Will Nigella bite?

Nowadays, no self-respecting celebrity's portfolio is complete without a chat show (you could call this phenomenon Parkinson's disease) and the latest to dip a dainty toe into the world of sofa-bound blather is Nigella Lawson.

"Welcome to my new show, on which I will discuss life, love, food and shoes," says the Domestic Goddess in her debut show, scheduled for Monday lunchtime on ITV.

Alas, the only love in the show seemed to be that which the camera had for Nigella's porcelain beauty and voluptuous form, and there wasn't much life in her interview with star guest Val Kilmer.

"Do you prefer acting on stage to acting on film?" she asked Kilmer, forgetting to name the play he's appearing in here. "Are you settled in London?" was another probing query.

At one point Kilmer did let slip that he "almost got married recently" but Nigella didn't even ask him to whom. She was on safer ground enlisting the Batman star's help in preparing a chicken and mango salad ("Am I done tossing?" he asked plaintively).

But some aspects of the programme show promise. There was a random prize of a food blender for 10 audience members, and Nigella asks each celebrity guest to give her an item she can auction on eBay for breast cancer charities (stingy Kilmer gave her a signed theatre programme).

She also promises each day to share with her guests one thing that has got her excited. Now, most men would like to see Nigella excited, and Kilmer duly perked up when she showed him her Cherry Super-Stoner. Mind you, both "cherry" and "stoner" mean different things in America.

To judge (unfairly) by this opening episode, the show is not a roaring success, but it's not a total disaster either. It's bland, but that's largely what one wants from daytime TV.

It's just different enough from all the other chat shows to stop you wishing for Parky or Graham Norton.

Nigella's interview technique may improve and her legendary seductive, on-camera charm is present and correct, albeit slightly subdued.

More importantly, I suspect it will take more than one dud interview with Val Kilmer to end the nation's love affair with Ms Lawson.

I swear she singled me out in the audience for a smile and a gaze at one point, and my knees trembled (but then, I am a bit of a Charles Saatchi lookalike). She never did talk about shoes, but the green wedge mules she wore were very fetching indeed.

Nigella begins at 1.30pm on Monday 4 July, on ITV1.