THE SPECULATION HAS begun over who will replace stand-up comedian Jason Manford as presenter of BBC’s The One Show after he quit the programme today. His resignation came after revelations that the married father of two had gotten “a bit saucy” – his words – with female fans on Skype and Twitter.

He told The Sun newspaper that he had “gone over the line with a few” of the women he had flirted with.

His statement today said that he had decided to step down “to concentrate on my family and tour commitments”. The BBC said: “We have got nothing to say except that we accept Jason’s decision.” Manford’s wife Catherine is currently expecting their third child.

Manford had only been in The One Show presenting seat for four months, along with co-presenter Alex Jones. The pair had taken over from Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakely when that pairing moved to ITV.

The show regularly pulls in over four million viewers so the British media has been getting into guessing games about who might take over from Manford. The Daily Telegraph marks “32-year-old sweater-wearing” regular guest presenter Matt Baker as their hot tip, as does the Press Association. They see BBC sports reporter Chris Hollins as “the dark horse” and Chris Evans as “the outside bet”.

The Guardian elaborates on the Chris Hollins nod saying his profile was given a boost by winning the last series of Strictly Come Dancing. (Baker is in the current series). They also say Watchdog reporter Matt Allwright, Baker, Evans, actor John Barrowman, comics Rhod Gilbert and John Bishop and, er, Ready Steady Cook presenter and chef Ainsley Harriot are in the frame. But as they say, the only person not included in the bookies’ list is a “talking dog with revolving bow tie”.