I've got two music superstars on the show tonight.
Bono.
Good evening.
And Taylor Swift.
Hi, Graham.
Which is good, cos I finally get the chance to sing my
U2-Taylor Swift mash-up.
HE CLEARS HIS THROAT.
No, no, I don't know about this.
I think we should just do the show.
Let's start the show!
His program me contains some strong language
This program me contains some strong language
Oh!
Hello!
Hello, good evening, you're all so welcome to the show.
And it's Halloween weekend.
Ooh!
Halloween, when those who have departed come back to haunt us.
LAUGHTER.
There's our glorious new leader, making his first speech
behind the now famous Downing Street lectern.
Almost four foot high and made completely of wood,
Rishi Sunak is our new Prime Minister.
LAUGHTER.
I wasn't talking about...
One of the first things Sunak is going to do
is squeeze the wealthy.
"Pay your taxes, darling!"
Rishi does get accused of being out of touch with common people
because he's so rich - but to be fair to him,
this week he was spotted happily chatting away with someone who's
a lot poorer than he is.
LAUGHTER.
Let's get some guests on!
Later we'll have music from the stunning vocals
of Lady Blackbird!
But first, she's the broadcaster and former Arsenal and England
footballer whose powerful new memoir is How (Not) To Be Strong -
please welcome Alex Scott.
Wowza, you look amazing.
Have a seat, do.
He's the Oscar-winning star of Theory of Everything,
Les Mis and Fantastic Beasts, it's Eddie Redmayne, everybody!
Hello.
Reign
how
6P6
'Nu?
I'm really well.
Have a seat, do.
With hits like Shake It Off, Love Story and Blank Space,
this record-breaking singer-songwriter is one of
the biggest pop stars in the world.
It's...
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
Taylor Swift, everybody!
Have a seat, do.
And that's not all.
And in a career spanning over four decades, he's won 22 Grammy Awards
and is the lead singer of one of the world's biggest bands -
it's Bono everybody!
Oh, yes, oh, yes.
Are we doing hugging?
Go, say hello.
Not a bad line-up.
Welcome, all.
So lovely to see you all.
Scrubbing up.
Very nice.
Scrubbed up, thanks for having us.
So, Taylor and Bono, have you worked together?
No?
Not yet.
We're going to talk about it later.
OK.
But no, but, Bono, you did a very nice thing
when Taylor got to Ireland.
I've been...
I'm a Swifty.
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
We're highly aerial birds, you know.
Ancl over the years we've, you know, we've bumped into each other.
Became friends.
Ancl he doesn't want to take credit for the fact that he's so nice.
He sent me roses when I played in Dublin.
He doesn't take credit for doing anything.
Red roses, you know.
He's a truly great person.
There you are, from your Irish fan club, Bono,
the Edge, Adam and Larry.
Ancl he's just that great and thoughtful.
Just the best there is.
I better have a drink.
Here's the thing.
So Bono and Taylor, not worked together,
but weirdly, Taylor and Eddie, you have worked together.
We have.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
It was a decade ago.
I once died in his arms in a screen test for Les Mis.
Oh, I did not know this.
I did not know this.
Yeah, that...
There's a lot that people don't know about this story.
Basically, I was auditioning for two roles in Les Mis,
and I'd clone a few auditions and gone to New York and whatever.
And I think it had been established that I had more
of a look of Cosette, but I had the range,
vocally, of Eponine.
So it was established that, like, I was there for a good
time, not a long time.
I wasn't going to get this role, but they were like, you know,
do you want to come to London for one last screen test
and you'll get to screen test with Eddie Redmayne?
I'm like, this seems like an experience I want
to have in my life.
You're like one of my favorite actors.
You're so ridiculously talented.
Ancl I was like, so, yeah, I'll go to London.
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
Yes, indeed.
I get there and they're like, OK, so we really want to like make
you look like Eponine.
You know, she, she she wasn't, like, loaded.
She had brown teeth, you know, like she didn't
have a lot of money, so...
A 19th century street urchin.
I tried to say it in a way that makes sense.
She didn't floss.
Exactly.
They were like, we're actually going to paint your teeth brown for this.
Ancl I'm like, so you're going to do that after I meet
Eddie Redmayne, right?
That's that's not something you do before, I get to meet people
and then you do the brown teeth?
They're like, no, no, everybody's going to meet
you with the brown teeth.
We're going to like, do, like,
big circles under your eyes.
Like you're near death.
Ancl I was like, this has immediately become a nightmare for me.
