Episode 17 The Graham Norton Show

Good evening, everyone. I'm Saoirse Ronan, and you're watching The Graham Norton Show!

This programme contains some strong language.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Oh! Oh! Thank you! Thank you so much.

Oh! Too kind.

Good evening! Welcome!

Thank you, thank you. I have never heard applause like it.

-Everyone well? AUDIENCE:

-Yeah!

Yes, because this week it was announced the Spice Girls are back!

Yes, they are. Whoo!

SCATTERED APPLAUSE

Good luck with the ticket sales!

Victoria has already been practising her singing at home.

I wonder what requests the audience will be shouting at the first gig?

I'd go with "Stop Right Now, Thank You Very Much."

What else has been happening this week?

Well, despite there being doubts over her leadership,

Prime Minister Theresa May was out and about having fun.

Here she is playing ball with a dog.

"Leave, leave!" is what everyone is telling her.

If Theresa were to quit, some Conservatives would like to see

Jacob Rees-Mogg put his hat in the ring.

AUDIENCE GROAN

It would look better there than on his head.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the man of the people.

He wants to drag the Tory party kicking and screaming

into the 18th century.

He doesn't have a job in the Cabinet at the moment,

but earlier in his career he was the Minister for Silly Walks.

Supporters claim Jacob embraces the Churchillian spirit.

Although it's not actually Churchill he reminds me of.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Let's get some guests on!

Later we'll have music from breakout star from The Greatest Showman,

Keala Settle!

But first, this award-winning comedian is the new face

of Saturday night TV, hosting All Together Now on BBC One.

Please welcome the Mouth from he South, it's Rob Beckett!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE THROUGHOUT

Hello. Have a seat, have a seat.

This duo are the stars of the ground-breaking sitcom

that became a global hit.

Now, after 11 years away, they've made a happy return to our screens.

Please welcome Will and Grace themselves

Eric McCormack and Debra Messing!

So lovely to see you!

It's like television has come to life!

And she's a Golden Globe winner and triple Oscar nominee

who's wowed us in films like Atonement, Brooklyn

and now the critically-acclaimed Lady Bird.

My Irish eyes are smiling! It's Saoirse Ronan!

Good to see you. Hello, hello, hello, hello.

Come in and sit down.

Oh, the bonding and, yeah, yeah.

This is good. Good, fake showbiz helloing.

We are just pretending.

We were making out backstage.

Before we do another thing -

huge congratulations on the Oscar nomination, Saoirse.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Mind you, it's crazy, you're so young, this is the third one.

-I know. Another one!

-You must be like, "Whatever."

-Yeah.

So, good luck to you but also good luck to the person reading out

the nominations because Americans do struggle with your name.

-They can't get it.

-Eric, Debra, did you practise?

We had a kind of practice because you were going to be a joke

in the opening scene on Will And Grace a few weeks ago.

-Swear to God.

-Stop! Why wasn't I?

Because we couldn't get it right.

-It was cut.

-It was a joke about how hard it is your programme,

your Netflix or whatever. She said,

"What's the name of that actress we like so much?"

"But we can't pronounce her name."

I said Saoirse Ronan, and so the whole thing was just her going...

-"S..."

-E...R...something...

-You were almost...

-I was almost on Will And Grace.

Then I got cut!

Now, when you hosted SNL you came up with handy way

-to tell Americans how to say your name.

-I did.

-Can you do it?

It goes... If I can remember it...

# It's Saoirse with an R Not Saoirse with an OR

# Cos Saoirse with an OR goes OR, not ER

# It's SH instead of CS UH instead of EE

# Simple as can be, see, Saoirse. #

Very good!

And so you rehearse...

Am I the only one that's more confused?

The whole week leading up to it,

that was the only thing I kept thinking about

because it's so difficult to say.

It's supposed to make it easier, but it was just in my head.

"It's Saoirse with an R..."

So that's what I had in my head for the whole week leading up to it.

-Talking of awards, congratulations, you won the Golden Globe.

-Yeah.

Very good. And Will And Grace has been nominated for,

-is it 29 or 30 Golden Globes?

-29.

-Never won once.

-Not once.

We are the biggest losers.

No-one has lost more than us.

We got to a point...

CHEERING

Thank you!

-You guys!

-That's right, that's right.

But we got to a point after about season three where the show was

nominated, all four of us nominated - lost, lost.

And one, I think it was when the show lost or Sean lost,

-Max, who created the show, went, "Yes!"

-Yeah!

And the cameras got confused and went to us -

though we had just lost -

and we started to do it every nomination, every loss.

Every time anyone lost, we could have another drink of champagne.

Confused the hell out of them.

They always put a big thing of chocolates on your plate

and so I would wait until I lost

and then I would open up the box and eat the whole thing and I'd be like,

"It doesn't matter now."

-Have you got 29 unused acceptance speeches?

-Yeah.

