Category: Radio
4
Date: 02.05.2004
Printable version
Graham Norton starts his Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ career in fine form as
Sue Lawley's guest on Desert Island Discs (Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio
4, Sunday 2 May, 11.15am and Friday 7 May, 9.00am).
"I believe this is my first official Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ gig," he says excitedly.
After six years with Channel 4, Graham Norton has moved to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ but
there is some speculation about how his unique brand of humour will
go down with a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE audience.
Graham comments: "It's odd the way that people discuss me going
to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ because they say, 'He's going to have to tone it down'. Well,
I'm not going to tone it down. I'm making a different programme for
a different audience.
"I mean I would be mad, and Lorraine Heggessey would be mad, to
sign me up thinking I'm going to come bounding onto television at 7.00pm
on a Saturday night, waving a marital aid."
He adds: "It's perfectly possible to do a different job. It's
like the way you are with your grannie compared to the way you are with
your friends. It's still you."
Graham Norton's risquΓ© style has certainly won him praise and substantial
rewards.
He tells Sue Lawley about his four homes in London, New York, Cape
Town and Ireland.
He buys houses rather than shares, "because you can't show someone
round your portfolio."
That's not bad for someone who claims to be useless: "What's
good about the show is that the interviews are so bad. I'm useless.
I'm terrible at asking the right questions. I have no real interest.
I like meeting celebrities but then my interest wanes.
"Occasionally, because it's an edited show, I'll throw them a
bone and let them tell a long, boring story. mmm, fascinating."
Sue discovers that Graham Norton's journey to international stardom
has fulfilled a lifetime dream.
"I have no special skills," he says. "I can't sing or
juggle or do anything. Yet I'm doing my dream job. and who knew that
it was a job. You dress it up, you dress it up as you wanting to be
an actor, but the bottom line was that fame was my ambition."
It's some way away from being a gay Protestant child growing up in
Cork in southern Ireland.
"Being gay in Ireland was fairly academic," he tells Sue.
"There was no one to be gay with. I felt different. I felt 'other'
when I was growing up in Ireland."
The full interview can be heard on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 on Sunday 2 May at
11.15am.
It will be repeated on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 on Friday 7 May at 9.00am.
Graham's chosen records include Liza Minnelli singing Maybe This Time
and a duet from Graham and Dolly Parton, Islands In The Stream, possibly
the one and only time it will be heard on network radio.