You know, you were so nice, but I think when I met
you, I was like...
MUMBLES: "It's so nice to meet you."
You know, you walked in as a 19th century French street urchin.
And I was not expecting that.
But my overwhelming memory of it, Taylor, was I had just been
to Pizza Express beforehand, and I'd had some some
some garlic dough balls.
Oh, God.
I thought we were going to be singing opposite each other,
you know, but but they had us...
It was so weird because Taylor was dressed fully as Eponine
and I was, like, in my tracksuit.
And they had us on the floor, like singing sweet
nothings into each other.
And all I knew is I just had garlic breath.
Ancl I had brown teeth.
Garlic breath symphony.
So just was one of these, I was trying to show emotion,
and at the same time not to punish you.
You were weeping.
Ancl I just thought it was because of how I looked.
Felt so bad.
Like, I have to be close to her right now.
Yeah, this was not the method?
It's nice to hear we were both struggling in that moment.
It was a beautiful audition.
And, Alex, I feel that because...
Now you nearly met Taylor once before.
Nearly, on Strictly Come Dancing.
I got all the way to the quarterfinal,
got booted out at that stage, obviously devastated.
But when they told me the news, oh, next week's music
act is Taylor Swift, I was like, seriously?
I just need one more week.
Let me come back.
The following week.
I finally did it.
But now here we are.
Yeah, yeah!
Talking about Les Mis, Samantha Barks is of my closest friends.
Never go to a karaoke bar with Samantha Barks, she's amazing.
I was singing Lady Marmalade, giving it all I got.
And then she just gets up and then I was like,
oh, yeah, I remember.
I can't actually sing.
I was embarrassed.
Samantha Barks, who was in Les Mis, and is amazing,
plays Elsa in Frozen.
Ancl I took my kids to go and see, and they got
to meet Elsa in Frozen, and it was the best, like,
sort of celeb name-drop I've ever succeeded.
Can't talk about Frozen.
Oh, no.
What happened?
Came second in the Oscars to the song.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
My life is filled with Frozen fractals all around.
It's the best lyric.
It's a great lyric.
It's a great song.
Yeah.
And you should listen to that, Bono - let it go.
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE.
Bono brings us his new memoir.
Here it is, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.
It's out on Tuesday, the 1st of November.
And so was this...
like, a lot of people are bringing out books.
Was this a Covid project?
No, it started before that.
I wanted to explain to my, you know, my friends, my family,
especially our fans, but my family, what I've been doing
with their life kind of thing.
Because they, in many ways, permission me to be not just
an artist travelling around the world, but as an activist
travelling around the world.
So I just, you know, we don't really talk
about that stuff at the table, you know, at the dinner table?
So I wrote it out.
Ancl it's the story of U2 and this the story of
these incredible people.
It turns out the most interesting thing about me,
or the most extraordinary thing about me, are the
relationships that I'm in.
Ancl I met most of them, in one week in Mount Temple
Comprehensive School in Dublin.
You know, I met the other three members of the band
and I started dating Ali the same week.
The story of you and Ali is just amazing, there
you are at the beginning and here you still are.
Was Ali cool with all the stories?
Like there's a story about one of your very first dates?
Oh, look at you.
Wow.
What are your very first dates when you decided
to take it upstairs.
Do you know the story I'm talking about?
Yeah, I had a box room most, as you know, most houses in suburban
Dublin were two bedrooms and the box room in the house.
Ancl I was in the box room and I had it sort of minimalist,
sort of enforced minimalist, so all white, no shade
on the the bulb, you know, just the naked bulb.
Ancl I was telling her it was really an art gallery.
And she's 16 or whatever.
Ancl I really didn't want her to meet my father, Bob.
So I was on a half clay, brought her home, brought
her up to the bedroom.
We were laying there on the bed.
On the bed, I would say.
And, and he gets a half clay, my father, Bob, and he's
like, "Where are you?"
Ancl I'm like...
I said to Ali, she said, "What are we going to do?"
I said, panic.
She said, I'm not going to panic.
I said, get under the bed.
She said, I can't get under the bed.
Get under the bed.
She got under the bed.
The da comes in.
"So what are you doing home from school?"
Ancl I'm like, it's a half clay.
It's Wednesday.
Why are you home from work?
Oh, yeah.
"Why are you in bed?"
On the bed!
Ancl I said, oh, I'm sick.
Oh, yeah.
Ancl for the tough man, he sits down on the bed
and says, so how are you?
What's going on in school?
You OK?
And under the bed...
I was OK.