I was nominated this year and I almost recycled the same thing

and I thought, you know,

"I can't reference Al Gore - that makes no sense!"

But I feel the Golden Globes realise you are not taking it

that seriously. I think this is you guys at the Golden Globes.

That is not how winners behave.

That was the last Golden Globes and we got in front of the press

and we weren't even nominated, we were there just cos it was

last season and the press so didn't care that I said,

"Fuck this, I'm dropping my pants."

And they still didn't care.

They took that picture, look at Sean. Nobody cares.

They are looking away, "Whatever."

-Now, Rob Beckett.

-Yes.

-Welcome to the world of show business,

-working the red carpet at the NTAs.

-You didn't bring up my award.

I was second place in Bath New Comedian of the Year 2009.

-I'm so sorry!

-It's not an Oscar or a Golden Globe

but it meant a lot to me at the time. Runner-up in Bath.

-Are you saying "barf"?

-Bath.

LAUGHTER

I knew this was going to happen.

We need an interpreter.

-Bath. You know Bath?

-No.

-Near Bristol?

-Oh, "Bath"!

-Bath!

It's going to be a long night.

You were on the red carpet at the NTAs with your new friend

-Geri Horner, Spice Girl. Ginger Spice.

-She looks great.

-Yeah.

-Did you enjoy working the red carpet with her?

-It's interesting

doing the red carpet because when you are walking on the red carpet

with a Spice Girl, no-one cares about you whatsoever,

to the point where the photographers go, "Get out of the photo, Rob."

They get more money for one of her. I actually devalue a photo.

They're earning less money, so I'm just standing there going,

"How much?

"How much to get out the photo?"

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Big film tonight is Lady Bird. It is out 23rd February

and, Saoirse, this was meant to be an art house kind of indie film,

-but it defied all expectations, it's a big hit.

-It's mad.

It's done so well, it came out in November, yeah, it was

a tiny little film, it is Greta Gerwig, who did Frances Ha

and Mistress America, you know, really great films but very small

films, and within the industry people really respected her,

but this has become this big sort of commercial hit, and, I don't know,

just the way young people in particular have reacted to it

is amazing, girls coming up to you, going,

"I feel like somebody gets me now." You know?

-Oh!

-So it's really nice.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Everyone is calling their mam after the film cos they feel so guilty

about being horrible to them when they were younger.

The movie is doing gangbusters in America and then

your mum arrives in America and wants to go and see it.

Yeah, she wanted to go and see it and she was proud

and heard it was doing well and all that sort of stuff and I was like,

"Mam, it's doing really well, let's go and see it

"with a real audience, it's probably going to be sold out,

"but we'll see if we can get in there."

So I got us tickets to a 4 o'clock screening or something like that

in LA, it was like, "Keep your head down."

There's posters everywhere, it's been sold out,

the film is doing well, all that sort of stuff.

We go into the cinema - there's a total of six people in there.

All on their phones.

Nobody was interested at all. I was like,

"Just keep your head down."

We go to the back and there was a girl texting for the first

ten minutes of the film. I was like, "Get off the phone."

Then her friend turns up late.

But she loved it, she loved it,

and I think the other six people loved it.

They're probably all texting their mates, going,

"That girl from the film's in the cinema!"

-Trying to spell it!

-Yeah, yeah!

DROWNED OUT BY LAUGHTER

"Someone get me Scrabble bag!"

"Scheme is here."

We've got a clip from Lady Bird. This is a great scene,

you and your mum, played brilliantly by Laurie Metcalf -

-she's Oscar-nominated as well.

-Yeah, she got nominated.

-This is the two of you having the argument in a car.

-Yeah.

I want to go where culture is, like New York, at least Connecticut

-or New Hampshire where writers live in the woods.

-You won't get into those schools anyway.

-Mom!

-You can't even pass your driver's test.

-Because you wouldn't let me practise!

-The way that you work - or the way that you don't work -

you're not even worth state tuition, Christine.

-My name is Lady Bird.

-Well, actually, it's not

-and it's ridiculous.

-Call me Lady Bird like you said you would.

You should go to City College, you know, with your work ethic,

and then to jail, and back to City College

and maybe you would learn to pull yourself up and not expect

everybody to do everything. SHE SCREAMS

LAUGHTER

That is such a great film.

DROWNED OUT BY APPLAUSE

I just remembered, you did make it into the show

because there was a scene where you and I were driving...

-Oh, that's right!

-..and you're driving me to a place I don't want

to go, to see your family, and I act like I'm common and suddenly

I try to get the door open and she said,

"Easy, Lady Bird, I locked the door."

-That's all I wanted.

-It's there.

That's the only reason I'm here.

I love the fact, twice... you've debated.

It's not a big budget film. Watching it, there is a sense

-of you did just throw yourself out of a moving car.

-I did, yeah,

it's a wonder I survived.

No, we had a rig round the car, so just do a drop and roll.

It still must be quite scary.

