In vino veritas
Shanthini Naidoo joined the audience at ‘The Graham Norton Show’ and did some lip-reading
WHEN you see Benedict Cumberbatch in real life, the fascinating thing is his lips. They are gigantic, mesmerising. They curl, puffy and soft, as if he is suffering a mild reaction to shellfish, while he speaks about his latest movie, The Imitation Game, on The Graham Norton Show.
A member of the audience could juuust grab them if she was to lean over and reach out ... but there is a surly security guard in a sharp suit who just reprimanded someone for taking a selfie, never mind grabbing a star.
Because the stars do come out on The Graham Norton Show, and it is tempting when you are merely metres away. A recent episode featured Taylor Swift, John Cleese and the irritating Kevin Pietersen. Neil Diamond sang.
The episode filming I attended (did I mention in person, and live?), at ITV studios in London, features Cumberbatch.
Then there’s Maroon 5, Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew for Harry Potter fans), who is brilliant in the upcoming movie Mr Turner, for which he won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival, plus hilarious British actress Miranda Hart from Call the Midwife . Did I say Maroon 5 performed? Live. And then the group’s lead singer Adam Levine chatted for a bit.
Don’t worry — viewers will see it all on Tuesday when the show airs on South African screens.
Despite the lineup, I am nearly greedy enough to feel a pang of FOMO because Matthew Mc- Conaughey and Anne Hathaway are on next week. But then I remember Cumberbatch’s lips.
The Sherlock Holmes superstar, a gorgeous, wonderfully uptight Brit who photobombed U2 at the Oscars, is shorter than I expected. He is seated next to Hart, a large lady, so maybe it’s all relative.
He speaks softly, seriously, about his movie drama, but Norton, the ever-brilliant host, soon has him strutting like Beyoncé and talking about his possible appearance in
Star Wars. “No comment, but I was on the set. Oh — maybe I shouldn’t be saying these things.” And about how before he was famous, Cumberbatch voiced a doccie about penguins, which he pronounced “pingwings” for the entire show.
His flair for disarming people is why everyone loves Norton. With his ever-present wine glass to hand, he drily pries about everything from Johnny Depp’s favourite sandwich to Swift’s ugly cat, making celebrities normal and accessible to we plebs.
The show is a laugh a minute — even the stage manager who appears before filming is funny. Between rare retakes, Norton flashes us some surreptitious, twisted faces of boredom.
He’s worth watching on his own: camp as a pink poodle, and witty. He loves booze, and plies his guests with alcohol, which is not a prop, as Mark Wahlberg showed in a recent disorderly appearance.
Spall, commenting on a recent award, slurred: “I was so surprised. I sobbed because I was overcome and didn’t expect it. I was also a little drunk.”
That combination — of surprise and inebriation — could equally describe the magic of The GNS. You leave feeling you know these stars, strangers who you watch from afar, just a little bit better.
The Graham Norton Show, BBC Entertainment DStv Channel 120, November 11 at 9.40pm
Rebecca Davis is on leave. Her column will resume next week