Hey, there.
I'm Neil Patrick Harris.
I am chuffed to be here on my first time.
Welcome to The Graham Norton Show!
Hello, good evening, you're all so welcome to the show.
And a special hello to our virtual audience watching from home!
Hello!
Aw, it's lovely to see you - though it's still so weird having
an empty studio here.
It's like Donald Trump's farewell party.
Yes, he's gone.
On Wednesday Joe Biden became the 46th President
of the United States.
Hurrah!
So, P46 for Biden.
And a P45 for Trump.
Donald didn't attend the inauguration.
No, he and Melania flew to Florida.
That's them setting off.
And here they are arriving.
Someone's on holiday!
Alexa, show curtains from a '70s porn film!
Meanwhile, the inauguration was a star-studded event.
There they are - Lady Gaga.
And Lord Gaga.
LAUGHTER.
But one nice thing...
Leave him alone!
The White House revealed that Donald Trump left a hand-written
letter for Joe Biden.
Would you like to see a copy of it?
I think we have one.
Here it is.
So presidential.
Yay!
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE.
So who's on the show tonight?
With me here in the studio, it's the star of McMafia,
Happy Valley and Little Women - it's James Norton!
APPLAUSE.
There he is!
It's Arsenal legend turned pundit, Ian Wright!
APPLAUSE.
I can't clap myself!
Do!
And she's the Oscar-nominated star of An Education,
Suffragette and Drive - it's Carey Mulligan!
APPLAUSE.
Yay!
Clap yourself!
Shortly we'll be joined by the breakout star
of hit show Call My Agent, Camille Cottin.
And Hollywood and Broadway star Neil Patrick Harris
will be calling in!
APPLAUSE.
Plus, we'll have music right here in the studio
from singer-songwriter Celeste.
Looking forward to that!
Who has seen Call My Agent?
Is it you?
I have seen some of it, yeah.
I love it.
Have you watched it?
I haven't.
Have you seen it?
Not yet.
Camille Cottin, she is the break-out star.
Such a great show.
Love that show.
You've never been on the show before but you've hosted a chat show,
so you're on home turf?
Yeah, I'm really nervous.
So not!
I am so nervous, Graham, right now.
This is not my normal place.
I'd know that there is some form of football and some form
of analysing coming, but this is totally different.
It's totally different.
Have your vodka tonic, you'll be fine!
That's what Dr Norton prescribes.
Are you guys football fans?
Carey looks away!
No, but in my house, my husband refers to you as Wrighty.
And he doesn't even know you.
I said, I'm going on Graham Norton, Ian Wright is on.
He said, ah, Wrighty!
And I was like, do you know him?
No, no.
He just worships him.
And, of course, you have worked together?
We have.
Yes.
Was it your very first job?
My first ever job, yeah.
We haven't seen each other since, amazingly.
No, this is our reunion.
James says "amazingly", Carey is going, uh-huh!
That's right.
I have to tell you, though, Carey, it was my first ever job
and all I had to do...
This was An Education?
This was An Education, I should say.
I was still at drama school at the time and my job was to wave
at you from across the street.
All I had to do was wave, you had a big dialogue scene.
And because I was at drama school, I was very committed
with lots of animal work and everything else, to the point
where I was practising my wave for about half an hour before.
And before the take you were chatting to me,
very sweetly, being very welcoming.
And all I was thinking was, I can't believe she being
so unprofessional, just chatting!
All I wanted to do was focus on my wave!
And you were just putting me off.
I'm so sorry!
No.
I am sorry...
And then they cut my locking wave!
I wasn't even in the film!
Had you over-rehearsed your wave?
Carey Mulligan, have you recovered from what sounds like a very
traumatic Christmas?
We all had a slightly odd Christmas but yours was very bad?
Oh, mine was...
Yeah, I was coming into London and laden with huge suitcase.
I was going to socially distance, drop things off,
presents and things, to my nieces.
And I was at the train station and I had my headphones
in and I was listening to Taylor Swift, having
the nicest time on my own for a moment, without my kids.
My coffee, I had a latte.
And then I sort of went to sanitise my hands
because I touched the lift door.
So I got my sanitiser out and put my coffee down.
And my suitcase just wheeled off the platform,
onto the train tracks, with my coffee and one
of my headphones.
No, no.
Here's the weird thing...
That's traumatic enough.
Did you take this picture?
LAUGHTER.
Was it like, I'll probably be on a chat show at some point?