Yeah, it was a moving car, it was a moving car and there was nobody

round except us and it was at the end of the film,

so they could have left me there if they wanted to.

But, no, I...

Your own mum you have a great relationship with,

but cars are the one place you and your mum...

We don't see eye-to-eye in the car. I don't know about you guys

but it feels like pressure is just immense when you get in the car

with someone that you really love, and we get on so well

in our normal life, and then we get into the car, and something happens,

and, like, we learned to drive the car at the same time,

we share a car,

and because of our love of Barbra Streisand we called her

Barbra Streisand, so whenever we're driving Barbra around

she'll give me directions if she's the co-pilot.

And she's terrible at it.

She has a great sense of direction but when we get into the car

she is sort of like, "Right, you're taking the next left."

And I'll check the mirror, indicate, into the left lane, take the left,

and she's like, "What are you doing?"

"You told me to turn left."

"I didn't mean that left, I meant the next left. Obviously."

So we've gotten into full-blown arguments.

But, like, in the confines of Barbra Streisand.

-Then you park Barbra and you're fine.

-We park Barbra,

we get out of Barbra and we're fine.

-Rob, you had to drive, is it your dad...?

-My dad was a lorry driver,

then a cab driver, so proper, you know, loves a bit of driving.

I'm rubbish at it. He can't get enough of it, he's always driving.

And I passed in an automatic. I couldn't get my head round gears,

it stressed me out, I thought, "I'm quite busy,

"I don't want to change gears."

There's no point having gears.

But I'm rubbish at driving and I think my dad is ashamed of me

that I am not a proper driver. I picked him up from the hospital,

he had a cataract operation, he's half blind, got all the bandages

over his head. I get home and I can't get into this space,

and it was one of the most emasculating things

that has happened.

Het gets out, pulls me out of the car, parks it blind.

Sitting there like that.

So degrading!

I don't know if you've ever seen a blind man park a car,

it's quite a sight!

-So you are 23 now.

-Yeah.

The odd thing for you is that because you have grown up

being on screen, you have never had to do the awkward teenage thing.

I did, but it was on camera.

-So I had a camera right there.

-We really didn't notice it!

I think I can speak freely that we probably all had

slightly awkward teens. Now, Eric McCormack.

You posted this picture

so it's not like I broke into your house and found it.

How old were you in this picture?

-DEBRA:

-Oh!

-LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE Wow!

-Yeah, that was...

That was my Bay City Rollers phase.

-I was 15.

-Oh, my God.

You look 32.

Really? Really?

-ROB:

-You look younger now!

-I think I was...

You've grown into yourself.

I hadn't yet figured out how to pluck the centre,

so there's still a good amount of hair there.

Who was the guy who played the Incredible Hulk, was it Lou Ferrigno?

-Yes.

-There's a whiff of Lou about this.

-And a little David Cassidy.

Thank you, thank you.

I was just about to star in

my high school production of Godspell when I did that.

Oh!

I've never seen such a short fringe, but such long at the back.

-I know.

-So precise.

-It's not a mullet.

You're all being very...

It's more like a Farrah Fawcett flip.

Let's calm down, let's calm down, Debra.

-Because we've also got a picture of you.

-OK.

This is... I think it's a particularly American thing,

that some American girls do look about 45.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

You look like a headmistress.

I mean, that hair, it's... it's got life in it, doesn't it?

-That is solid. You could hide pencils in that.

-Yes, yeah.

-It's got its own postcode as well.

-That's right.

-What was that photo for?

-That was my high school graduation photo.

Did you think you were supposed to face this way

and then someone went, "The camera's over here." "Oh!"

You know, I grew up in rural Rhode Island

and I think that I knew that I had to find some drama in my life.

So I think that I felt like, "OK, I'm here."

-It's also perfectly lit as well.

-Yeah.

-The school did an amazing job.

-They did, right?

Because that's more than one light.

-Like, there's a bit here and a bit here.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Oh, yeah.

They went all out in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

Yes, I feel in Lewisham they didn't. Here's Rob.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

That's just one light.

-Yeah. I mean...

-What do you have in that bag?!

THEY ALL TALK AT ONCE

I understand, there's a lot of questions.

I like to refer to these as the "bad years".

What's in it?

Well, I think...well, I know what that is. I'm 15 years of age.

I'm on an Easter egg hunt that I'm too old for, let's be honest.

I've absolutely demolished the hunt though, to be fair to me.

I've caned 'em. Yeah.

-Yeah.

-There's a lot of children over here crying.

This currently feels like an anxiety dream. It's awful, isn't it?

Yeah, I just smashed the Easter egg hunt.

It looks like police evidence, doesn't it? In the bag.

-The hair, the glasses.

-I mean, let's talk about the fringe.

You were talking to him about the fringe.

We're the same age in those photos.

-Maybe we could...

-Different times.

-Who made it in Hollywood?

Let's put a bet on those two photos next to each other.

Easter Egg hunt, the Easter Egg serial killer

and grandad fringe.

