So, tonight: good buddy Joe Wadsack makes his debut on the first episode of series 3 of Food and Drink, the BBC’s flagship food/drink programme. We’d been waiting to see this for a long time. It’s an all-new team. The show is hosted by Tom Kerridge after previous host Michel Roux Jr had to leave because of commercial conflicts.

If you are in a country that allows you to view BBC programs, you can watch it here on BBC iPlayer.

The guests on episode 1 were the fabulous Hairy Bikers, Si and Dave. They are the best-selling of all the UK’s celebrity chefs, largely because of their fantastic screen presence, and the fact that their recipes work, and are easy enough for normal people to do. The foodies may despair (and they are wrong to do so), but Si and Dave are great. TV gold.

Tom is a good – but not great – presenter. He’s been coached, I suspect, to smile lots, and looks like he’s always about to dissolve into manic laughter, given half a chance. But he does a solid job.

Joe arrives at 10:56, and begins with some tea. He’s confident, engaging and fits straight in. He has to follow a rather annoying segment on sandwiches, and is followed by an equally annoying onion slice off. And then there’s another fail of a segment, on slow cooking, with lots of boring people being boring.

But Joe saves us, reappearing at 23:19 to give some wine selections. To be honest, he’s great. Very confident, and he also gets to act as a judge for the various dishes the three have prepared. He’s totally in his element – more so than presenter Tom – and you just wonder why he hasn’t been doing more TV in the past.

Joe’s on screen recommendations are deliberately generic, but for the specific wines, you need to visit the programme’s website. Good choices all round.

Verdict: a great start.