I genuinely did think that.
There's nothing else to talk about so this
will be a great something!
So that's your coffee as well?
That's my coffee.
I know!
And actually my Airpod as well, which was so annoying.
But then there were seven men who went down to collect it.
And it was on the tip of my tongue to say,
could you please see if my Airpod is down there?
No, no, just leave it, it's not worth it!
It's a New Year.
Carey Mulligan has a great new film.
It's called Promising Young Woman.
So...
Just tell us about it.
Well, it's full of spoilers, so it's really hard to talk about.
I play Cassie, she is a 30-year-old med student still living at home.
And she has dropped out of medical school for a reason
we don't know about.
And almost every night she goes out and she goes to a nightclub.
You have seen it, so I'm telling you the story!
She goes to a club and she pretends to be really drunk.
So drunk that she can't walk.
And she sees, inevitably, a nice guy who takes her home.
When she is at his home, she reveals that she is
actually stone cold sober.
And that's sort of the only thing you can say about the film.
It is so good.
Wow!
Is it a horror film?
It's not...
No, it's so many different...
It's like romantic comedy, thriller, revenge...
We will talk about this more but let's watch a clip
to give people a taste of what we're talking about.
This is Cassie with one of her nice guys and this is right
after you reveal that, in fact, you aren't drunk.
I just thought that you were...
Drunk?
Yeah.
Really drunk?
Yeah.
Well, I'm not.
But that's good, isn't it?
I think you should leave.
Oh, now you want me to leave?
No.
I just...
I'm really high.
Like, I'm really high right now.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I think you should go.
But a second ago you were determined for me to stay.
You were pretty insistent, actually.
I'm a nice guy.
Are you?
I thought we had a connection, I guess.
A connection?
OK.
What do I do for a living?
Sorry, maybe that one is too hard.
How old am I?
How long have I lived in the city?
What are my hobbies?
What's my name?
APPLAUSE.
Oh!
Good, right?
It's a horror film!
I was shitting myself!
Run, run!
That's so scary!
It's a side of you that I don't think I've seen you do before.
You look like you're having a ball in this film.
Oh, my goodness, I had so much fun.
Yeah, Bo Burnham plays the lead, who is a brilliant comedian
and he also directed Eighth Grade, which is one of my
favourite films ever.
There he is, he's so lovely.
Carey, you play the lead, he plays your love interest.
Oh, thank you!
Yeah, you're right!
I believe Carey Mulligan is on the poster.
I didn't see him!
So, Bo is my boyfriend in the film.
And he's a comedian and everyone else who is in the film is so funny.
Sam Richardson and Laverne Cox and all these people.
And on about the third day of filming I was like,
is this just what your life is?
Laughing all the time?
What have I been doing?
These terribly sad films about sad things.
Dragging the wet bustle around!
Exactly!
So, no, it was great, it was so much fun.
I love Jennifer Coolidge.
I just adore her.
On set, was she kind of off the leash?
Yeah, she was.
It was amazing.
I always loved her in the Christopher Guest movies
and obviously Legally Blonde.
She is just an icon.
And so this is the dinner table scene where my boyfriend
is meeting my parents for the first time and Emerald, our director,
just said, just improvise a bit of small talk at the beginning
of the scene.
Ask what she does for a living, blah, blah, blah.
So Bo is like, OK, this is so nice, thank you for having me.
What do you do for a living?
And Jennifer was like, well, I discovered late in life
that I really enjoy fish tank interior design.
LAUGHTER.
And everyone around the table just goes ah!
And I'm...
Just shaking, I can't stop!
So they had to cut, I ruined that one.
And the next one - well, yeah, I train small animals
to detect carbon monoxide.
Cool, cool!
So it just went on and on like that and every single
take, I just ruined.
And I think actually in the film you can see she used a take
where I kind of lost it at the end.
She thought it was funny.
Carey's new film is Promising Young Woman and it's on release very soon.
Right, time to meet our first remote guest.
He's the Tony and Emmy award-winning star of
How I Met Your Mother and Gone Girl.
Please say hello to Neil Patrick Harris.
Yay!
Hello Graham Norton!
Hello, Neil Patrick Harris.
Other people here...
James Norton is here, Carey Mulligan is here,
Ian Wright is here.
Hello, hello, hello.
Hi, everybody.
Now, weirdly we have sort of met.
We have kind of met, yeah.
Not on the show, this is my first time and I'm a little nervous
so forgive me if I ramble.
