Episode 13 The Graham Norton Show

Tonight on the show, the star of Legally Blond. Are you excited by

the comedy and music? Are you going to dump in my bag?! Let's start the

Hearing CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Wow. Thank you very much. Good evening one. Good evening all.

A very warm welcome. You're too kind. Too kind. We have got a

fantastic show you tonight from the deep south of America, Reese

Witherspoon is with us. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I know! I know! From the deep south of America, smooth talking American,

Reginald D Hunter joins us. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

From the deep south of Surrey, Doctor Who star, Alex Kingston is

here! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Yes! Yes! Plus we have got music from my new favourite band. You may

not know them yet, but you will love them. It is The Musgraves,

ladies and gentlemen. Alex Kingston is here. She has had

a varied career, has had Alex, from ER to where she had an affair with

a doctor, to Doctor Who, she is terribly versatile. Alex is about

to appear in the new episode of Upstairs, Downstairs. If you

imagine Downton Abbey, that's it! Laugh

LAUGHTER . It is people doing nothing but

having sex upstairs and downstairs. It is a bit like a night bus!

LAUGHTER I imagine!

So delighted that Reese Witherspoon is joining us again. She is here to

tell us about her new film This Means War. But she will always be

loved for her role in the brilliant Legally Blond. There she is lying

down in a park. In America, quite glamorous. In Britain, less so.

Reese starred in Water For Elephants. I know! It was a

beautiful film. Reese won't mind me saying, but there was a raunchy sex

scene between the two lead characters. Do you want to see it?

Do you? Do you? Let's get some guests on.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Later we will behaving music from

The Musgraves. But first it is Reginald D Hunter.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Hello, sir. How are you?

Sit yourself down. Marvellous. It is Alex Kingston. A vision. A

vision. Hello my darling. Mwah. Mwah. And it is Reese Witherspoon.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Mwah. Mwah.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Oh. You are all so welcome. This is

very exciting. You are so far away. I am very far

from my wine. Don't you think it is fantastic to

see an American drinking wine on your show? Because usually they

have Coca-Cola and water. You don't see me without the wine!

You have earnt a drink. We have fin finished our premiere.

I have to check, are you all right? Since the last time you were here,

you had an accident? I did. Not a very show business accident,

you didn't fall off a horse or anything? Or a wagon!

LAUGHTER I got hit by a car. It is not funny.

I got hit by a car. Is there a steel hip going on?

very hard headed because I landed on my head and that's the only

thing. I have a scar right here hence my new hairdo. But yeah, I

know, miraculously and thank God, I am fine.

Did you have con cushion? I don't remember!

LAUGHTER I don't remember much about it.

And what happened to the driver? Well, she was 85 and they took away

her driver's licence. Oh. But they gave her a bus pass

though. LAUGHTER

Alex here, you didn't even need a car to get into an accident in the

street, did you? No, no, I didn't need a car. I was jetlagged I had

just come off a flight and I was working with Irish comedians

actually and we were walking down the street and I walked into a lamp

post. Irish comedians made you walk into a lamp post?

I heard about them drinking a lot, I never heard that. I was a little

disorientated because one was extremely tall and the other was

extremely short. They do that. They do that.

LAUGHTER I was talking and walking and going

like that all the time and bonk. A cartoon walk in. I fell back and I

was so embarrassed because I thought I would be the butt of the

comediennes jokes and I pretended I would be fine and that night I

started to feel whoozy and I got up and I said, "I think I'm going to

be sick." The next thing I knew, I was being woken up by a doctor on

the floor and I had fallen flat on my face and had bitten through my

lower lip and knocked my front teeth out. I had to go to the ER.

Where they knew you? Where they knew me!

You know that girl! Sew that lip up.

Now, Reese Witherspoon, you are back and bigger than ever.

Fantastic new film. This Means War, it opens on 2nd March.