Ali was living under two Hewsons and she would be
for a very long time.
God, I cannot wait for the film of your life.
I want the movie now.
There will be some...
Eddie Redmayne.
Work on my accent.
There's a great picture in the book.
I love this.
This is an early, very early gig.
This must be at school.
Is it?
Oh, wow.
Who I love in this, who's absolutely loving this early U2
gig is this woman here, Look at her.
She is living her best life.
Edge has got the hair brushed forward, getting a bit cool.
Yeah, but, you know, everyone starts somewhere.
We've got a very early gig of Taylor.
This is you.
Now, you haven't sold out.
Oh, yeah.
APPLAUSE.
Do you remember this?
Yeah.
This is a big deal for me.
I was 14 and it was an event called the Nashville Rubber Duck Race.
Ancl it is exactly as it sounds.
They would put rubber ducks in the river.
Wow.
And see who won.
Wow.
Ancl I was the official entertainment.
As you can see, the banner is incredibly high concept.
It just says it like it is, you know, like, this is her name.
Did you play before the race or after the race?
Oh, you know what?
That's a really good question.
I think I blocked a lot of this out.
OK, fair enough.
I won't dwell.
It might be triggering.
That was the whole crowd.
The whole crowd is in that shot.
I can see three people there.
They do look like fans of rubber duck racing.
Now, the thing is, you know, lots of people were in bands
and dreaming of being successful, including Mr Eddie Redmayne.
What was the name of your band?
What, what?
You were in a band?
I may have been.
I spent 25 years covering that up.
I was in a band when I was about 18, 19.
There were three of us in the band.
It was called Blue Tonic.
Incredible.
And what sort of music?
Well, I'll tell you, it was sort of...
I quite into sort of emo.
I was going to say rock, but actually it was pop.
And the worst about was the two other guys in the band were great
singers, and I just sounded like a choirboy.
It was disastrous.
Like, every song.
Harmonies?
Lot of harmonies.
Enunciation?
Such incredible diction.
That was so good!
Did you do gigS?
I don't think we ever did a gig.
I'm hoping you don't have any footage or any photographs.
Annoyingly, I don't.
Then it never existed.
It never happened, it was never here, 'twas but a dream.
And Alex, when they were kids, dreaming of being
singers, you were a kid.
But now, what is this?
Because I've got a picture of you in your Arsenal strip here.
Now, how old are you there?
Ten.
Yeah, but I'm at the stage where I want really wanted a fringe,
but I just had afro frizzy hair going on.
But am I right that when you got spotted, you didn't particularly
want to be a footballer?
No.
I used to play in a football cage at the end of my road with the boys,
and then there was a referee in the local area who was like,
"There's a women's team at Arsenal, I really want to take you down."
Ancl I was like, "No, I'm totally fine."
My mum had packed me a Capri Sun for a packed lunch that clay.
I was like, "I'm totally fine in this football cage."
Ancl she was like, "No, we are taking you."
Ancl then I got signed to Arsenal when I was eight.
Yeah, really early on.
APPLAUSE.
What is a football cage?
A football cage?
Yeah.
It was just literally...
Like, there was concrete.
It was just nothing in there.
But for me, it was everything.
It's where all the dreams started.
Literally, you had cars either side of this football cage,
and if the ball went out, the car would come along and pop it.
Ancl that would be the end of playtime like, "Well,
I'll see you tomorrow."
They should introduce that into professional football.
I'd love that.
Playing against a car.
My friends are so jealous that I'm getting to meet you,
because we just look at you as such an inspiration, like
breaking through in such a male-dominated industry.
You should be so proud of yourself.
Thank you.
But you've clone so much with the US national team,
and you've brought them on stage, and we see that over here
and we're like, "That is it.
How incredible is that?"
So we know you've always been behind supporting other women
and leading the way, so thank you.
APPLAUSE.
In the book, your father, I mean, he's such a big
character in this book.
And you had a, I mean, an interesting
relationship, you know...
Combative.
Yes.
I mean, to the point where...
Tell them about when you flew him out to the stadium in in America.
Oh, Texas.
Texas. Yeah.
My father, Bob, you know, he's hard to impress.
Ancl I have him...
It's his first time in America, and he's in Texas.
I think it might be Dallas somewhere like that.
Ancl it's a really loud you know, it's just, in Texas, it's like a 747
going over your head, the sound of the crowds, you know.
Ancl I thought, "This will definitely impress him."
Ancl I had the lighting person ready to, when I
introduced him, "First time,
not only in the United States, first time in the Lone Star
State of Texas.
