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Jools Holland has not yet been paid his dues. Between snapshots of him dining out with Tom Jones and a fantastic\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/em>\u00a0UK<\/em>\u00a0sketch which triggered this very feature, The Hootenanny Man has become an institution in his own right. Between\u00a0Later<\/em>\u00a0and the yearly New Year\u2019s showcase, for many, it may seem Holland<\/a> is a bit of the BBC furniture. He has been there so long\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0hard to replace him, like a skirting board or a chipped mug\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0become quite fond of. But Holland is more than that, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0high time those who watch clips of their favourite bands on the\u00a0Later\u00a0<\/em>YouTube channel stop taking him for granted. He\u00a0remains\u00a0one of the few, if\u00a0not\u00a0the only, mainstream television figures\u00a0adjacent to\u00a0criticism or recommendation, and we will be worse off when he decides to put his piano into storage. Long may he reign.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Holland is, effectively, the UK equivalent of\u00a0Ed Sullivan. He\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0going to moan about new material from a group he\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0keen on, but he is going to lend an ear to\u00a0alternative scene music and champion them on a mainstream platform. Chances\u00a0are that\u00a0your favourite artist has featured on\u00a0Later<\/em>. That comes not just through the chat show variety of booking, which sees Ryan Gosling\u00a0pal\u00a0it up with Greg Davies on the Graham Norton sofa, but through an active search for\u00a0new music\u00a0from fresh faces and formidable, established acts.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0why\u00a0Later<\/em>\u00a0can boast\u00a0Olivia Dean and Robert Plant one week, Florence and the Machine and Baxter Dury the next. Or, at least, in the same season. You need only dip into the archives to see how much of a pull Holland has. Make no mistake,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0his name value that matters here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Nobody can replace Holland. He does what he does to the best of his abilities, and there are very few who can overlap this musical experience with the cheerful, light-entertainment brand he provides.\u00a0He has a monopoly not just on the concept, but on how he\u00a0has made himself an irreplaceable part of it. Holland gets involved with the performers, and that is\u00a0perhaps the\u00a0greatest criticism that can be levelled at the veteran host.\u00a0Alex Petridis of The Guardian<\/a> once criticised\u00a0Later\u00a0for having a \u201cdistinct lack of spontaneity\u201d and he does have a point. This is not\u00a0TGI Fridays<\/em>,\u00a0where the set is littered with pop culture wow factor, nor has it got a high-octane host prodding tabloid gossip out of artists. It tilts to the other extreme, especially the recent seasons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Holland is more at home nursing the artist at hand through an interview where\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0comfortable enough to switch off. Then, occasionally, he issues a killing blow. His feature on Johnny Cash\u00a0is nothing short of marvellous, and part of the reason the Man in Black is so open is that cheerful lightness\u00a0from the other end is a comfort not just to watch, but\u00a0seemingly to\u00a0be around. There is a spontaneity to the show too, though it comes in the form of Holland jamming on the piano, his flair for the theatrics leaking into the show from there. Artistic variety was also prodded by Petridis, though this was criticism delivered in 2008. In the interim eighteen years,\u00a0it seems Holland\u00a0has shored\u00a0up a wider variety of artists, and so too has culture in general.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0a mainstream acceptance of all genres now, and\u00a0thus it is reflected in the show. It\u00a0should\u2019ve\u00a0been there from the start, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a better late than never situation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0never too late to give Holland his flowers, either. Oddly enough, it came in the form of a\u00a0Saturday Night Live UK\u00a0<\/em>episode, where Holland is portrayed as a demonic timekeeper who is to Daylight Saving Time what Sinterklaas is to Christmas. George\u00a0Fouracres\u00a0does a fantastic job of capturing not the man, but the\u00a0entity that the passing viewer has come to envision Holland as.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0the guy who shows up once a year to steal away Jamie Dornan\u00a0in skits\u00a0and play piano while Jim Moir delivers a deep cut from a chart entry\u00a0few remember. Holland is a bridge over the great cultural divide, and there\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0too many of those left. He still has a contemporary pull, hence\u00a0Fouracres\u00a0and fellow gifted comedian Al Nash\u00a0banking\u00a0the best sketch of\u00a0SNL UK\u2019<\/em>s history so far. But\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0also a route back to the old-school thrills of genre-mixing fun.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n