But I was doing a Broadway show called Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
And I heard that you were going to be in the audience
and it was this really nasty kind of rock and roll, punk rock musical
and you had sat in the very, very front row, if I'm not mistaken.
In the middle.
I didn't book these tickets.
And you were with two other guys and during the show
there is a part where Hedwig, who is pretty randy and nasty,
there is a good picture of her...
She crawls onto the stage and just picks someone in the audience
and makes out with them.
So I started down, I scanned the crowd,
I saw you and I went right for you.
And I rammed my tongue down your throat.
I had the taste of cheap lipstick in my mouth
for the rest of the show.
So nice to meet you on this second date.
Nice to talk to you, finally!
Neil, you are here to talk about It's a Sin.
This is the Russell T Davies drama, it's on Channel 4 and set in the 80s
during the Aids crisis.
Tell us who you play.
I play one of the kids' mentors, I guess.
I'm sort of a dandy guy on Savile Row making suits and one
of the characters is named Colin, he is more closeted,
I guess, than the others.
It follows four gay kids in their teens and 20s as they sort
of come to terms with who they are, figure out how
exciting life can be under this big, giant shadow of HIV,
Aids, which was coming to the UK pretty intensely.
So I'm kind of his friend, mentor, sort of a representation
of monogamy, a long-term same-sex coupling that I guess
they don't see much of, especially back then.
Well, It's a Sin, it started earlier tonight on Channel 4
and all episodes are available on All 4.
We have a clip, Neil.
This is you as Henry talking to your apprentice, Colin,
played brilliantly by Callum Scott Howells.
Where are you from?
Bryncoch.
It's in South Wales.
I guess it would be, you gave that away slightly.
But I don't suppose there's a girlfriend waiting back
home in Wales, is there?
Perhaps a boyfriend?
No.
But would there be?
If you could?
You don't have to worry about me, I'm not remotely interested.
If you insist on asking and, really, I can't get a word
in edgeways with you, dear God, but I live in Hackney
with a very nice man from the Algarve and we've been
together for decades.
So you're perfectly safe with me, Colin Morris-Jones.
Really, though...
Perfectly so.
So there isn't?
A boyfriend?
No.
But you'd like there to be?
Yes.
Oh, my God!
Don't worry, I won't tell anyone!
Another pint for the bender, please!
APPLAUSE.
That boy is so good.
He is so lovely and I think he's still in school
or just finishing school.
He is Welsh and he's just a beautiful soul.
He is fantastic.
Now, a very odd thing has happened just recently, I imagine.
The thing that made you a star, Doogie Howser,
M.D, they've announced they're going to reboot it.
Yes, Disney+ is doing that.
Super fun idea.
It's set with a female lead instead of a male
and it's set all in Hawaii, which is pretty exciting.
I don't know anything about it.
Did you guys all watch Doogie Howser?
I watched a couple.
16-year-old doctor?
Carey is too young!
Definitely not!
Are you involved in the reboot?
No, not at all.
Oh!
Although the creator and writer was one of the How I Met Your
Mother producers, oddly, so it comes with a decent pedigree.
I'm excited to watch it.
As someone, you were a star as a very young person, so
let's talk about this.
James Norton, I turn to you.
How old were you, respected actor James, when you
delighted your school with a lip sync performance?
I think I was about 12.
11 or 12.
Let's go with 11!
OK!
Who were you being in the clip?
I mean, obviously you can see that I was Gwen Stefani.
OK.
So, bear in mind, when you see this, Neil, I didn't break into James
Norton's house and steal this tape.
He gave it to us!
I'm regretting it.
Here we go.
Tonight, 11-year-old James Norton is Gwen Stefani.
Focus on the issues.
Check out these shoes.
Here we go.
Look at them.
There your granny's?
Here we go.
As we seen enough now?
APPLAUSE
Beautiful.
That was awesome.
That's very good.
That's like the end of a terrible audition.
"Well done, good for you!"
Tricky thing to put a dress on, especially at that age.
There was one wig, one dress and one
stick of lipstick and one pair of shoes for any of the boys
who wanted to play a girl and I happen to look
exactly like Gwen Stefani.
Wow.
Uncanny.
It's uncanny, isn't it?
If you hadn't told us...
I spent years hiding it from people and for some
reason I sent it to you and here we are.
Lockdown madness?
Yeah!
Secretly I just pine for those days.
Ooh!
Where are you?
It looks fabulous.