My father, Bob!"
Light comes on at the mixing desk in this giant arena.
Ancl he raised his fist like this, you know,
and this is part mischief here.
But afterwards, he came in, and his eyes were red, an he,
you know, he put his hand out and I thought, "Oh, my God,
my father's going to give me a real...
This could go off.
This is like a compliment."
Ancl I swallowed, and he just said, "You're very professional."
Ancl that meant everything to him.
Yeah.
And you knew it was a compliment.
Coming from sort of punk rock, professional, not one
of the great adjectives.
But from him, it was THE great adjective.
Yeah.
And the book is full, as you'd imagine, of lots of names.
There's world leaders, lots of rock stars.
A name I wasn't expecting to find here - Frank Sinatra.
Yeah, I mean, I...
Frank Sinatra was just incredible.
But, you know, he's another tough guy.
I'm attracted to tough guys.
He said I was the only man with an earring
he was ever going to like.
And, you know, Edge and I wrote a song for him called
Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad, which I actually...
In Palm Springs, we were drinking...
Very un-Italian situation.
We were actually drinking tequila, he was drinking a margarita,
and I sang him this song, which he sadly passed away
before he got to record.
If I can remember, it went...
# Two shots of happy
# One shot of sad
# You think I'm a good man, but I know I've been bad
# Took me to a place
# Now I can't get back
# One shot of happy
# Two shots of sad
# Walk with me, baby
# Down a dead end street
# We were mixing the bitter with the sweet
# Don't know what you've got till you can't get it back
# One shot of happy
# Two shots of sad #.
Wowza!
APPLAUSE.
I'm so glad you did.
Well, listen, it's an extraordinary story of not just a rock
star, but a husband, a father, a philanthropist.
It's called Surrender, and it's out on Tuesday.
Bono!
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
Now, Swifties everywhere rejoice - Taylor's new album
Midnights is out now.
CHEERING.
Yes, it is! I've got it here.
Now, there are different ones, aren't there?
Different ones.
Yes.
Which one have I got?
You've got the main version.
Yeah, that's the standard version of it.
OK.
But there's a mahogany one?
So basically I wanted to deal with...
It's all about sleepless nights and what keeps you up at night
and the hour of midnight.
So if you'll see, the back cover makes up one fourth of a clock.
If you get all four, it makes the whole clock.
Oh!
That is a good way to sell four albums.
That's clever.
She's all four Beatles, isn't she?
All in one.
And before we talk about it, let's just listen to a bit
of the first single Anti-Hero.
# I wake up screaming from dreaming
# One clay I'll watch as you're leaving
# Cos you got tired of my scheming
# For the last time
# It's me
#Hi
# I'm the problem, it's me
# At teatime
# Everybody agrees
# I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror
# It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero...#
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
All right, so you mentioned the midnights, these sleepless nights,
13 sleepless nights.
And what sort of time span are the sleepless nights
taken from in your life?
Throughout my life, I think probably after I was a teenager, just...
I think that there's such intensity when you're up late at night.
It's a concept album,
and the main question is, what keeps you up at night?
So it's, you know, you could be up at night because you're reeling
from just having met someone and you're falling for them,
or you could be plotting revenge...
Garlic bread.
Yeah, you could be thinking about the time that
they painted your teeth brown.
You could be thinking about what could have been.
You know, there's just so many possibilities if you give that,
like if you think of that as like a creative writing prompt,
which is what I did, that's where the album came from.
And this album, I mean, amazing reviews,
you broke streaming records,
and a lot of the rave reviews have asked the question,
and it is a question,
that the great songwriting on this album, is part of it due
to the fact that you've been doing this sort of strange work
of re-recording your back catalogue,
so it was like you were doing homework on songwriting?
I think so.
I really do.
So I've been rerecording my first six albums,
because there was a thing that happened where I had wanted
to own my work, of my first six albums,
when I changed record labels.
My first six albums were actually sold away from me.
And so I decided, if I if I made them
the first time, I can make them again.
I love it.
I love it!
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
Amazing moment.
But is it working?
Like, are radio stations playing the Taylor version?
Yes, they've actually...
That's actually one of the things I was most thankful for was
there's a company of many stations in America called iHeart,
and they have sworn to only play my new versions,
and they've said that they'll switch it out for the old versions
every time I put out a new version of a song,
which is just, like, it's so heart-warming
to me, because this is something that I care about,
but I don't expect other people to care about it.
It's something that's very personal to me,
and it's a lot of work, but it's like...