Eric looked like a porn star.

-Working on it.

-Oh, that's bold, isn't it?

APPLAUSE

Ladies and gentlemen, Will And Grace is back.

CHEERING

Yes!

There they all are.

It's showing here on Channel 5 every Friday at 10 o'clock.

And it's one of those things, you know, we knew you'd been away

but then you hear 11 years, was it really 11 years?

And the method of it coming back is so bizarre.

-No-one was talking about it coming back.

-No.

-So, go on.

-No.

You know, I had been campaigning for Hillary Clinton.

And we were talking about... about trying to help her.

And then it turned out that our entire set had been stored

pristinely on the college campus of our executive producer for 10 years.

-Emerson College in Boston.

-Emerson College.

And then they got a call that said,

"We need you to move the entire set to storage,

"we need to do some fixes."

And so he realised, I have the entire set of Will And Grace,

maybe there's something I can do with it.

And that's when he wrote the four of us and said,

"Maybe, would you guys want to do

"a seven minute little film on YouTube to try and help Hillary?"

And within 10 minutes, all four of us had said yes.

And we came back and we did it

and we really thought it was going to be just a one-off.

And we said goodbye and we were like, oh, my God, how lucky,

10 years later we got to play with each other again.

And then 7.5 million views, and they were like, "Wait a second!"

Basically, Max flew the entire set, piece by piece,

across the country at his own expense. It was really expensive.

And we did this thing entirely in secret.

-Nobody knew except our few crew members.

-Nobody knew.

Even the people that showed up -

it was an invited audience of about 100 people -

weren't told what they were about to see.

And when the curtain parted and it was that set

-and the four of us in costume, it was very awesome.

-Incredible.

And because it came from a pro-Hillary place,

when Trump won, did that put you off bringing it back?

It was like, OK, well, 10 minutes didn't work,

what about if we do a whole season?

That was rough. That was rough.

Weirdly...it's still more rough than ever,

it's embarrassing to be here from America at the moment.

But refreshing, nice to be here.

But the idea that if Hillary had won,

and we could have taken some small credit,

-if we had come back, it was just a fun comedy show.

-We'd just be happy.

But now it feels like we're the resistance somehow.

Yeah.

And in terms of restarting it, kind of rebooting it,

how much discussion was around...

Because you ended up in that last episode, you ended up

in a very different place to where you started this series.

Oh, yeah. We had kids. It was 25 years in the future.

And then we were like, well, how are we going to do this?

And they're like, "Oh, you're not going to have kids."

-It never happened.

-It was like, what?

The first scene of the first series, or the ninth series,

which started here, basically,

we wrote the whole thing off as a dream.

Because we just... The idea of Will and Grace having kids

and making the whole show about that was like, "Ugh, can we just be gay?"

We don't want to be parents.

We've got a clip.

This is from next week's episode.

And this is the two of you discovering that you're sharing

-more than an apartment.

-Yes.

-You two didn't know about this?

-You told me not to tell!

I meant don't put it on Instagram.

The two of you live together,

what have you been talking about for the past three days?

-Fine things.

-Shows we watch.

But now that we all know what we know, we know.

-Sure do.

-Guess that's true.

Goodbye, Will. I had a lovely night with you.

And Grace.

An equally lovely night with you the night before.

APPLAUSE

And that, am I right, that's Megan Mullally...

-That's Megan Mullally's husband.

-Husband.

-So now we've all had him.

And of course, huge success and then you had all those incredible

-celebrities and star cameos and things.

-Yeah.

I mean, you were in scenes with Madonna.

And she didn't even know who I was.

I heard that - is that true?

It's true. Or me.

So, she came in, she came in late to the first read-through,

she kept her sunglasses on, and she sat down.

-DRAWLS:

-She started talking like that.

I think it was a vaguely Sacramento accent, I'm not sure.

And she went, "I'm so not sorry I'm late."

And then she started reading the script

and at one point she said, "Listen, Jack... Which one's Jack?

And Sean went, "Hi, hi, Sean Hayes, I play Jack McFarland, hi, hi!"

And so I remember the week,

and most of her scenes were with Megan, that every day she went

to Debra and I and she said, "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

And finally, I was like... This was when she was really into kabbalah,

and I said, "Oh, I'm Rachal."

Then she went, "Rachal? That's my Kabbalah name."

And I was like, "How about that?!"

And literally, for the rest of the week, she called me Rachal,

and that night, we always have a tradition where we hug and kiss

each other right before we go on,

and he said, "Have a good show, Deb."

And Madonna turned to him and was like,

"Her name's not Deb. Her name's Rachal."

And that's when he informed her that my name was Debra,

and the next day, after the whole episode was over,

I got six dozen roses that said,

"Dear Debra, thank you for a great week. Madonna."

So I... The same thing - on the Friday, we'd been rehearsing

for three days, she said, "I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

I said... This is the third time.