It looks like Doctor Something's secret cabinet.
Does it?
I'm in my office here in a farm in Long Island, New York.
And it's cool.
I collect old magic, classical magic ephemera and haunted mansion
memorabilia and escape room games.
Do you have a little friend with you?
I do, they told me to.
OK.
It's like show and tell.
Look at this guy.
It's an evil dummy!
You know what's nice about ventriloquism on
TV, you can't say the F syllable because F
makes your lips move, so
instead of F you can say th.
So you can say, like, "Hey, Graham - go
thuck yourself"!
LAUGHTER
Oh, very good!
Beautiful.
Neil Patrick Harris, it's a real pleasure
talking to you.
It's A Sin continues on Channel 4.
Neil Patrick Harris, everybody.
Good night.
Thanks, guys.
Bye.
Let's turn to Ian Wright.
Your latest project is a podcast celebrating heroes in all walks of
life.
It's called Ian Wright's Everyday People.
Tell us about some of the people you meet.
We were talking before the show.
They're exceptional.
Amazing people.
It's very emotional, very inspiring.
I think probably Chris Bannigan, Major
Chris Bannigan.
He's got a daughter...
They felt there was something wrong with her so they
kept taking her to the doctor and they said
there's nothing wrong and
by the time she got to seven they diagnosed
her with CDLS, which is an
incurable...
It's like a genetic disease, no treatment, no cure.
He realised he needed to raise money.
He needs to raise money fast for her treatment
because there was nothing there for her.
So he took on the challenge of walking from Land's End
to Edinburgh Castle.
That might seem fine but he did it barefooted.
I remember speaking to him.
It's an unbelievable story.
He said to me, after the first hour, his feet were
literally, it was so painful, every step.
It was one of those situations, I said, "is there any
time you felt like stopping" and he said "you can't stop."
In the end they got there, 700 miles, raising
£500,000.
Not only did he raise the money, he also raised awareness for
children with rare diseases.
And this is why I wanted to do it because it's people like him who are
amazing, amazing people doing amazing things for people,
inspiring, who don't see the light of day.
Yeah.
People say to me, you're a hero, you scored goals.
I scored some good goals!
LAUGHTER
I don't want to brush over that!
But the fact is, Graham, what he does,
and they do it with no feeling for anything other than the course.
and they do it with no feeling for anything other than the cause.
It makes me, doing it, there were tissues everywhere.
Yeah.
It's brilliant you're signing a spotlight
on these people in the podcast.
What's it like making a podcast?
I know you've done loads of radio.
Is it different to radio?
There's an authenticity to it because people
are being real.
I love listening to radio because it's very personal.
You feel like you're just speaking to the person.
I listen to your show every now and again.
I feel like you're speaking to me.
In the podcast because you can be more
authentic you can go even deeper.
What's lovely about it, people interact with it and it just feels
good because it's yours.
Very quickly, I want to mention Arsene
Wenger who was here before Christmas.
And you were there at Arsenal for that changing of the guard.
Were you one of those guys who was really unhappy
with all the new dietary requirements, all the
discipline he introduced?
I was devastated.
You know, you're talking about a black man who needs
seasoning on his food.
Arsene Wenger came in and we're talking about, you know,
you would probably have to eat that as it is, because no salt, anything.
All we can do is drink water and eat food...
Like, the chicken was literally boiled and it just looked wrong.
Everything was just...
It was just for fuel.
Is it true you couldn't have tea?
Couldn't have tea.
Couldn't have anything.
I remember there was a time when I used to share a room
with Dennis Bergkamp.
And Dennis is the greatest player I've ever played with and we shared
a room and we are total opposites, chalk and cheese, in personalities.
And once we started doing it, Dennis done it right to the max.
If the boss said you have to drink a quarter pint of water,
that's what he would do.
I would still drink a pint of water.
But the thing is, I remember I snuck in some tea bags.
That's so rock and roll!
I snuck in some tea bags and I remember Dennis,
he was sitting watching the telly and he said, "is that tea bags?"
I said, "yeah."
He said, "the boss doesn't want us to drink tea."
"Yeah, but he doesn't know."
"Yeah, OK."
He said, "OK, so the whole team is doing it but you're
"not going to do it?"
"So when we need you most, you're probably going to let us down
"because you're letting us down..."
Honestly!
So in the end I didn't have the tea.
In the end I didn't have the tea because at the end of the day,
what we went on to do with that team, because of him,
is because we all adhered to what he wanted us to do.