Yes. And it is a film with action?

we have a lot of action in this movie. This is my first action

movie and I was familiar with the comedy part, but the action part

through me a little with the guns and bad guys chasing us. I had to

find myself laughing most of the time. This is ridiculous!

LAUGHTER Me in an action movie. It is so

stupid! LAUGHTER

So two guys are after you? Yes. They are CIA agents? Yes.

It is a movie! But that allows all this funny stuff to happen? Yes.

There are two spies, they are best friends and they are good at what

they do and they sort of end up falling in love with the same girl

and say, "Let her decide and may the best man win." and in the

process they begin to sabotage each other and they are determined to

kill each other. What is really clever and I don't

know how they do it, but you are dating both guys, but you never

come across... Slutty. There. But people in America tend to do

much more more double, triple dating, it is a normal thing in

America. I heard this.

In England we never had that culture. Normally, you just date

one person, don't you? Really. Until you break-up and then you

date someone else. And then you date another guy and

he is real cute. But in America, you seem to have

lots on the go at the same time until you make up your mind, is

that true? It is the land of the free!

LAUGHTER Reginald, you dated in both places,

is it true? Which places? LAUGHTER

America and here. LAUGHTER

LAUGHTER I

I don't

I don't know

I don't know much

I don't know much about you, but I a assume you and me both go

different places. Yes. You have stopped making an effort when it

comes to dating at all? What? LAUGHTER

Even when you do have a girlfriend, you don't, it sounds like you don't

make much of an effort to flatter them. What? What?

LAUGHTER These are all words in your mouth.

Is it one of my ex-girlfriends that you are researching? There was that

story that you went on holidays with a girlfriend and you were

flying home? Yes. Yes, that happened m

That doesn't make you sound like the best boyfriend in the world

snoovmt it is one -- It is one story. It was just, we was on

holiday and her ass had got baked and she was acting she didn't know

why. I knew you are supposed to - I didn't even want to say and she

knew I had something on my mind that I could say and she made it

come down to if, "If you were a man." I said your ass got baked. I

like your ass and you act like the airline is engaged in a conspiracy

to make the seats tighter. So you told her she had a fat ass? Wait a

minute. LAUGHTER

I did not go out of my way to do this. I was naive and wanted to

have a conversation. She was complaining about the seats on the

plane being really small and she did not... You know we are on

television right now? I understand that.

LAUGHTER Everybody you know is watching this.

We are on television, but that doesn't make me not be right!

LAUGHTER Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Alex is not

convinced. Don't, just don't look at our asss!

You're late, baby. You're late. LAUGHTER

It is automatic. It is automatic. We have got a clip of the movie and

this is you and your friend played by Chelsea Handler and you are

discussing your your options of these men, but because they are CIA

agents they are eavesdropping on the whole thing. I will ask you

questions about the products. OK. P The people and you will tell

me who you like. I don't know. They are both

incredible. I have to go home and clean tartar sauce out of Bob's

beard. Is there anything bad about them? One has girlie hands. Like

little T-rex hands and Tok is British. What is that supposed to

me? So I need you to get into decision making mode and I need you

to do it quickly. You know what I need? I need a deadline. I am going

to give myself an amount of time to make this decision. One week.

APPLAUSE Reese, you are happily married, you

are all loved up. You You finally went on your honeymoon? Yes.

You were just working, you couldn't get the time? I was working and I

couldn't get the time. Did he go to a lot of trouble to

get you in terms of trouble that guys go to, I am not asking too

personal a question. Really? No, he pursued me. He was very sweet and

sent lots of flowers and went to nice restaurants and things. We

haven't seem to be going too lately!

Have you ever pursued anyone out of curiosity? Like pursued a man? Well,

not really - I mean, if I saw a guy and I thought he was cute I would

let a friend of his knows. So you would let him know that you

could pursue -- that he could pursue you.

But I am not calling him. No. That sounds very empowering.

