Joe Wicks' first online PE session for children gets thousands of views

Joe Wicks' attempt to keep the nation's children fit during the coronavirus crisis got off to flying start on Monday morning with his first workout racking up hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube.

At one point, The Body Coach's first PE With Joe session was getting around 800,000 streams.

Parents, grateful to Wicks for helping their offspring burn off some energy on what was for many the first day of school closures, posted pictures and comments on social media of children taking part.

Wicks announced last week that he would be running the sessions five days a week, Monday to Friday, pledging to "get your kids moving, feeling energised, positive, optimistic".

At the start of Monday's almost 40-minute session, Wicks said:

He could be heard saying that there were 614,000 viewers at the start of the class.> He added: "This is so important, I'm a man on a mission."