He's an amazing man, an amazing man.
Football, it's been in the news of late
because the FA are trying to get
footballers not to celebrate when they score.
Have you seen this?
Yes.
They want them to avoid things like this.
LAUGHTER
Mr I Wright.
Could players play with face coverings?
I suppose they could.
I saw a picture the other day with a guy abroad playing with a
face covering.
I've seen this picture.
LAUGHTER
I knew what was coming!
Years to come.
Was that when you scored your 179th goal?
That picture, that's one of the most embarrassing pictures in
the world for me simply because I got to Arsenal
and when I got there, everyone was saying, "what have we
signed him for, we don't need him."
I was just worried about getting into
the team, let alone going on to break the record.
I had a shirt, that shirt underneath my shirt for
five or six games but I couldn't score a goal!
So when I scored the goal I only equalled the record, I
didn't break it.
I took off the shirt and it was so embarrassing.
I remember celebrating and I took it off and the guy said, "Ian, have you
"broke it or have you equalled it?"
I went, oh, Jesus, I only equalled it!
LAUGHTER
You know something, it was one of
those situations, for the next five or ten minutes I'm thinking, "that's
so embarrassing, that's going to be on the highlight reel for ever."
In the end I scored a hat-trick in the
game.
OK!
Just to put things OK and shut people up.
It's one of the few times on a pitch where I was more
worried about the embarrassment I'd caused than the actual equalling of
the record.
In terms of goal celebration few can equal and
Icelandic team team.
They are the masters of goal celebration.
It's almost as if the match and the goals
are second fiddle to their celebrations.
We've got some clips.
Just scored a goal.
What's happening?
He's powering down, what can we do to help him?
Here we go.
Hey!
LAUGHTER
This next one takes some explaining.
We scored a goal.
How do it celebrate?
We form a human toilet!
There he is, having a go.
He's going to put down the lid and flush.
APPLAUSE
The amount of rehearsals that goes
into this.
The next one is incredible.
He scores a goal.
He's going to cast the line.
Have I caught anything?
Yes, I've caught a big fish!
What do you do when you catch a big fish?
Why, you take a picture.
Very good.
APPLAUSE
Amazing.
Well done, Iceland.
Right, time to meet our final remote guest.
The French comedy series Call My Agent has been one
of the binge hits of lockdown - and now it's back
for its final season.
Let's meet one of its stars - please welcome Camille Cottin!
Hello, Camille.
How are you?
I'm fine, thanks.
Good, good.
Where do we find you tonight?
I'm in Paris.
To be honest, I don't have a flat that shows the
Eiffel Tower so I bought a little one for you that my children found!
LAUGHTER
2021...
So, you're here to talk about Call My Agent.
Season four is currently streaming on Netflix along
with the first three series.
So, if somebody hasn't binged this yet...
I have binged it.
If someone hasn't, how do you describe it to people?
Oh, well, it's like a dive into the industry, backstage.
Agents are like the shadows of actors but they also pull
the strings, but you never see them.
It's like getting into this family.
It's like a little firm, but dealing with human issues.
Your character, Andrea, she's very no-nonsense, very direct.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
LAUGHTER
Is she based on an agent, on your agent?
An agent you know?
She's based on an agent who is very famous
because she is known as being icy cold, very beautiful.
I'm not saying that...
You've said it now!
I was impressed, she is like this beautiful woman, who likes women,
so she doesn't care about men.
She doesn't need to seduce men.
And she's like, so hard in business and
she's passionate with independent cinema.
She is a strong temper woman.
You haven't seen season four, have you?
No, I love it.
Can I ask, has it changed your relationship with your agent?
Because I have an agent and now I can't look
at her in the same light.
I feel like she's controlling my life!
I wonder if from your point of view, as your relationship with your
agent been changed?
I keep apologising all the time.
"Hey, I'm sorry about this."
Listen, people are desperate for season four, so here's
a little taste of what to expect in the final season of Call My Agent.
It's boring!
OK, I get it, OK, fine.
Los Angeles.
APPLAUSE
And am I right in thinking that all of the bad behaviour and crazy
situations we see, that they are taken in some
form from real life?
Yes, absolutely.
The cool thing is that the actors, they're endorsing
stories of other actors, obviously.
They agree to act something that happened to colleagues that they
would endorse as having happened to them.
This is the thing, yeah.
Because because Carey and James, you've been on lots of film sets.
