Chat-show favourite Graham Norton talks about what it takes to make a hit show.

Graham Norton is back in his swivel chair for another round of chat and laughter with a wide range of showbiz luminaries. The popular chat-show host talks about his favourite guests and how a glass of wine helps the talk flow.

Do you watch yourself on the show?

If I’m in on a Friday evening, then I have a duty to watch it. If I can’t be bothered to, how on earth could I expect anyone else to? I do get embarrassed, though. Maybe some people get over watching themselves, but I never have.

You always have a chilled glass of white wine on the show. Are you happy when your guests join you in drinking?

I always think it’s a good sign. When I come out and see three or four glasses of water, I think, “What a shame you don’t think this is going to be fun, and that you’re not thinking, ‘Oh, how nice. I can sit and chat with people over a drink’.” It generally oils the wheels of conversation.

Do you ever worry about the show becoming repetitive?

In a way you plateau, but it’s a very high plateau, so it’s a very nice thing to happen. With those big stars, you never really get

over the excitement of having them and, also, they haven’t stopped working. They’re still making a new film or there’ll be something we’ve never spoken about before. There’s always something else to be mined. It’s hardest when you’re repeating young guests, when they’ve literally just done the new film and that’s it. So those are much trickier to find things to talk about.

What would be your dream couch of your favourite-ever guests?

You’d have to shove Miriam Margolyes on because she’s such a fun guest and she says the unsayable. Tom Hanks is an amazing guest and he and Miriam would be great together. Pink would do the music, because I like her and she’s great on the couch. If I could have Will Smith on that same sofa, that would be an embarrassment of riches.

Last year you had quite a few sofas with cast members from the same movie. Is that fun?

You can certainly tell if the set was a happy one or not. It was great to have Sandra Bullock, Rihanna, Cate Blanchett and the cast of Ocean’s 8 on together because they clearly all got on. I felt like the only man at a hen party. I get the same feeling with the Mission Impossible casts – they all get on like a house on fire and you know it all comes from Tom (Cruise) because he sets the tone on set. But the casts of other films that shall remain nameless, when they came on they obviously hated each other. I can tell that when it was filming they all stayed in their trailers.

Any ridiculous riders from demanding stars asking you to fill their dressing rooms with blue M&Ms and fur rugs?

One of our guests was allergic to everything and needed the building cleared of flowers and other stuff. In fact, the list of things she was allergic to was so long that we thought, ‘How can you put clothing on and sit on a couch and how did you get here?’

“If I’m in on a Friday evening, then I have a duty to watch it (the show). If I can’t be bothered to, how on earth could I expect anyone else to?” – Graham Norton

What are your own behind-the-scenes must haves?

Really nothing. I bring my own dog bowls and dogs. There’s really nothing in my dressing room apart from a sofa; not even a kettle.

How much do you rehearse?

On Thursday afternoons, just before we record, there’s a dress rehearsal. The researchers will play the part of the guests and sit on the sofa. They’ve even got little name tags that say ‘Tom Hanks’ or whoever, and I ask them the questions and then in real time they answer them. They don’t say, ‘Tom will now tell you the story about the tree’. They tell me the story of the tree, so we can gauge how long it is and how funny the punchline is. So often you’re listening to a story and thinking, ‘I hope that story’s funny when Tom Hanks tells it’. Then we have another meeting to fine-tune things and then the guests start arriving.