HE’S BACK WITH A BIG SHOW BANG
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show returns to BBC1 with celebrity guests, musical performances, stand-up, even more surprises and games including celebrity Send To All. Not only that, but the 41-year-old BAFTA awardwinning entertainer could be sneaking into your
What was it like winning a BAFTA earlier this year?
IT felt great. That night was so fun. It was a really nice surprise. You don’t expect things like that and it was lovely.
My wife could get a nice dress. We borrowed some jewellery. I had heard of Hollywood stars doing that, borrowing jewellery for the night, so I cheekily tried my luck.
I phoned a jeweller like: ‘So I’m going to the BAFTAs… can you like… lend me something?’ So they lent her this crazy diamond necklace for the night.
I was more worried about that. I thought if I lose that, I’m going to have to sell the house! So I was pretty much clinging on to that when they read my name out.
I genuinely didn’t think I was going to win, so it was a really lovely night.
What is it like to be back on BBC1 on Saturday nights?
WELL, very exciting. I love being on the telly at this time of year.
I’m so happy, I’ve always wanted to have a show at this time of year, leading up to Christmas, I’m really honoured and excited to have my show in that slot and to give people some entertainment.
It’s bright lights and colourful fun and hopefully lots of laughs. I’m thrilled about it.
We’re working really hard to make sure it’s good and better and I think it is – hopefully. What are some of the highlights of the new series? WE HAVE Unexpected Star, as in the previous two series, but these are much more ambitious – the stunts we are pulling to get them into the theatre.
We’ve got a guy on a horse actually on the stage this year, where the curtain falls down and he’s on the horse.
We’ve got a photobooth, where she thinks she’s having a photo taken and then there’s a countdown 3, 2, 1… and then the wall in front collapses, the camera collapses and she’s in the middle of the stage.
Is there anything new?
THE Midnight Gameshow, which is a lot of fun. Husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends are nominating their partner to be a contestant in The Midnight Gameshow, but obviously they know nothing about it.
It basically amounts to them giving me the keys to their home and in the middle of the night I break into their home with a camera crew and we perform a gameshow in their bedroom.
We have celebrities that come with me and all sorts of surreal people; giants, a one-man band, a Teletubby. All sorts of people walk into their room one by one, and I ask different questions.
It’s been such fun and I’m really excited for people to see it.
How did you come up with the idea?
IT KIND of evolved. We started talking about that moment when people wake up, and what we could do in that moment.
Then we tried it – we woke some people up in the night and I asked them a question.
It felt like that was too scary/creepy – so we made it more fun, and more fun for them as well.
So now we have some of the contestant’s heroes coming in.
For example, we have a Spurs football fan and we’ve got Ossie Ardiles who comes into his bedroom as part of a question.
So we just wanted to ramp it up. It has slowly evolved as a team effort.
We also did plenty of them before we realised what we needed.
It was a slower build-up, but we finally got there and it’s really fun.
What’s been the funniest reaction you’ve had?
THE funniest reaction would be the guy who woke up slightly early because he heard a noise.
Normally we come in and we see them asleep and then the lights go on and I go ‘Welcome to The Midnight Gameshow!’… and then they wake up.
Sometimes they put the duvet over their head or there will be a scream.
But this guy was on the way out of bed. When he saw us, he just collapsed. He collapsed on to his back in his boxer shorts and he just started giggling. You’ve got to see that one to believe it.
In the Send To All section, you write a text message on a celebrity’s phone and, as the name suggests, send it to all their mobile contacts. Do you have a particular favourite?
THERE have been so many good ones. I loved the Jamie Oliver one where we sent two texts, when there was like an accidental text – that really made me laugh.
There was a text back from Alexander Armstrong that always makes me laugh.
Even in the first ever show with Geri Horner, where the text was about her doing a massage course and needed people to practise on, and a farmer that she had met once got back to her.
He said: ‘It’ll have to be on the hay bale because I’m lambing at the moment!’
There have been some real corkers. I don’t know how to pick out any in particular. But that one’s off the top of my head.
In this series, Danny Dyer’s are brilliant.
Oh, I loved that moment with Olly Murs when we ordered a taxi from his phone, and the driver showed up during it and came on stage. That was really funny. Do you have a dream Send to All? I DON’T know, really. You never know how good it’s going to be.
It’s about choosing the right text for the person and it’s about the contacts.
I suppose it would be nice to do it with a major Hollywood star.
At the same time, it might also be a bit tense and I might be nervous… and it might not go so well.
I don’t really pine for anyone. I like doing it with fun people. What would you say is the best thing about Big Show? How would you sum it up to someone who hasn’t seen it before? IF YOU are laughing and crying within an hour’s entertainment – then we have won. You want to be thoroughly entertained, before you go off and watch something else.
It’s exciting because we are surprising people and we’re trying to pull things off.
As we do them, we don’t know if it’s going to work, so the tension is real. It is real when I walk into someone’s bedroom in the middle of the night, it is real when we’re trying to get someone into a room on the stage so it can collapse. It is real.
It’s ambitious and, touch wood, it has worked so far.
There have been some real corkers... Michael McIntyre talking about his favourite moments from Send To All in his Big Show