It's really fun and rewarding for me,
and I can't believe people have actually gotten behind it
the way they have.
And doing this, going back over your old work, has led
to this wonderful thing where All Too Well...
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
I know.
It's now a short film.
Yes.
So it was a short song,
then it was a longer song, and now it's a short film.
OK. How do I shorten this?
So basically, All Too Well was a song that came out
originally on an album called Red, which came out in 2012.
I always loved this song.
It was never a single, but the fans really loved this song,
and I had made the mistake of saying in an interview the truth,
which is that it had started out as a ten-minute song
with, like, six or seven extra verses,
and we had had to cut it down to the sort of
four and a half, five minute length that it ended up.
My fans would not let it go.
They were like, I'd be doing an interview for something else
albums later, and they'd be like, "Where's the ten-minute version?
"Where is it?"
So basically for the record, I was like,
"I am going to put out the ten-minute version.
"I'm just going to show them what it was."
And you know what?
I really want to make...
I want to tell a story that goes along with it visually
that's more than a music video.
I'd been directing my music videos for a while at this point,
and writing and directing them was really fun for me.
I just love it.
It's a very natural extension of my storytelling.
So I thought, "I want to make a short film
and really do this song justice and also create a short film
that stands on its own,"
so I was very lucky to be able to cast Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien
to be these two young lovers.
Ancl I'm really, really, really proud of it.
I just feel very happy.
You should be.
Obviously it contains the whole song,
but also dramatic scenes like this one.
You didn't even look at me once!
What are you talking about?
I'm catching up with my friends!
Trust me, they were enthralled by you.
Of course, of course.
You're making the entire night about you!
Look at me.
Holy shit. Holy shit.
I can't, I can't.
It's so...
It's fucking selfish.
It's crazy.
Oh, so I'm selfish now?
Yes, you're acting selfish, absolutely.
Right now that's exactly what's happening.
Don't fucking look at me like that.
That's so fucked up.
Ooh!
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
Yeah, they're unreal.
Did you let the actors improvise those scenes
or were you writing that dialogue?
So that was scripted out,
"OK, let's do it like it's scripted."
But then like, let's do, like, a freedom take
where you get to do whatever, however you would interpret this
and what you would add to it. That was...
I can't take full credit for that writing.
And you clearly love this.
Is this going to be a new string to your bow?
That would be such an hon our.
I would do anything to get to keep learning and keep growing
in that world.
She takes up singing, she's going to take over the world.
So that is like...
What you just said there is basically an actor's dream,
which is you've delivered a scene as scripted,
and then when the director has faith in you enough
to go now one for, like, go play with it.
It's kind of, it's the dream way of being directed.
So...
Wow.
...please cast me.
Well, listen, you can watch Taylor's short film All Too Well on YouTube.
And once again, the new album, Midnights,
that is out now.
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
More good news, ladies and gentlemen - Eddie Redmayne is in a film!
Yes!
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
The Good Nurse is out now on Netflix,
where it's currently number one in over 60 countries.
There you go.
So people are liking it.
Nice!
This is you and our good friend, Jessica Chastain.
And this is a true story.
It's a true story about a man called Charlie Cullen, who may be the most
prolific serial killer in American history.
But more importantly, it's about the extraordinary woman,
woman called Amy Loughran, played by Jessica Chastain,
who was an amazing nurse, a lovely, gentle woman who was incredibly...
Sort of adored this man, and then realised
that he was doing horrific things.
And it was through her brilliance and sort of empathy, really,
that she was able to stop him.
But it's also the story, though, of how he got away
with it for so long.
Yeah.
Which is...
This guy was at nine different hospitals, over ten years,
killing people and was moved on from hospital to hospital,
even though they may have gleaned that he was doing it, principally
because no one wanted to accept responsibility.
So they were protecting their bottom line.
So in some ways it's sort of an amazing advertisement
for the NHS, because this is an America, by the way.
And I'll tell you what, before we talk about it some more,
let's watch a clip.
This is you as Charlie.
Jessica Chastain is hoping to get a confession out of you.
You know, I don't want to talk about Park field.
It's...
Why not?
Is it because...
...what they're saying is true?
You know, I wouldn't care if you did those things.
I mean, I could understand.
You could explain.
BANG
LAUGHTER
Very good.
All right.
No-one spilled a drink.
We're all good..
That's a bit of a jump scare.
No, I knew it was coming, and even I was, like..
Is it true that Jessica Chastain did turn out
to be the good nurse in that you had to learn skills?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So we were sent to nurse school.
