executive. In keeping with Marr show tradition there was an arts segment, this one featuring Elizabeth McGovern, aka Cora Crawley of Downton Abbey fame, and her new play about fellow actor, Ava Gardner. The show’s other regular, the newspaper review, had also survived intact, as had the set.

Sunday Morning was similar to Marr while at the same time very different. Where Marr’s show was fleet of foot and proactive, Sunday Morning had the air of a programme that was put together last Tuesday and not changed since. Where Marr set out to make headlines, Sunday Morning came across as if it wanted to have no impact at all.

In short, Sunday Morning, like its title, felt safe, bland, BBC.

It might be thought unfair to compare the two shows and their presenters. Raworth and the BBC have both said that her stint is temporary, pending the appointment of a new, permanent host whose name will be in the title. He or she will be the one who gets the new set and the big launch. He or she should therefore be the one having their style appraised.

Fair enough, but if the Raworth shows prove popular with audiences, and BBC management, it could influence the selection of the new host.

Comparing Marr and Sunday Morning has little to do with the presenters personally. Both are experienced, highly respected journalists. But broadly speaking they represent different styles and approaches to the job

Raworth, for example, is BBC through and through, cool, calm, hard to read. In recent years it has seemed as though she was getting ready to take on a Dimbleby role with a place at great state occasions.

READ MORE: Covid, the latest figures

Marr, in contrast, with a hinterland in newspapers before joining the BBC, is more of a scrapper whose interview style could best be described as robust. He left the BBC precisely because he wanted to express a view and shake things up.

Which style do viewers prefer? It is a question being asked not just at the BBC but throughout the industry as a whole. GB News thought it had the answer by hiring “big personalities”, only to find viewers cared just as much, if not more, about basic standards. The signing of Piers Morgan to talkTV shows which way Rupert Murdoch sees the wind blowing.

Alternatively, having had a taste of news and views mixing to a greater extent than before, UK audiences could be ready to return to the more traditional fare offered by the main channels.

Despite the dull title, Sunday Morning might prove to be a lively arrival after all.