The Edinburgh Show, BBC Scotland, episode one

To wit: why would any broadcaster, with the world’s largest arts bash happening on its own turf, and its own homegrown presenters, feel the need to fly half of North London to the Scottish capital to front its Edinburgh festivals coverage?

This year it is different, to some extent. Although British Airways is still set to do a roaring trade in meeja types heading to Edinburgh in August, Scottish broadcasters are being given more airtime to show what they can do. STV is having a run of five episodes of its What’s On Scotland show on Fridays, while the new BBC Scotland channel is leading its coverage with nine episodes of The Edinburgh Show, presented by Janice Forsyth and Grant Stott.

The latter is a buy one radio show, get one TV programme affair, with BBC Radio Scotland’s regular two hour Afternoon Show filmed, cut to 60 minutes, and shown the day after. Basically, it’s a reheat. Depending on how generous you feel, this is either a swizz along the lines of flogging repeats as “another chance to see”, or an efficient use of resources. Either way, if this works we can expect to see more of it: all those hours on the new channel are not going to fill themselves.

For last night’s show, Janice “Don’t Call Me a National Treasure” Forsyth was in the presenter’s chair, which was a smart move. Forsyth always takes her show to Edinburgh in August. She is as comfy before a live audience as she is in a studio on her lonesome. The only thing she did not appear at ease with was the heavy makeup someone thought she needed, this being telly and all. One day TV producers will accept that there won’t be rioting in the streets if middle aged women, like middle aged men, appear on screen without the contents of an entire make-up counter on their faces.

Producers also won a watch with Craig Ferguson as the first bod on the sofa. Having had his own late night show in the US, he was right at home mucking in with the other guests, who included the comedians Fern Brady and Al Murray and the creators of the play How Not to Drown, the true story of an 11-year-old boy who fled the war in Kosovo to seek asylum in the UK. There was music besides. It was a decent, if comedian heavy, mix, a bit like the festivals in general.

An hour was too long, and it is difficult to see why there is a day’s time lag between the radio show and the TV broadcast - it cannot take that much time to edit. Still, what do you know, it appears Scotland can not only host the world’s biggest arts festival, but Scottish broadcasters, like Scottish newspapers, can do a pretty good job of telling Scots about it, too.