Norton back with a bang

A new season of The Graham

Norton Show has started. The first show of the new series aired on October 8 on BBC Brit (DStv channel 120) at 8pm, when Norton welcomed Oscar-winner Dame Helen Mirren, the one and only RuPaul Charles, comedian and actor Jack Whitehall, adventurer and documentary-maker Simon Reeve and Danish pop band Alphabeat.

Mirren talked about her drag experiences, Charles gave Mirren and Whitehall drag names, Whitehall spoke about working out with The Rock, Reeve said his one man show turned out much bigger than he expected and Alphabeat performed live in the studio

Mirren, talking about the scale and scope of her new Sky Atlantic series Catherine the Great, said: “It’s huge and incredible. Telly has changed exponentially over recent years, so if you’re doing something on the wealthiest woman in the world, it’s got to be pretty spectacular.”

Asked if it’s true that Catherine was a sex crazed addict, Mirren said: “She was incredibly politically clever, very courageous and she expanded the Russian empire considerably. She has been unfairly and incredibly maligned.”

Talking about her own Russian roots, she said: “You don’t have small talk in a Russian household. You talk about the soul and whether there is a God?

“You talk about deep philosophical stuff, so when I grew up and left home I found it almost impossible to talk. I would have found it impossible to sit here and not talk about really heavy stuff. It’s great now, I’ve learnt!”

Charles, asked if he is actually the world’s most famous drag queen, said: “I insist I am! I haven’t worked 37 years just to be a drag queen!

“I have named several queens over the years.”

Asked to give Mirren and Whitehall appropriate drag names, Charles deliberated before naming Whitehall “Jackie Black Ball” and Mirren “Sir Lady Cheek Bones”.

Mirren interjects with her own drag queen story,

“There is a very famous drag pub – the Vauxhall Tavern – and when I first got together with my husband he had two young sons. I thought I would show these two young Californians something of the real London, so I took them to the tavern. These poor kids were slightly in shock,” she said.