Jack Whitehall steps down as Brits host

Comedian and actor Jack Whitehall has said he is stepping down as host of the Brit Awards after four years in charge.

The 33-year-old tweeted on Friday to say he was "handing on the baton" to someone else next year, as he will be filming in the US in early 2022.

"Loved doing it so much," he tweeted.

"All the best to the new host, I pray they treat Mursy [Olly Murs], my mixers [Little Mix] and sweet little Nialler [Niall Horan] with the respect they deserve."

The announcement came on the same day Brits organisers said the awards ceremony would return to London's O2 Arena on 8 February. The show will be televised on ITV as usual but there is no word yet about who will replace Whitehall at the helm.

Last year's delayed ceremony featured an audience of 4,000 people as part of the government's live events pilot scheme, with 2,500 tickets being given to key workers from the Greater London area.

Over the past four years, Whitehall gained a reputation as a popular and irreverent Brits host, becoming one of only seven presenters [if you include Ant and Dec as one] to be asked back.

He opened the 2018 proceedings with a gag about spoof grime artist Big Shaq's Man's Not Hot, wearing an oversized ski jacket. And also poked fun at Ed Sheeran, saying he had been "invited on the condition he doesn't perform Galway Girl".

The year after, he revealed he had a man crush on Dua Lipa's dad, suggesting they do a dad swap. "You've got a silver fox, mine's more a white walker," he joked.

In 2020 he introduced Billie Eilish as "the only teenager in the world who makes Greta Thunberg look lazy", before going on to spill tequila over Harry Styles' yellow suit.

Last year, he quipped that Little Mix were "so in-sync they can even harmonise their pregnancies", adding that Jade Thirlwall - the only bandmember who was then not with child - was now "drinking for three".

The event finished with a collaboration between Rag 'n' Bone Man, a virtual Pink, and the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Choir. Whitehall gave "a massive big up to the key workers here tonight, and across the country".

"We will never be able to thank you guys enough," he said.