Mr Motivator: 'Daybreak needs to be more fun'

Mr Motivator: 'Daybreak needs to be more fun'
Mr Motivator: 'Daybreak needs to be more fun' (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Mr Motivator has blasted ITV breakfast show Daybreak, saying it needs "livening up". The fitness guru also joked that the show's predecessor GMTV started going downhill when he left. Speaking from Bestival, where he led warm-up sessions before the music acts, he said: "I think [GMTV] needed me." He went on: "I think it's crazy that the fun of GMTV disappeared. The days of Eamonn Holmes and myself and people like Anthea Turner were a lot of fun." Mr Motivator, whose real name is Derrick Evans, added that he had seen new show Daybreak and had not been impressed. He said: "It needs livening up, it needs Motivator in there. "We had a lot of people join Motivator club and now unfortunately that's gone which is a shame because the numbers of people joining the club tells you that there's people out there who still want that bit of push, that bit of motivation, that bit of fun, and therefore as responsible television people you should look to do it." On new hosts Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, he said: "They're OK, they're fine, what else could I say?"

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.