As you may have seen in
New on TV Today, The Graham Norton Show returns to BBC Brit tonight (7 November) at 20h00 with five schlebs clutching the limelight on Graham's couch.
It's the 31st season and Graham's 25th year as host of his own show, which first premiered with the title So Graham Norton.
To mark the occasion the BBC sent us this Q&A with him which answers some of the questions we have about celebrity talk shows in general, especially the first question.
We've always presumed one could do a show called Celebrities Behaving (Very) Badly behind-the-scenes and Graham's answer confirms this is true.
See here... twice a season is a lot:
PS: They call seasons "series" in Britain, which is ridiculous because how do you differentiate between a series and a series?!
Please dish and tell us if any stars were a bit awkward behind the scenes.
Graham: Often, I think I'm protected from a lot of this. I will come off set and go, "They were nice," and someone in the team will go, "Yeah
, to
you."
So, I see the best of them, whereas the researchers and production team get a slightly different version. It happens maybe twice a series.
It’s usually younger stars. Older stars are much more comfortable in their skin, whereas young stars are slightly more self-conscious and paranoid about what impression they're going to make. That’s often why they're a little bit more brittle backstage.
How do you feel about this year marking 25 years since your first chat show So Graham Norton debuted?
Graham: You know, if anyone had told me 25 years ago that I'd still be excited about doing this job, I’d have thought they were crazy. But it is still a thrill.
I love that day when it’s the first show back and I’m sitting in the studio and the audience is coming in - I still get a real buzz from it. I think there are occasional times when I do take the job for granted, but never on that first show back.
This is your fourth series of doing shorter seasons of the show, down from over 30 episodes to roughly 20. Is it your plan to keep that going?
Graham: It was my idea to lop some shows off the end of the season, so now we're on TV for just under half the year, and it’s a very nice work-life balance.
I was just thinking about how I could extend my working life, and by doing it this way, it means that when I go back in September, I am excited, I'm all geared up, and I'm really looking forward to it. Whereas I think if I were working for longer, there might be a bit of fatigue setting in.
What were your standout moments from last series?
Graham: There was one great show where it was like a proper cavalcade of stars: it was Judi Dench, Eugene Levy, Michael B Jordon, Hugh Jackman, Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, and then Pink did the music! I mean, come on. That show was firing on all cylinders.
Michael Douglas and Judi Dench were very funny together, the guests were all interested in each other, and then Pink did that extraordinary performance of Trustfall with the French trampoline artist [Yoann Bourgeois].
I remember feeling, "Wow, I can't believe all of this is happening at the same time!" Shows like that propel themselves - they have such star power in them, and the bonus is I have to do so little.
Do you stay to talk to the stars backstage?
Graham: I nearly always talk to people backstage. If it’s someone I know, I'll go to their dressing room, or sometimes someone new to the show will ask if I can come and chat before the show, which I’m happy to do because it can just settle people's nerves that they're not meeting the host for the first time on TV or in front of an audience.
Do you ever hang out with your guests afterwards?
Graham: If they stay around I stay around. That’s often the nicest thing, that camaraderie of the debrief after the show, and people saying, "Oh, you were so funny!" "No,
you were so funny!" All of that is quite fun.
Judi Dench often stays behind, and Taylor Swift has stayed behind for drinks when she could just dash off in her big blacked-out car. Taylor seems to be the loveliest woman alive.
You think "You can't be a star of that magnitude and yet be completely normal and ordinary."And yet that's the impression she gives; when you're chatting to her in the greenroom afterwards, she's just so regular.
I am so, so fond of her. She's doing a brilliant job of managing herself in what must be such a huge circus. She's extraordinary.
Who's on your dream guest list?
Graham: We have been so lucky; we've had practically everybody we ever wanted on our couch. But there are still people we haven't got: Brad Pitt still eludes us.
Julia Roberts has not been on, and I am interested in those young Royals, Harry, Meghan, William, and Kate.
I think it would be fun to have them on - maybe not together - now that some of the heat has been taken out of that situation and we're all getting used to the idea of where Harry and Meghan live.
What would you ask Harry and Meghan about?
Graham: The most interesting part of their story was that big decision and what got them there seemingly so quickly. It didn't take long for them to go, "Whoa, out of here!"
They probably wouldn't want to talk about that, but if I were having dinner with them, that's the bit I’d ask about.
I think there was some chat in the office about trying to get Harry on the show when his book Spare came out, but he never came to Britain to do press for it.
There is more diversity on your show than there used to be. Was that deliberate?
Graham: Yes. Diversity is important because you want the sofa to look like your audience. I think for a long time, because we are white people, we never thought about it, because we turn on the TV and we do see ourselves.
It's taken us far too long to figure out, "Oh, that's important. That has a huge impact on young people and the shape of their dreams and how they see the possibilities in their life."
And so, for the last few years we've tried to do much better on that. And sometimes that means having people who aren't so well known, but if we can help build somebody's fame, then hopefully we can help them get the bigger, better roles on TV and in movies.
I know people are desperate to say that the BBC are forcing woke culture on us, but this is from us [Graham’s production company, So TV, produces his show].
You’ve always been a snazzy dresser, but your suits were noticeably bolder on the last series. Have you upped your style game?
Graham: The woman who puts together my clothes, Lindsey McLean, and I go through phases. Last year I had a thought of, "I'm not dead yet! I can rock something a bit wilder."
Although it literally depends on what's in the shops, because sometimes it seems designers are only selling suits for people going to fancy funerals. So, if Lindsey sees something at all bright or shiny, she will bring it to me. It depends on the guests, too.
When Michelle Williams and Brendan Fraser were on promoting very serious films, it’s quite hard to go out dressed as the court jester, so I’ll wear something more sedate on those evenings. And then, if it's a younger or a fun crowd, I might wear something a bit brighter.
How did it feel to turn 60 in April?
Graham: You know what? It was much better than I anticipated. 40 I found difficult and 50 just felt like more 40, but I just thought, "There’s no way around 60. Sixty just sounds old," and so I thought it might be terrible. But honestly? Not. I feel fine.
I celebrated by going to New Orleans because I've never been there before. It was very quiet, just me and my husband [Graham married Jono McLeod, a filmmaker, last year], and we had a lovely time.
I didn’t have a big party because we had the wedding party last summer and I sort of made everybody go "Hurrah for Graham!" then. Maybe for 65 I’ll go big.