Oh, wow.
Taylor loves a school!
It's so hard.
They have such a hard job.
No, it's so amazing.
It's like a massive thing.
I mean, obviously, I had huge respect for nurses,
but like to be a nurse, you have to be great at science,
great at maths, you have to physically be incredibly strong,
like moving bodies.
And then you also have to be this emotional conduit between, you know,
doctors and families at the most vulnerable.
Anyway, I'm a useless nurse.
I went to nurse school, totally failed, managed
to like, on the...
You know, we had a nurse watching every take.
And after each take you'd kind of go to slightly bypass the director
to go to the nurse to check you did it all right.
But in the first take, I was trying to sort of put
a needle into something.
And literally the first take of the entire film, I managed to sort
of pin it straight through my thumb.
Useless nurse, never call me in a crisis.
But very good actor.
A very good actor.
And I don't want to I don't want to trigger Bono here.
But you have won an Oscar.
I don't want to upset Bono in any way, but you have won
an Oscar.
So you win an Oscar.
So you must be top of the world.
You get a phone call the very next day?
Yes.
So, basically, just before the Oscars, I was getting married
and I wasn't working.
Sol did a:...
Which makes like makes it sound like I'm excusing myself.
I basically got cast in Thomas the Tank Engine, straight to DVD,
one-off film playing Ryan the Engine.
Oh, Ryan.
You know, famous Ryan.
He's the voice of that.
The voice of that guy.
And anyway, it was wonderful and it was great.
And then the day after the Oscars, I got a call
from my agent saying they're releasing Thomas
the Tank Engine today.
And they wondered if they could put a sticker on, saying, you know,
starring Academy Award Winner Eddie
Redmayne.
And I remember The Sun writing a particularly unkind article
about how I was following up my Oscar winning.
Unfair!
A reminder, Eddie's new film, The Good Nurse,
is streaming now on Netflix.
And so much to talk about tonight.
Bcause Alex Scott has written her autobiography,
I've got it here, How (Not) to Be Strong.
And that is out now.
And Alex, you've talked, in the book you reference
it, that you've been asked to write your story
before and you said no?
Why no, why yes now, are you glad you waited?
I'm so glad I waited.
I think I've had so many new chapters, exciting chapters
in my life, and I've been on a personal journey of growth
that has allowed me to actually detail with raw honesty everything
that I've been through in my life.
Ancl I suppose listening to you guys as well,
the story of your music, I suppose for me that was my way
of telling my story in my own way through that book.
Ancl I don't know, I think looking back, that kid who started
in the football cage, there's no way that I would have ever thought
that I'd be able to sit and write my own book.
One, Being dyslexic, I struggled at school
anyway, so to actually sit
there and have that there is, for me, one of my
proudest achievements.
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
You also talk about, I mean, a bit like,
I was saying to Bono, you know, sharing memories.
You know, it's your story, but you're telling bits of your life
and not all of it is great.
And your mum, your mum must be thrilled that you have told
that you have told her story?
Yeah, for me, I think a big thing was I wanted to write the book
to finally set my mum free and for her to start living.
Ancl I think it was hard for her actually reading
it because a lot of everything that I've gone through was trying
to protect her and not tell her everything if I was struggling.
So for her to read some of the stories was eye
opening for her.
But I feel it's so magical that we're finally in the space
now that we can continue this next chapter together.
Yeah.
I mean, I can imagine
she must be so proud of you and so thrilled.
Yeah.
I straightaway get emotional when I think about my mum
because all I ever want for her is to be happy and be free.
So that's why I've clone it.
Yeah.
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
We must mention the end of the book.
The end of the book.
It ends with the triumph of the Lionesses at the Euros.
Oh, yeah.
And, you know, there you are...
APPLAUSE.
You know, like, you must be thrilled,
but a little bit of jealousy.
And how has that changed the game entirely now?
Huge.
It was like the 99ers in America when they won the World Cup
at the Rose Bowl.
That changed absolutely everything for them and the momentum
we have seen off the back of that.
You say jealousy.
Actually, I felt like I was that big sister.
I was crying like a baby.
I remember Gabby Logan trying to ask me a question.
I was like, "I can't speak, Gabby," I was so emotional
in that moment, but I had a final chapter and it was a letter
to my mum was the final chapter in the book.
Ancl as soon as that happened, I was like,
"Sorry, Mum, there's another chapter now!"
And, Alex, football fans, you know,
we know they are passionate.
They are.