I said, "My name is so easy to remember.

"It's the one at the very, very beginning

"of every single episode of the show you are on."

And she went, "Oh, I'm sorry."

So, same thing, I got a giant box of roses with a card that

I just found the other day - I thought I'd lost it -

which said, "If my husband would let me,

"I'd tattoo your name on my arm. Love, Madonna."

So all's forgiven, all's forgiven.

-Well...I'm not sure.

-My thing was...

LAUGHTER

Uh-oh. You've opened up a rift.

My thing was shit!

Well, you've seen pictures of Madonna lately.

It's got "Rachal" right there.

LAUGHTER

And now, were you responsible, Eric, for getting Elton John on the show?

Well, yeah. So, I mentioned my high school production of Godspell.

You know who starred in it with me, in 1979? It was David Furnish.

-We grew up together outside of...

-Good trivia, good trivia.

Yeah, good trivia. Outside Toronto.

We lost touch for a number of years,

but when I finally ran into him again,

I was like, "I'm dating a girl, I think I'm going to marry her."

And he's like, "Great! I'm dating Elton John."

And so we got to know Elton a little bit, but never really close.

And there was one day David phoned, and...

This was before Elton did the show, and he said, "I'm in town."

My wife said, "Have him come over."

I said, "Come over to the house for dinner."

He said, "OK, we'll be there at eight."

And I said to my wife, "He said 'we'. He said 'we'.

"I think Elton John's coming to our house for dinner."

And sure enough, they show up, and they're both in, like,

velvet tracksuits, and they sit down and I'm trying to be cool.

We have dinner, just the four of us. My kid is, like, six months old.

And we have a new piano that I can barely play,

but I had just enough wine at one point that I said to Elton,

"You know you're going to have to christen the piano?"

And he got up and he walked into the next room and he sat down,

and he looked up at me and said...

-IMITATES ELTON:

-"What would you like me to play?"

And I... This is my moment, cos I want him to know...

I'm not going to say Rocket Man like some schmuck.

So I said, "Um...

"..I've Seen That Movie Too, from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road."

And he looked up at me and said,

"Oh, fuck off, I don't remember that song!"

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

So he came on, he was himself, and it was such a funny scene.

It was amazing.

Now, talking of hanging out with big musical stars - Ed Sheeran,

-the Galway Girl video.

-Yeah.

-So how did that happen, Saoirse?

Did you know him already?

No, I didn't know him, but we have a lot of mutual friends,

friends from Suffolk, which is where he grew up,

and friends in New Zealand, and things like that.

And I was out one night, I was out with my friends in London,

and the casting agent who was casting for the video just

e-mailed me and said, "Here, do you want to be in an Ed Sheeran video?"

And I was like, "Yeah, all right."

And it was going to be on my birthday.

12th April, just so you know.

And, yeah, and I did it, and it was brilliant.

He filmed the whole thing. He had, like, a camera on a rig,

and we just ran around Galway for an entire night, and he had...

Because he's... I mean, he's huge everywhere,

but he's beloved in Ireland.

Like, everyone loves him so much.

And so all of Galway just, like,

followed us around from place to place.

But the tattoo in the video,

-the Galway Grill...

-Yeah.

..so he really did get...?

There's something not quite right about that.

-He got that really tattooed?

-He did, yeah.

-That's your handwriting?

-That's my handwriting.

-So you wrote it on him? And did you mean...?

No, I was very, very nervous about it, so I practised

for about half an hour before they actually tattooed it on.

And that's what you came up with?

LAUGHTER

I can't change it now.

To be fair, the state of his arm, he ain't picky, is he?

-No, it was...

-You did better than that.

-What is that, actually?

-I don't know.

-That's a stamp from a nightclub.

Went out the night before.

But did you mean to do the bad spelling?

No, it wasn't my idea to do the bad spelling.

He's been saying to people at his gig

that I just misspelled the word "girl", but I didn't.

The tour manager, in Dublin, we'd had a few drinks during the show,

cos he did two shows in Dublin after we did the music video,

and the tour manager was going by, and he was like,

"You know what'd be gas? If you misspelled the word 'girl'

"and tattooed something else onto him."

And so we did Galway Grill instead, and we got a tattoo artist

to come in at, like, 12 o'clock at night, to Dublin,

during a birthday party that was being had in town.

-And...

-You can't get good ones, that time of night, though, can you?

-No, no...

-The emergency ones tend to be not so good.

Even the locksmiths that come out, they just kick your door in.

But he came in, and he was terrified, like,

this poor fella was having to, like, tattoo onto Ed Sheeran's arm.

With the arm that he plays the guitar with, so...

He must have been like, "I've been told to spell it wrong!"

Yeah, yeah.

Was there a Galway Grill that actually benefited from this...?

-Probably is now.

-There probably is now, yeah.

-It's a thing now, it's a thing now.

-Look it up.

-Yeah.

Now, talking of working with ginger musical icons...