LAUGHTER And now, you live in this beautiful

home in California and you talked to us about your mennagery, you

have got two donkeys? I have got two donkeys, no, just two. I

thought they said said three. They were just cheering the idea of

you having donkeys. Some people like ass!

APPLAUSE We found a lovely picture of you

and your family. Is it Disneyland, Disney World, it is Flash Mountain.

Yeah, that's us. There you were a the top with your

hair a-go-go. Your daughter is you. She is the spitting image of you.

She is adorable. LAUGHTER

Loads of people have these pictures. We asked people in the audience do

they have pictures of themselves on rollercoasters and rides and my

favourite is this one. It It comes from a lady called Jackie. Where is

Jackie? There is Jackie. Hi. Where was this Jacqui? Chessington World

of Adventures. Lovely. Who is in the boat with

you? My husband, my daughter and my son. OK. Now I'm glad you say it is

your husband because fear can make people react in different ways. So

this is how Jackie's house dealt with his fear.

LAUGHTER Actually, on the web, on the web,

we found some good examples of the rides. OK, look at this child. He

will be traumatised for life. LAUGHTER

The wind must not change! Oh this is a mother and daughter. I

am not sure who is more frightened! LAUGHTER

Isn't it funny that we pay to do it. We pay to be this scared. You know

the way when you are going really fast and you go up and down and

sometimes when you are really frightened you think, "I am so

LAUGHTER APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE That's

That's a

That's a really

That's a really unfortunate

That's a really unfortunate ride! I want my money back!

Now, Alex Kingston, I follow your career with interest. I am glad you

are back on television in Upstairs, Downstairs. No, we love Upstairs,

Downstairs. Who do you play? I play the step sister of Eileen Atkins

character, Lady Mulholland who has just died and I join the household.

I am a mysterious lady, you don't know who she is or what what she is

about, but she is an adventure ess in that classic style of women at

those times, they are not married and they have been to university

and she is going off, she is an archaeologist, she has been living

in North Africa and quite free, quite modern compared to the rest

of the household. In the press conference... Yes.

Am I right in thinking they revealed that she is a period

lesbian? Well, let's just say she lives upstairs, but she goes down

town! LAUGHTER

I hear you! LAUGHTER

Yes. And this time it is during the war? It is on the eve of the Second

World War. This series is 1938 so it is just before the outbreak of

the Second World War. It is on Sunday, 19th February?

How many episodes? Six. There is more. We have a little

clip. This is an exotic visitor. was established in the house. He

was Eileen Atkins man servant and he stayed in the house, but yes,

quite an interesting, exotic character.

They may regret inviting him to Excuse me. This is a domestic

garden and there are adjacent residences.

I do not consider your actions to be safe. And you know all about

safety, wouldn't you? Give that gun to me. Your husband charged me with

this. Well, he isn't here and you are

provoking a disturbance. Do as Lady Lady Agnus says and give her the

gun. Forgive me if I was overzealous.

have twice had occasion to fire one in the past. The spectacle has

concluded and since we are in England, I suggest you make some

Can I tell you when we were shooting that scene, I sort of felt

terribly confident because I had shot a gun and I thought I knew

what I was doing and I grabbed the gun and I was doing all this, "I

know what I am doing." The entire cast was... I was just pointing the

gun wherever and the master of arms he was like, "No, you don't do

that." I hadn't got a clue what I was doing. But don't I look like a

lesbian? LAUGHTER

Reese, you have done the English dramas as well? Vanity Fair. And

the Importance of Being Earnest? The Importance of Being Earnest was

my first one here. I was 22 years old and I just had a baby and I was

terrified and I came over here early for three months and I

trained with my dialect coach and they told me I was going to do my

scene with Judi Dench., "Just Shoot me now.". Were you a bit shy to

begin with? He at first. She was like, "Speak up, I can't hear you."