But sometimes don't have the best reputation.
Are fans of women's football, are they better behaved?
I would say so.
I feel blessed in that sense.
I think for me, they've followed my journey from that ten-year-old
with the frizzy fringe, afro fringe, going on,
to that football career and into broadcast then.
So I feel they've followed my whole story
and actually been on that journey with me.
So when they stopped me in the street,
I feel their passion,
and I'm just so thankful that they're still supporting me,
really.
Yeah.
Taylor, we talked about the Swifties and how much they love you,
and fans sometimes find unlikely things.
I think in Canada by accident, a track from 1989 was released,
but it wasn't a real track.
It was eight seconds of static.
Yes.
This happened maybe seven or eight years ago.
Yeah.
And what happened to that track that was eight seconds of static?
It went number one.
LAUGHTER.
I don't know how, but maybe it's some metaphor or some symbolism
about the sounds of silence, and having having a moment of quiet.
I love someone trying to present a chart show in Canada,
and going, "And now, at number one..."
It was ridiculous.
I mean, I don't even...
I don't know how, I don't know why, I'm just lucky
and have them doing stuff like that for me.
But now, Eddie, now, your fans have a special name, don't they?
Errn, they...
Some people call themselves Redmayniacs.
Redheads.
Yes.
Yeah.
I have lovely fans,
but there was a thing recently at a Fantastic Beasts premiere,
and I was walking to the premiere,
and this this lady came up to me and she said, "Draw on my arm."
And I said, "OK. Where...?"
And she shoved a pen in my hand.
She was like, "Draw a fantastic beast on my arm."
You know where this is going.
There's a character of fantastic beasts
called Pickett, who's a little stick insect.
And so I did what was basically a, you know, a stick man whilst whilst
moving and then thought nothing of it.
And then the next day it went online that she had had that tattooed
onto her arm, which, had I known, I would have stopped for a minute
to make sure my little twig man was slightly
better than a stick man.
That was a low point.
And talking of fans in the in the book, Bono, one
of the people you meet is the Pope.
The Pope was jealous of you, Bono?
I wouldn't have put it like that.
If you mean he coveted my sunglasses,
is that what you're saying?
Well, no, because he was checking you out.
Well, not in that way.
We were there.
According to the World Bank, an extra 54 million kids went
to school in the poorest countries in the world because of the Drop
the Debt campaign.
A lot of it led from these United Kingdom here,
but around the world.
Ancl that's what we were there with me, Bob Geldof, Quincy Jones,
Jeffrey Sachs, a bunch of us and this very frail man.
Ancl I notice him looking at me and I thought, like,
we're all narcissists, you know, navel gazers.
Ancl I moved and his eyes kept going with me.
I said, that's a bit mad.
Maybe it's the glasses.
So I took them off because I had these kind of blue shades.
Ancl then he started looking at them in my hand.
So when I went to His Holiness John Paul, I said, do
you want my glasses?
Ancl when I went up to meet him he said,
yes, and he put them on.
And he put them on.
I'm like, this is unbelievable.
Swapped them for some rosary beads.
Put them on.
Ancl I'm thinking this is Drop the Debt, the jubilee 2000 campaign
on every newspaper, we've made it.
You know, this is just one of those photographs, and hear
a voice in the background.
Ancl it goes, you will never see that photograph - ever!
But guess what?
The photograph...
Oh, wow.
It exists.
So this is the picture of the Pope wearing Bono's sunglasses.
I love it.
Yeah, he's loving it.
He's loving it.
Alex, the next big tournament, World Cup in Qatar.
You are part of the commentary team?
Yes.
I fly out in a couple of weeks, so I'm going to be over there
for a month.
It's super exciting.
Ancl what's the vibe like?
I mean, are you worried about it or do you think
it's going to change that country for good?
What's your take on it?
To be honest, I still don't know at the moment my kind of take
on it, because obviously that's where things
are bigger than football.
Ancl it's how can I use my platform in that moment to spread a message,
make people aware and not just sit there and think everything's alright
when it isn't.
Ancl I know my role and the importance of that.
Yeah, it's going to be a tricky one to do.
Yeah.
And very quickly, we must mention you are doing Children
in Need again
next month?
Yes, next month.
You're not doing it.
I remember last year, doing it with you.
I know.
I can't be there this year, but good luck with that.
Thank you.
Like, "You're on your own, you go do it!"
I'll think of a reason soon.
Good luck with that.
And Alex's book, How (Not) To Be Strong is available now.
So it is time for music.