Well, that is the greatest segue way in television history.

That is incredible.

Who knew that we'd have two of them?

Spice Girls' Geri Horner.

Now, so, did you have meetings with Geri beforehand? How does it work?

We were supposed to meet up for a cup of tea, but then it never

happened cos it was quite a short time between she was confirmed

to do it and we started filming, so I met up with her at the studio

when we was filming it. But she's amazing, she's so lovely.

But have you broken it to her, that growing up,

she wasn't your favourite?

-Well, she was.

-She was my...

-She was.

She was my favourite, you know?

She was my favourite. Erm... No...

She was my favourite, but I dressed up as Baby Spice for

a school assembly at primary school cos I was the blond one.

And there was a ginger kid in the class,

and I couldn't nick Ginger Spice off him - it were all he had!

Sheeran hadn't been invented.

So we got the egg hunt picture,

-but we didn't get the Baby Spice picture?

-I know.

I was saying to the researcher, like, "Did we get that?!"

I was quite cute when I was about eight.

It was 15, it all went wrong, so...

That's the worst it got, I think - the Easter egg hunt.

Because, Debra, did Ginger Spice do great things

for redheads all over the world?

-I don't know! Did she?

-I don't know.

You know what? In America, redheads on television,

it's equated with being funny.

Like, I Love Lucy, Carol Burnett, and so...

And you.

Well, I was a dark auburn, and when I got my first comedy,

my TV show, they were like,

"Oh, you've got to make your hair redder."

And I was like, "Well, why?" And they were like, "It's funnier."

LAUGHTER

-It's more clown-like.

-And I was like...

I'm like, "Ronald McDonald?" Like, what are you talking about?

So I guess that's the rule in America.

Well, Rob's new show with Geri

is this new singing competition, All Together Now.

It's Saturday nights, BBC One, 7.15.

We're two weeks in, it's going really well,

and it is...it's a really...

-I just think it's a big-hearted show.

-Yeah.

It's kind of a lovely watch. So talk us through the premise.

Well, it's not like another singing show,

it's more of a game show with singing in it,

and there's, instead of, like, the classic two or three judges,

there's 100 judges made up of people that have worked in the music

industry, and they're all characters in their own right,

and they're miked up, so when someone's singing, you can hear

what they're thinking and saying during it.

Geri's in there, she's sort of the leader of them.

And then when someone comes up, they start singing,

and then, if they like it, the judges, they stand up

and join in and sing along.

And if they don't, they stay sitted, so... Seated. Stay "sitted"!

I've already got the PR patter down, haven't I?

I've got to learn the word "seated". "They stay sitted..."

LAUGHTER

And then I come out and tell them what they got.

The thing is, I really take the mickey and mess about,

which doesn't normally happen on those sorts of talent shows.

It's so much fun, it's really warm-hearted and silly,

it doesn't take itself too serious, and it's a joy to make.

It looks like it was fun...

I knew it was decent because all the camera crew were enjoying it,

and I've not seen cameramen smile for about 15 years.

-Yeah! Getting into it.

-They're smiling. Some of them.

-Just about.

-Yeah.

This is a clip of tomorrow night's show,

and it's kind of the end of a performance.

Well, you'll see, you'll see.

# My tears, as they dry... #

Oh, yeah.

# I'm gonna... #

Oh, yes!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Oh, God. Oh, my God.

-Sorry, sorry.

-You all right, buddy?

-I think I'll just take the stairs next time.

-Lili?

-Oh, God.

Lili, let's be honest, you've stood up for everyone so far.

-You know you don't have to? You can just...

-I know.

I understand the premises of the game.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Absolutely burned.

Fair enough.

APPLAUSE

-Who's she? Who's Lili?

-Lili?

Lili is from Romania and now lives in he East End

and sings Cockney songs in a local pub, and she's amazing.

And her and Geri got on so well, it was sort of freaky.

And that's good cos you get all the little snippets

of just Geri chatting to all these people. It's great.

-And the running around...?

-Yes.

You see, I just think, if I was you,

I'd have gone, "No. I won't be doing that."

I think we're at different points of our career, Graham.

You know, give it a few years, I might ask for, you know,

-I need some help up and down the stairs.

-"I'll have a chair."

"Can I have a stairlift, is that all right?"

No, it was fun.

It was pretty tiring, but, you know, I've done proper jobs.

I used to work at a flower market,

so chatting to people about a song ain't a killer.

I actually sold you a bag of compost.

LAUGHTER

-Did you really?

-Columbia Road Flower Market.

-Oh, my God.

-I worked there from 14 and I remember seeing you

-and I sold you a pot.

-Wow!

-I think I actually carried it for you,

-you gave me a tip.

-Thank God!

-I know.

-Can you imagine that?

-Always tip, ladies and gentlemen.

-This could happen.

-Yeah. "That's Graham Norton! It's Graham Norton!"

Well, I think that's the only bag of compost I've ever bought.

