Why ‘The Graham Norton Show’ Remains The Best Talk Show On Either Side of the Atlantic

The first time Graham Norton hosted his own chat show in the late ‘90s, his star guests were Melania Trump’s marital predecessor and a mute hand puppet. When his most successful vehicle returns to BBC America and Philo tonight, October 1, for its 29^th season, he’ll be welcoming a recent Academy Award winner, the most bankable (and annoyingly ubiquitous) hitmaker of his generation and none other than the outgoing James Bond.

The impressive combined star power of Rami Malek, Ed Sheeran, and Daniel Craig is by no means an outlier, either. Think of pretty much any A-lister from the last 25 years and there’s a good chance they’ll have shared the show’s impossibly large red sofa with another of equal stature. Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, who alongside Meghan and Harry remain at the top of Norton’s wishlist, are perhaps the only major Hollywood names yet to succumb to Norton’s charms.

Maybe The Mexican co-stars have only witnessed the Irishman in his much giddier early phase. Watch any clip from So Graham Norton, which ran on the UK’s edgier terrestrial network Channel 4 from 1998 to 2002, and you can understand why anyone from the showbiz elite might be deterred.

Its excitable host runs around like a headless chicken, dedicating more time to quizzing the studio audience about their bedroom habits and pranking early adopters of the online kink scene than promotional chit-chat. Guests were lucky if their latest project got a single mention. And with bookings aligned more toward Norton’s heroes (mostly camp favorites and TV icons from yesteryear) than in-vogue celebs there was often little to mention anyway.

As with its short-lived weeknightly follow-up V Graham Norton, there was a blatant disregard for talk show norms. You could argue that this made for more entertaining TV. Where else would you see Joan Collins talk dirty with a New York glove fetishist named Keith, for example? Or see The Weakest Link’s Anne Robinson act in a soap opera parody alongside one-time Tarzan Miles O’Keeffe?

However, after six years, Norton appeared to have mined the innuendo well dry. The Graham Norton Effect, an attempt to transfer his risqué brand of humor across the pond, was canceled by Comedy Central after just one critically-slated season (“The miasma of low-level skeeze that hangs over this show leaves you wanting to take a sauna afterward,” wrote Slate). And his tendency to punch down, particularly with his treatment of Big Brother housemate Jade Goody, began to leave a sour taste in the mouth. It was time to get respectable.

Norton initially struggled to find a mainstream series suited to his talents following a big-money move to the BBC. It was only when he returned to the chat show format in 2007 that he began to justify his considerable pay packet. The Graham Norton Show, though, was a different beast to its predecessors. This time round, the host was far more content to take a backseat to his increasingly high-profile guests.

Sure, there was still the occasional prank and near-the-knuckle gag. But the regular BAFTA host recognized that although his name was on the credits, he wasn’t the star of the show (James Corden take note). His new role was to steer, rather than entirely dominate, the conversation and guide celebs into revealing a new side that you don’t often see during their interminably long press junkets. A comedy butler, as Norton would later describe himself as.

His true masterstroke, though, was planting each episode’s guests, no matter the difference in status, on the sofa together from the very start. Should a guest clam up or prove to have the personality of a potato, then no bother. You can always rely on the stand-up comedian on the end to keep the party going.

This seating arrangement has often thrown up some unlikely bosom buddies, too. Viewers were left clamoring for an odd couple sitcom after the lovably eccentric character actress Miriam Margolyes became smitten with The Black Eyed Peas’ hyperactive leader will.i.am (“You’re fabulous… I don’t have a very positive attitude towards rappers. I don’t really know any, you’re the first one I’ve actually talked to”). Lady Gaga even ended up inviting June Brown, the 90-something veteran of British soap Eastenders, to a night on the town after bonding over their similar fashion senses.

Norton’s relaxing presence, combined with the glass of wine or two they’re allowed to consume on set, also encourages guests to open up more than they would on the traditional US circuit. Perhaps a little too much in the case of Mark Wahlberg who famously clambered all over a visibly flustered Norton in 2013. You’re never too far away from an unlikely stunt kiss (see Helen Mirren and Paul Rudd, Jessica Chastain and Diane Keaton, Allison Janney and the host), either, or embarrassing admission you’d expect to be taken to the grave.

Matt Damon, whose camaraderie with The Monument Men castmates Bill Murray and Hugh Bonneville provided one of the all-time great episodes, once claimed, “This is the most fun I’ve ever had on a talk show.” Unlike the celeb-filled late night shows across the Atlantic, this sense of fun never feels forced. Will Smith, his son Jaden and former The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air co-star Alfonso Ribeiro genuinely appeared to be having the time of their lives while reviving The Carlton Dance. And the majority of its viral moments – Chris Pratt performing a magic trick or Benedict Cumberbatch struggling to say the word ‘penguins’ – appear organically, certainly when compared to the contrived ‘bits’ of Corden and Fallon designed purely to rack up YouTube views.

Indeed, The Graham Norton Show never forgets that it’s first and foremost a talk show. Yes, there’s always a brief opening monologue, musical guest and red chair segment (seated audience member must entertain with embarrassing anecdote or be flipped back onto the floor). But it understands that sometimes the best way to strike TV gold is to simply point the camera at random celebrities and allow them to, well, talk.

Jon O’Brien (@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Vulture, Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D and The Guardian. 

Watch The Graham Norton Show on Philo

Watch The Graham Norton Show on BBC America