LAUGHTER You know that thing when you mumble

and you think, "Nobody is really hearing me.". Did you find the

English accent easy? Not easy, but not terribly hard only because I

had to spend time losing my southern accent and I had practise

to change my dialect. Do you have a favourite phrase?

course, you can. LAUGHTER

I just like it when people say that. Can I have that? Course you can.

you find when you get angry, you revert back to southern? Yes, I

become a junkyard dog. Talking of posh, Reese, you are

quite posh, reason you? Me? Yeah. LAUGHTER

Wait a minute, I heard you were some sort of American aristocracy,

didn't one of your forefathers sign the declaration.

Yes, one of my forefathers signed the declaration of independence.

That is quite posh? You should see where we live.

You like the Royal Family? watched the Royal Wedding.

Did you really cry? Hungover, I don't know. Praying for Loose Women

to come on. When will it end? But you got to meet them? I did,

yeah. They came to Los Angeles to raise money for a charity that

helps animals in Africa so I got to meet them at a private reception.

I think we have got a picture of you and Kate. No, it is a nice

picture. I am so excited. Did you show them your donkeys?

Kate good at it? She is new to it all? She was lovely and funny. She

said really sweet girlie things. I don't know, I think she is handling

herself beautifully. You have to remember, we are American and we

wouldn't really know the difference!

Oh dear. One thing - I met Alex a lot on the show. One thing I didn't

know about you, you started life as a life model? Yes. Yes, I did. I

started modelling for my mum's adult education class and I was

about... LAUGHTER

That sounds really wrong. LAUGHTER

And then basically yes, this is all through my student days and even

beyond I would supplement by modelling for artists.

It sounds quite dodgy. Didn't you have to do dancing while you were

doing the nude modelling? There was one particular artist whose name

was Cecil Collins and he was a wonderful old, fantastic artist

artist actually and he had a record player and he would put on music

and it was a bit like freeze dance and I would then move and he would

stop the music and I would have to freeze in the pose, but it wasn't

always music. Sometimes he would have records of wind.

LAUGHTER Or stormy seas or something and I

would be a stormy sea. You would do interpretive dance?

would interpretive dance naked. LAUGHTER

Yeah. Feel free to interpret.

And then, you know, he would stop and then he would say 30 seconds

and they would have to do it and I would have to do another pose and

whatever and yeah, that's what I did.

It sounds fun. Can I tell you, it was very freeing.

It really was. I felt empowered. And you never hit a pose and said,

"Darn it, I wish I hadn't.". Do you know sometimes I questioned the

choice of when the music would stop. LAUGHTER

There was nothing I could do about She took her modelling one step

further and turned it into a dramatic thing... What are you

doing? Alex Kingston was the star of My Guy Magazine. These have so

stood the test of time. These are difficult because they are photo

stories. I don't know if you are familiar with this. It is photo

stories and she poses and and there is little dialogue buttons. There

is Alex and she is doing so much acting there. An awful lot of

acting. She has the flowers and the pose. I'm acting, I'm I'm acting.

What could she be thinking? It is hard to guess. What she is actually

thinking, "Damn it, it was probably the lec pris board and I have --

electricity board and I've probably missed them." I didn't see that

coming! LAUGHTER

You are so mean. You do very good fear, I think you

will agree, ladies and gentlemen. LAUGHTER

And then the story concludes in a later episode. Yes, there is about

four or five episodes of this and this is the last one. So doesn't

she look worried here ladies and gentlemen, something awful is going

to happen. "but if that's the man from the electricity board, then

who is done stairs? It -- downstairs? It must be the killer.".

I got into RADA on that. Here is a familiar face. Look

everyone, it is George Michael. It really is George Michael. No,

seriously that is Gorge Michael. What does it say, "It will be just

like old times, going out every night chasing girls."

Sweet. APPLAUSE

Now, moving on because Reginald D Hunter you were on tour, but thanks

to popular popular tour, you are back on tour. There are extra dates.

When does it run up to now? March.

It is called Sometimes The Devil Tells The Truth. There is a DVD.