I even sort of remember it.

Yeah, that was my first job, selling bags of shit in the street.

In the morning, east London, brutal.

"Anyone want a bag of shit?

"Bag of shit going here, ten for a fiver!

"I'll carry it to your car for 50p!"

-So, running up shiny stairs...

-Oh, it's fun, you know,

-it's quite good exercise.

-Yes!

-Yeah.

But is it weird being recognised now?

It's weird in south-east London cos it's quite rough,

so the same look you get when someone thinks you're famous

is the same one they look at you with if they want to chin you.

Sort of just like that...

APPLAUSE

You're like, "Yes, it's me... Oh, God!"

Listen, it's time to meet our music act tonight

and this is a real treat.

This singer shot to fame as the Bearded Woman

in The Greatest Showman for which the soundtrack album

has broken all records.

Here performing the Oscar-nominated This Is Me, it is Keala Settle.

# I'm not a stranger to the dark

# Hide away, they say

# Cos we don't want your broken parts

# I've learned to be ashamed of all my scars

# Run away, they say

# No-one will love you as you are

# But I won't let them break me down to dust

# I know that there's a place for us

# For we are glorious

# When the sharpest words wanna cut me down

# I'm gonna send a flood Gonna drown them out

# I am brave, I am bruised

# I am who I'm meant to be

# This is me

# Look out cos here I come

# And I'm marching on to the beat I drum

# I'm not scared to be seen

# I make no apologies, this is me

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh

-# Oh-oh-oh

-Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

# Another round of bullets hits my skin

-# Well, fire away

-Oh-oh

-# Cos today

-Oh-oh

# I won't let the shame sink in

# We are bursting through the barricades

-# And reaching for the sun

-We are warriors

-# Yeah, that's what we've become

-Yeah, that's what we've become

# I won't let them break me down to dust

# I know that there's a place for us

# For we are glorious

# When the sharpest words wanna cut me down

# I'm gonna send a flood Gonna drown them out

# I am brave, I am bruised

# I am who I'm meant to be

# This is me

# Look out cos here I come

# And I'm marching on to the beat I drum

# I'm not scared to be seen

# I make no apologies, this is me

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh

-# Oh-oh-oh

-Oh-oh-oh

# Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh This is me

# Oh-oh-oh

# And I know that I deserve your love

# There's nothing I'm not worthy of

# When the sharpest words wanna cut me down

# I'm gonna send a flood Gonna drown them out

# This is brave, this is bruised

# This is who I'm meant to be This is me

-# Look out cos here I come

-Look out cos here I come

# And I'm marching on to the beat I drum

-# Marching on, marching, marching on

-To the beat I drum

# I'm not scared to be seen

# I make no apologies, this is me

# Whenever the words wanna cut me down

# I send a flood to drown them out

# I'm gonna send a flood

-# Gonna drown them out

-Oh-oh-oh

-# Oh, yeah

-Oh-oh-oh

# This is me. #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING Wow!

Amazing!

Stunning. Keala, come and join us.

Wow! That was incredible.

-Thank you so, so much.

-Thank you.

-Come and say hello to everybody.

Keala Settle, everybody!

-That's Rob Beckett.

-How you doing?

-Yeah, good to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you.

-Debra.

-Unbelievable.

APPLAUSE DROWNS SPEECH

-Wow!

-It was amazing, well done. It was so good.

That was stunning.

We haven't had a reaction to a performance like that in ages.

-That was amazing.

-Is that a good thing?

-Yes.

-OK, good.

-Yeah, there was a good reaction.

-It was amazing,

I counted, 100 standing up, you smashed it.

Seriously, fantastic.

And that, of course, is from the soundtrack of The Greatest Showman.

-Yes.

-And that is out now.

And, of course, one of the next times you'll be performing that

-will be at the Oscars with Saoirse.

-I know, I saw Saoirse earlier,

I went, "Sorry, darling, you have to hear this another time."

-Whatever, yeah.

-Yeah!

How does that happen? I mean, do you...? When do rehearsals start?

-How do...?

-No comment.

-Oh, OK.

-I'll get fired from the Oscars

-if I give you any information.

-OK.

-But I will tell you that I do get to sing at it.

-Wow!

Does she win?

I can't give you that information either.

Also get fired.

So, listen, this is a really special thing,

-here you are in this movie...

-Thanks for having us.

..the soundtrack's gone well, you're at the Oscars

-but this was never meant to happen.

-No!

-How did you end up in the film?

-Tell us your story.

-Oh, it's Hugh Jackman's fault.

-OK.

It's all Hugh Jackman's fault.

I was successfully hiding from the world in New York City

for about 25 years and so because the hustle is the hustle

when you're on a Broadway show,

you always book a show and then you try and find another one.

They were trying to find a Bearded Lady for a reading of

The Greatest Show On Earth, which is what it was called at the time

and... Ooft.

And I said, "Yeah, sure, I'll do it, how much is it?