So, naming no names, have you seen the crazy
behaviour, the weird demands?
Carey Mulligan in An Education!
Ruining my wave.
She insisted the wave was cut!
I didn't like his animal energy!
You must have seen terrible things?
I haven't seen terrible things.
I've seen irritating things.
I've seen people throwing their weight around in a
way, that, like, sort of late.
Someone said in a scene once, "I'm only doing this one more time."
"This is my last one."
I thought in my head, I said, "no actress ever in the
history of the world..."
Stuff like that.
But it's not diva demands.
Ian, you had some diva demands on your chat show, didn't you?
I had Mariah Carey on.
The thing with Mariah Carey, everyone was quite
nervous about the fact she was coming on but when she came she
didn't have many demands.
The only thing she wanted, it was like Carey
coming on and saying, "I want to sit in that chair."
That's what Mariah Carey done on my show.
She wanted to sit in the main chair.
I said yeah.
We had a really cool time.
I like that, she didn't have many demands!
She just wanted the main chair.
What was it about the chair she wanted?
She just wanted to be in the middle?
She said that's her side, so that was her side.
I'd normally sit where Graham is.
She wanted that chair and I said "yeah,
have it, it's fine."
We had a really cool time.
I had a Russian actor who did that, he came in and he saw the
set and said it's not going to work because that's not his side and we
had to switch the whole set.
But the Russians can get away with that.
The Russians can do anything.
Camille, there's a weird link to Britain as
well because one of your...
I don't know if you call it a career highlight, but you made a show
called Connasse, which was kind of a hidden camera show.
Yes, absolutely.
This came to a climax in London.
Yes, because at the beginning it was a short show for TV,
one and a half minutes and then the two creators
decided they would make a movie, one and a half hours.
They said what would be the best desire for
Connasse, which is a Parisien bitch, would be the translation, and they
said, well, marry the Prince.
OK, which prince is the most glamorous
to be married?
Obviously it was Harry.
He was single at the time.
So we went and hunted Harry.
LAUGHTER
But you filmed, people couldn't see
the cameras but you were in real places.
You came to London and you went to Kensington Palace.
Yeah, they told me, "OK, now you're going
"to climb the Kensington Palace fence and you're
"going to shout out
"for Harry and hope he hears you."
And I did, yeah.
And presumably the police came very quickly?
No, that's the problem.
There was this little bobby in his little cabin and he was just
in from the fence and I thought he'd come immediately but he couldn't
hear me.
I literally stayed quite high for about five minutes, which
is very long when you're on the fence of Kensington Palace in high
heels and I was shouting "Harry!"
Hundreds of tourists, maybe not hundreds but say 20 tourists stopped
and looked at me but the bobby never came out.
He came, but a long time after.
Can I say, if someone is sitting in Kensington Palace, you
shouldn't feel that safe because the police
didn't spot this woman!
LAUGHTER
When I heard about that I thought
you were at the bottom, rattling the thing.
No.
Yeah, that was quite embarrassing.
Listen, Camille, it's been a treat.
Call My Agent is streaming now.
Camille Cottin, everybody.
APPLAUSE
Now, James Norton, ladies and gentlemen, brings us a
really beautiful new film.
It's called Nowhere Special.
It's out on the 2nd of April, and the plan is that it
will be in cinemas.
Yes, definitely, we hope so.
Yeah, so, explain to us the heartbreaking
premise of this film and who you play?
So, it's the simple story of a father and a son and I play
John who is a 35-year-old window cleaner from
Belfast.
He's dedicated his life to bringing up his four-year-old boy,
Michael.
And he has been tragically diagnosed with a very aggressive
form of brainstem cancer and has three months to live.
He spends those three months, where the film
takes us, he spends that time preparing his son for his death.
Both in an emotional, philosophical way,
trying to explain to a
four-year-old what it is for his father to die but also in a
practical way.
He visits various families who might be potential
foster families for his boy, setting up his life.
I know.
I feel like I'm going to cry!
I was thinking, you cried during the podcast!
This is the thing, it is heartbreaking, I
did sob and sob, but the joy in the film.
It's you and that little boy.
Is his name Daniel Lamont?
Daniel Lamont.
He's an absolute super...
How old was he when you shot it?
He was four when we shot it.
Did you do chemistry tests?
Were you involved in the casting?
Yeah.
The producer and casting director look at 100 young boys and whittled
it down to Daniel.
I think they saw him quite early and it was decided
quite quickly.