You are a perfect host. I am going to show a clip. That's

him talking there. Had is him talk there.

Oh man, I was back in Georgia recently. I was there. My family

friends, when I got there, the first thing they do, especially

ones that haven't seen me for a long while. The first thing they

want to do is ask me about Britain. There is a lot of white people, a

lot of height, I say, "Man this is where they make white people, man."

LAUGHTER It is like white people's Africa

Africa. LAUGHTER

Are you a complete angaphile? not sure what that means.

A lover of England. Unless all ang glows come from England.

-- angloes come from England. I am fond of white people.

APPLAUSE Do you spend any time in the States

now, do you go back at all? I just got back. I go for Christmas now

usually and catch up to them and let them tell me what they think

about what I'm doing and what I'm saying.

Don't you prefer Christmas here though because it is cold and

Christmas in America is a bit strange, well in LA? What? Isn't

it? We have Christmas in America! I know! You need to be somewhere

cold for Christmas. We have got cold places in America

too. But you are from the south, it is

not cold in the south. It does get cold, yes. Like snowy?

Once every ten years. We have about four cold days in a row usually and

that's, you know, thick, cold. And what do you eat?

LAUGHTER What answer are you looking for

here? LAUGHTER

I mean like do you have turkey? we do.

LAUGHTER Yes, we do have turkey.

They love a turkey. You have to remember that pilgrims

who were Anglo-Saxon... LAUGHTER

From England, white people, they came to Georgia too. They spray it

and just, and a lot of them have Scottish in them too, they brought

the traditions and stuff, yeah, they got Indians to eat turkey and

they got black folks to eat turkey. Well, I mean we didn't get the

finest kits. LAUGHTER

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we eat turkey. LAUGHTER

What do you eat at Christmas? turkey.

Do you eat cranberry sauce? Macaroni sauce and potato salad?

Now that's American. You have some sort of thing, you

call it pea Tayto salad - potato salad, but there is green stuff on

the top and and marshmallows. There is a green bit on the top that is

like... Somebody was feeding you something funny.

APPLAUSE That was mould.

They were trying to impress you. They put green shi t in it!

LAUGHTER LA has a culture shock for anyone.

You must have found it when you went over for ER? Yes.

That must have been an odd experience? It took me a long time

to get settled actually. I actually did feel very lost actually

initially and, but after a while then it sort of settled in. And I

bought myself a, what the English people - you think we are all

terribly proper, but when an English person goes... Uptight.

LAUGHTER But when an English person goes to

LA in particular, the first thing that an English person wants to do

is get a convertible or get a big old retro car or something so of

course, I got a 1970 elder rad owe cadillac... A pimp mobile.

And that's what I kind of drove around and I thought I was super

cool except she kept breaking down all the time.

I have just come back from LA, there is lovely weather. If a man

or woman come up to you and they are friendly, engaging and

attractive, and they are really interested in you, they are

networking. Several time timesI was talking to ladies, a beautiful lady

strikes up conversation with you, "Your card.". When Americans come

here and sit on the Tube, the Underground, because Americans are

friendly and when they are friendly on the Tube with English people,

the English people just go, "What do they want from me?" Americans

don't have any compulsion about going, "I heard a lot about you. I

want to pick your brain." If you say that to the average English

person, they would be like, "I think not.". You seem so American,

but you found LA a bit of a shock, coming from the south, didn't you?

Yeah. I had never really been to LA until I was 14 years old.

Did you find them rude? Yes. Or did they think you were polite?

I had to say, yes, mam and no, sir. I had to call everybody Mrs Adams

or Mr Smith. I wasn't used to it when, you know, everybody was sort

of calling each other. I don't know, there was no revance for your

elders. Do you carry on the tradition with

your own children now? Well, I try, but it's, it's a huge task trying

to get those task. They will say please and thank you, but mam and

sir has gone... My mother used to punch me in the face...

LAUGHTER Well, what a top tip!