"Great, I'll pay my rent. Go ahead and hand it over, I'll do it."

And then I ended up doing it two more times

and the last time ended up being the green light

that Fox gave for us to do it.

And you were in the room and...

Yeah, I did it and it was the first time that they had heard This Is Me.

It was actually one of the last two songs written for the film

and it was written a week before that whole thing and they said,

"Do you want to sing it?" I said, "Absolutely not.

"Find somebody else and I'll sing soprano or alto,

"just go find somebody else."

And the story goes with my director, he said,

"What will it take for you to do this?"

"I said, "You buy me a bottle of Jameson, I'll do it."

-Nice!

-Showed up the next day with them little black liquor bags

that you get in New York City, pulled the bag down

and there was my bottle of Jameson. I was like, "Dang it!"

-I did the song.

-You're cheap.

-Well, yeah.

-Simple.

-I think you need a new agent, to be honest with you.

It was very simple, you know?

At least ask for a case.

And, you know, budget, I had no idea what the budget was.

Listen, we've got a little surprise for you

because somebody heard you were on the show

-and a very famous Australian sent you this message.

-No.

-Yes.

Hi. I hope you're having a great time there with Graham,

I'm sure you are. Hi, Graham.

So, I've got one little message for you

because you took this song through four workshops,

you crushed it so well, it became an anthem

for many, many people around the world,

you sing it so well that you got yourself nominated for an Oscar

and topped the charts in a lot of countries

and I have four words for you, Keala.

It's all your fault.

No, it's not!

Aw, that's sweet.

APPLAUSE

Oh, my God, so wonderful.

How did you know he was going to say it's all your fault?

Because I tell him that, I mean, I told you when I first sat down,

it is his fault. This is the only reason why I was in this film

was because of Hugh Jackman and Hugh Jackman alone

and he continued to believe in me when I refused to, refused to.

I fought so hard to not to believe in myself and he said,

"Oh, stuff that, come on, let's go."

And I should mention, in this country,

The Greatest Showman has taken on another new life,

they're doing these special singalong...

I know, I'm so glad they're finally here!

But, let me say, good luck singing along with that, but...

But here's what happens, you go into these singalongs

and some people go by themselves cos obviously they're going,

"I'm the only person in the world who's going to watch this

for the ninth time," and then they go into these sold-out theatres

going, "That person's been here for the sixth time."

And you don't know them, but by the time the music starts,

you become best friends and all of you are dancing

whatever you want to dance and singing whatever you want to sing

-within the film and it's...

-Oh, my God.

That song will be butchered at karaoke for years and years.

They all will, they all will.

It starts around the country on the 23rd of February.

-I'm so pleased for you. It's fantastic.

-Thank you.

-What a great story...

-Thank you so much.

-..and what a great performance

-and good luck to both of you at the Oscars.

-Yeah.

Keala Settle, everybody. APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Right, that's nearly it, but before we go,

just time for a quick visit to the big red chair.

-Hello!

-Hello! Hi, Graham.

-Hi, what's your name?

-My name's Debbie.

-Debbie, lovely. And where are you from, Debbie?

-I'm from Kent.

-Lovely, and what do you do down there?

I'm an airline cabin crew member.

-Ooh! Can you say which airline it is?

-No.

-Ooh.

LAUGHTER DROWNS SPEECH

Wow, that good. Or maybe it reflects on the story.

-Off you go with your story.

-OK.

Well, it happened 30 years ago, almost,

my youngest daughter was a baby, just a few months old

and she was still being fed in the night, so...

My ex-husband had a particular aversion to breastmilk

for some peculiar reason.

Anyway, she woke up in the middle of the night

and I got her out of her cot, took her into bed with me,

rested her in that arm, feeding her nicely,

the right side started to leak profusely and was squirting...

-Oh, God.

-..all over his face and woke him up

and he went, "Ugh! Ugh!

"Get it off me."

And I thought, "Hm, that's not a very nice reaction."

So the next day, I made him a lovely apple crumble

with some very special breast milk custard.

APPLAUSE Well done, that lady. You can walk.

-Well done!

-You can walk.

-Well done!

Well done! Well done!

Love that one!

And of course she said ex-husband.

I know, ex-husband, he was her ex-husband, yeah.

-And then the marriage went tits up.

-APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-Ting!

-Ting!

If you'd like to join us on the show and have a go in that red chair,

you can contact us via our website at this address.

Sadly that is it for tonight.

Please say a huge thank you to my guests, Keala Settle...

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING ..Rob Beckett...

..Debra Messing...

..Eric McCormack...

..and Saoirse Ronan.

Join me next week with singer-songwriter Camila Cabello,

brand-new Lara Croft Alicia Vikander,

rising British star Daniel Kaluuya, and from I, Tonya,

the Oscar-nominated Allison Janney and Margot Robbie.

I'll see you, then. Goodnight, everybody, bye-bye!

APPLAUSE