Often, what it's like preparing for a movie, it's often a
lot of reading and earnest stuff.
With this film the key thing was gaining his trust.
So I spent a lot of time going over to Belfast and
just hanging out with him and his lovely family in Ballymena and
hanging out in his bedroom playing with his toys.
By the time we came to filming he wanted to be on the
set because I was his friend.
We really did find a very special relationship.
Did he go cold turkey on James Norton or were you weaned
out of his life?
I've kept in touch.
He texted me, his mum texted me.
He texted you!
He's actually 14!
No, they're very much in my life and I keep in touch with them
and they sent a lovely message last night
wishing me luck on here.
And we went to Venice together which was lovely.
We were at the festival.
Did he go with you?
The whole family.
Did he wear a little suit?
Oh, yeah.
He went on my shoulders on the red carpet.
Have we got the picture of him in the director's chair?
They gave him his own little actor's chair.
So cute!
Our clip, this is you as John meeting one of the
prospective families.
Does he like nature?
We are very outdoorsy people.
We like to go for long walks, as you can see.
We were thinking about maybe getting a dog.
Michael would love a puppy.
To be responsible.
We sort of hoped the boy would enjoy the same childhood as
ourselves, not just inside on a computer all day.
Here he is free to run around, not be mollycoddled.
He can climb trees and fall out of trees.
I mean, we'll look after him, obviously.
You know what I mean.
I'm sure he'd love to climb trees.
He's a quiet wee boy but he listens and
he's always well-behaved.
He's very popular at school.
I'm always being told what a great kid he is.
He's loving, caring.
He's a happy wee boy.
APPLAUSE
So good.
We saw there a glimpse of ink but actually your character is
fully inked.
Fully inked.
It took a couple of hours every morning.
There you are.
Oh, wow.
When actors get a new thing done, often the first
thing is that they go back to the trailer
and they take a photo and
they sent it to their partner or their mum and it is ironic at the
beginning and they take ten more and by then they're very committed.
I looked at my selfies at the end of
the shoot.
I'd taken a lot of photos looking as hard as I could.
This isn't your first tattoo.
Happy Valley again, lots of tattoos.
And wasn't there a thing where you couldn't be
bothered to take them off?
In the second series of Happy Valley I had a shaved head
and these kind of home-made prison tattoos,
these crucifixes in my hairline.
One week and I thought I'd leave them on
and go home and see my family and we show them the tats.
I was sitting on a train on the way home and these
guys came up the train, the kind of guys that guys like me
just respect straight away!
They tapped me on the shoulder and they were like, "yeah,
bruv, sick ink!"
And because I sound like a prick...
I just sat there in silence just going...
LAUGHTER
I like that.
Right, it's time for music.
This singer was the sound of 2020 and won a Brit Award, all before
releasing her debut album.
Here performing Love is Back - it's Celeste!
# Love is back
# For a moment there it goes
# Turn around
# Next thing you know
# Love is back
# Oh my God, I
# Feel so bored I'm
# Starting to realise
# That all the boys that I find
# Are all trouble I
# Told my mother
# She said girl
# Get your glass full
# So I did
# And I saw
# You
# I saw you gleaming across
# The scene across the room
# It's all in you
# I need the meaning when
# I see it all in you
# Love is back
# For a moment there it goes
# Turn around
# Next thing you know
# Love is back
# Hallelujah, it's nice to know you it's so peculiar
# How you've come and changed my mind
# I fall head first
# I hope it doesn't hurt
# What's your preference
# Cause I know mine
# And it's you
# Foolish of me to say these things
# But I want to
# I know it's all in you
# Don't need a reason when I see it all in you
# Love is back
# For a moment there it goes
# Turn around
# Next thing you know
# Love is back
# Might be foolish or out my mind
# Must have said it a thousand times
# Can't be lying
# If I see it true
# I know who
# When I look at you
# Might be too young to realise
# If there's a mountain
# I should have climbed it's love
# Love is back
# One thing I know, I know
# Love is back
# And I know that love is back
# Love is back
# Love is Back.#
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.
Good to the last drop!
Celeste, everybody!
Come on over, Celeste.
I would help you but I can't!
I would dive from here but I can't.
You are in those heels on your own!
There is a lovely clean chair for you.
Ian, James, Carey, Celeste.
Because often in the studio it doesn't sound the way...
But that voice!
Whoa!
It's amazing.
Well, you can also listen to it again because it's
on your debut album, Not Your Muse.