Lovely talking to everyone tonight. It is time for some music. Before

we hear tonight's stories in the red red chair. I want to introduce

you to one of my favourite bands. Performing their single The Last Of

# She got the last, # She got the last, last, last of

# She got the last, # She got the last, last, last of

# If you could peel my heart, # Pull back the folds of sorrow,

# You'll see there's nothing left to see.

# But take a closer look and you'll find her faint, faint footprints

taking the final piece of me. # Cause when you're too in love you

cannot see the edge. # There is no danger in giving her

want she asks for. # She got the last,

# She got the last, last, last of # She got the last,

# She got the last, last, last of # She took it all she took it all.

# She got the last, # She got the last, last, last of

# What can I offer you? # No it's not fair to see the days

energy you give me when you get nothing for yourself.

# But I was too in love to notice anything.

# I saw no danger in giving her what she asked for.

# She got the last, she got the last, she got the last, last, last

of me. # She got the last,

# She got the last, last, last of # She took it all, she took it all.

# She took it all she took it all. # She got the last,

# She got the last, last, last of # Oh she sunk her claws in me,

# And drew my blood so secretly, # But she was nothing but a liar,

# Closer to a vampire, vampire, vampire, vampire, vampire.

# She got the last, # She got the last, last, last of

# She got the last, # She got the last, last, last of

# She took it all she took it all. # She took it all, she took it all.

# She got the last, she got the last, she got the last, last, last

of me. # She got the last,

# She got the last of me. # She took it all from me.

# She got the last of me. # She took it all from me.

# She got the last of me. The Musgraves.

Come over here. Come and join us. Hello, sir.

Hello. Come and sit down. There is

Reginald and Alex and it is all very lovely.

There you go. Sit yourself down, sir. Oh, we liked that, didn't we?

Matthew Bennett, you are representing The Musgraves?

best I can. Now, you poor things because the

lord give giveth and the lord taketh away.

This is the first time on TV, I had a good night's sleep and six owe

o'clock in the morning, it is the drummer, "Have I overslept? The van

has been nicked. All our clothes, all our stuff. I mean look at this.

That's proof. It has definitely been stolen when you see that.

The Musgraves CD is out now. Please, buy more than one.

It is like a read live Band Aid, but we get all the money!

Listen, I hope 2012 will be brilliant for you. Everyone just

buy loads. Just so you know, Oprah would give

him a house! APPLAUSE

OK, before we we go tonight, just in time for a story in the red

chair. Who is up first? Who is up first? Hello.

Hi, what's your name? Ayah. LAUGHTER

That sounds like something you would say stalling for time!

It is like pulling letters out of a Scrabble bag. Tas high score, but I

am not sure? What is your surname? Vandabush.

Show won the name Lottery, didn't she? I have a wonderful bush!

OK, I am sorry, we are just laughing at you!

And that's not right. Do you come from a a large family of Vandabush,

are there many of you you? No, just my dad's side. My mum is not one

any more. Vandabush.

It sounds like a Swedish porn name. OK. OK. Off you go with your story.

OK, I was in Belgium with my boyfriend at the time and his

parents and we had such a lovely time that his parents invited me to

stay, me and my boyfriend to stay with them at the hotel which

meant... Wait a minute, this is as dodgy as it sounds?

It gets worse. Oh no!

And yeah, we ended up sharing a king sized bed... What? What?

my boyfriend and his mum and his dad and my boyfriend obviously in

the middle of the night didn't feel comfortable sleeping between me and

his mum. LAUGHTER

And he woke me up and got up and pushed me towards his mum and I

suddenly woke up hearing someone saying, "Aya, Aya, David is on the

other side." It turned out I was making up with his mum.

LAUGHTER That was so wrong.

If you would like to join me in the red chair, go to our website at

this very address. Thank you to my guests the night, The Musgraves,

Reginald D Hunter, Alex Kingston and and Reese Witherspoon.