This critically acclaimed singer is taking the world by storm
with a debut album, Black Acid Soul Here,
performing her latest single, Feel It Comin'.
It is Lady Blackbird!
# Like in every great fable
# There's a moment when we all must learn to crawl
# And when life has turned the table
# Before we rise we know we all must take the fall
# And this moment ain't no different
# Times are changing like the clock upon the wall
# Your wealth can come from
#just a dime
# We ain't broke
# I feel it comin', don't we all
# I feel it comin'
# Like the dawning of the day
# Straight through to midnight
# While we dance the night away
# A great big expression, happy on my face
# I feel it comin' like the dawning of the
# Mama told me 'bout a baby
# Baby grew up in another kind of world
# Always felt like such a lady
# Mama said son you ain't born to be a girl
# And this moment ain't no different
# Times are changing like the clock upon the wall
# The world is changin' all the time
# It ain't broke
# I feel it comin'
# Don't we all
# I feel it comin'
# Like the dawning of the day
# Straight through to midnight
# While we dance the night away
# A great big expression, happy on my face
# I feel it comin' like the dawning of the day
# Who ah
# The beat goes who ah
# who ah who ah
# The beat goes who ah
, who ah
# The beat goes all night long
# Remember the rain
# Remember the sun
# Remember the seasons winters almost done
# I feel it comin'
# Like the dawning of the day
# Straight through to midnight
# While we dance the night away
# A great big expression, happy on my face
# I feel it comin' like the dawning of the day
# Straight through to midnight
# While we dance the night away
# A great big expression, happy on my face
# I feel it comin' like the dawning of the day
# Who ah
# The beat goes who ah
# who ah who ah
# The beat goes who ah
, who ah
Lady Blackbird, everybody!
Brilliant job.
Come on over.
They love you.
How great was that?
Come meet the rest of the group.
Taylor, Bono, Eddie
Wow.
So good.
Incredible.
Alex, I would urge you to fight the temptation
to put one in the back of the net.
Top corner!
That was so gorgeous.
Thank you.
The voice.
The voice, voice.
And that single is from the deluxe album of Black Acid Soul.
The Deluxe came out today.
Is that right?
That's right.
Today.
Today!
Ancl you guys are all incredible, I'm so happy right now.
I can't even believe it.
I'm trying to be so cool, and I'm failing.
I'm failing so bad.
The fan club over here.
You're amazing.
I know that people watching that performance
will want to go and see you.
And you are touring here?
We start the tour Saturday.
We're in the Netherlands, and we hit the Netherlands.
We hit Spain, we hit Rome, Germany, Paris, and then we end up...
No Ireland?
I know!
In fairness, Bono, we haven't heard about the UK yet.
If Bono wants Ireland, we're going to Ireland.
If Bono wants Mars, we're going to Mars.
We end here, we end here.
Ancl we play Manchester, we play the Barbican, Barking
and we end on Jo Whitey Radio.
Yeah, Google Lady Blackbird.
You'll find it.
Oh, I'm so nervous.
Don't trust me on the dates.
No, no.
But people would be delighted to know you're performing new music
and you're out there in the world.
I have to ask you, Taylor Swift, when can
we expect to see you on a...
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
I'm going to say that first you should purchase tickets to go see
Lady Blackbird.
But soon.
This year?
No, next year.
I mean, it's soon-ish.
|t's going to happen.
We'll do it.
It's going to be great.
Whatever.
But Bono, U2,
You're doing new music, aren't you?
Yeah, we have a sort of...
We have an album nearly finished called Songs Of Ascent.
It's beautiful, but it's just not right
for the moment we're in.
We want to make a really unreasonable guitar record.
A real, proper rock and roll, you know, proper...
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
So we're starting again.
All right.
Well, listen, we look forward to that.
Lady Blackbird, thank you so much for that beautiful performance.
Congratulations on the album Black Acid Soul.
And good luck with the tour.
Lady Blackbird, everybody!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Sadly, no time for Red Chairs tonight,
so it just remains for me to say a huge thank you
to all of my guests tonight.
Lady Blackbird!
Alex Scott!
Eddie Redmayne!
Taylor Swift!
And Bono!
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.
Join me next week with UK rapper Loyle Carner and comedian and writer
Richard Ayoade, two of the hottest young actors around,
Emma Corrin and Paul Mescal,
and from the new Black Panther movie Wakanda Forever,
we've got Winston Duke and Michaela Cole.
I'll see you then.
Goodnight, everybody, bye-bye!
CH EERING AND APPLAUSE.