You've got a real one?
Yeah!
That's it!
I don't know what's in it!
It's out next Friday.
You can preorder that now.
How exciting, your debut album!
Yeah, I'm so excited that it's finally happening.
In the process of making it I was like, I don't really
know how to do this.
And then eventually it all sort of came together.
And then I didn't know if anyone would actually hear
it so I'm glad that, yes, it's happening.
I think it's going to happen.
I mean, what a year!
Oddly, because welcome to the studio, because the last
time I saw Celeste, were you in your bedroom?
Yeah!
You were the guest on our very first lockdown show way back in March?
Yeah, that's right.
I had all of these, like, sorts of apparatus and poles
and curtains delivered to my flat and then I spent the afternoon
setting it up in my room.
What am I doing?
But yeah, it worked out quite well.
No, it did, it was gorgeous.
It was really, really good.
And what's incredible is, you know, I think everyone has been kind
of wrong-footed by what's been going on and people have
gone, oh, I've stopped.
But you haven't, you've broken through, you've had this
amazing impact in 2020.
Thank you.
Yeah, I guess I just kept on going, really.
A little bit out of fear, I think, that everything would just sort
of stop and I would come back with new songs and everyone
would have disappeared.
There would be the new person behind you.
There will be the Sound of 2021.
Back off!
I'm still the Sound of 2020!
Thank you very much for that beautiful performance.
Celeste!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.
Right, that's nearly it.
But before we go, just time for a visit to the big red chair.
Once again our audience are watching from home,
so do we have a volunteer to sit in the chair?
I'll do it, Graham.
From here?
Exit, Wrighty!
LAUGHTER.
It was a stage direction joke.
While Ian gets settled, let's see who's up
first.
Hello!
Hi.
What's your name?
Jessica.
And where do we find you tonight, Jessica?
I'm in west London today.
West London.
So close.
Very close.
Very good.
What do you do, Jessica?
I'm a fundraising manager for a charity.
Oh, well, this story will have to be very bad
for me to flip Ian.
OK, Jessica, off you go with your story.
OK, so the incident happened during the first
lockdown when we had that heatwave, when it was really, really hot.
And I just couldn't cool down.
I couldn't even be bothered to make my
dinner so I ordered a Chinese.
And while I was waiting I felt really,
really faint and I was trying to cool down and I thought, do you know
what, there's nobody around, I'll just take all my clothes off.
So I took all my clothes off...
LAUGHTER.
I found I didn't want to hear that
story.
Because I was here.
I never remember being that warm.
And the mixture of the Chinese as well?
I've ordered, I know there's somebody coming.
So I'll take my clothes off.
It wasn't that warm in west London.
Are you OK, Ian?
I kind of have a bit of whiplash.
It goes back pretty hard, man!
I didn't see that.
You're one of those footballers, aren't
you?
Going, "Ow, ow!"
"My neck!"
OK, who's up next?
Hello!
What's your name?
Trish.
And where are you, Trish?
I'm in County Meath in Ireland.
OK, Trish, off you go with your story.
OK, so when I was 11, just two weeks before my
Confirmation, I was having a race with a boy in my school.
I was desperate to beat him.
I was running so fast I ran into a wall.
I literally bounced off the wall, gave
myself concussion and ended up in hospital with two broken wrists.
My mum said she was absolutely mortified because the doctor thought
I'd been in a serious car crash and she had
she ran into a wall.
On Confirmation day, we've been rehearsing
for days because the
bishop is going to be there, it was a really important deal.
I walked up the aisle, my arms in plaster of
Paris, very nervous.
I knelt in front of the Bishop but because my
hands were in plaster I couldn't steady myself and I lost my balance
completely and I went headfirst into the Bishop's crotch.
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE.
Yay!
You can walk!
There you go!
That really is all we've got time for.
If you'd like to have a go in the red chair yourself
and tell your story, you can contact us via our
website at this address.
Please say thank you to all my guests.
Celeste.
APPLAUSE.
Camille Cottin.
APPLAUSE.
James Norton.
APPLAUSE.
Neil Patrick Harris.
APPLAUSE.
Ian Wright.
APPLAUSE.
And Carey Mulligan.
APPLAUSE.
Join me next week with comedian Andi Osho,
actors James Nesbitt and Billie Piper,
music legend Sir Tom Jones and Hollywood star Sam Neill.
I'll see you then.
Goodnight!
Bye-bye!