Michael Mcintyre shares some secrets from his new Big Show

0 Michael Mcintyre hosts musical guests including Nile Rodgers, Rita Ora and Little Mix Tell us about the fourth series of Michael Mcintyre’s Big Show.

Everything about the new series is bigger and better than the last. Send To All is back, where I send some very silly texts to all the contacts in celebrities’ phones and we see what hilarious replies they get. Unexpected Star returns. So many people have nominated people for us to surprise that we have been able to pick some wonderful people. There’s a married couple, a pilot, the oldest Unexpected Star at 92 years old and the youngest at 11 years old.

The Unexpected Star segment is always popular, what can we expect this series?

We are doing more and more elaborate things and it’s crazy the way we’re surprising people in the theatre. Last year we turned the theatre into a hotel and the attention to detail was incredible.

This series we have an actual aeroplane fuselage on stage and the Unexpected Star, who is a pilot, sits in a seat and the front of the plane falls down for him to find himself in the middle of the stage.

We’ve turned the theatre into a haunted house complete with a ghost train ride that travels through a set of doors straight on to the stage.

We also turned the theatre into a cinema and built an actual auditorium on the stage. The Unexpected Star sat in her seat with her popcorn and the screen fell down to reveal the packed Theatre Royal on their feet applauding her.

All the Unexpected Stars have been incredibly shocked but have brought the house down with their amazing performances at the end of each show. And what about this up coming series?

It almost went wrong this series with our oldest star to date, David (92) who thought he was going to buy a new walking frame, and Lionel Blair, who was part of the prank, called him by his name. David kept saying: “How does he know my name?” But we got away with it!

Do you get emotional watching the Unexpected Stars?

So many times people say things like it’s a dream come true to perform for so many people and on TV. But when the Unexpected Star is in their nineties like David is, it felt that much more real and poignant because he really had waited a lifetime for this moment and he was determined to make the most of it and he really loved it.

Which celebrities are playing Send To All this series?

We’ve got Holly Willoughby, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Josh Groban – who’s our first American, Anton du Beke and Bradley Walsh – and we’re recording Cheryl, too.

Who has been your most memorable Send To All so far?

There’s been so many that have been brilliant across the four series, it’s hard to pick just one. I really liked Jamie Oliver as I felt it was a really clever text.

Ed Balls had some of the funniest replies but people’s favourite tends to be Danny Dyer’s, everyone loves Danny Dyer, it was so much fun to watch.

Alan Shearer has alarms set every few minutes on his phone and on this series, Bradley Walsh has weather from about 15 different places on his phone. What have you got planned for this year’s Midnight Gameshow?

We’ve been doing a new thing called Who’s Singing in Your Shower?

We’ve been getting people out of bed and taking them to their bathroom where there’s been a pop star singing in their shower and they have to identify who it is.

We’ve had some great special guests for this like Mr Motivator, who made people exercise in their bed, Timmy Mallett playing Mallett’s Mallet, Spongebob Squarepants, Joey Essex, Wayne Sleep, Derek Acorah to name just a few.

We’ve also filmed a special celebrity Midnight Gameshow for this series with Gino D’campo, which is as funny as you would imagine, and are filming another one but obviously can’t say [who] as it will be a big surprise for them – but it’s a great one.

You have a great list of music guests this year, don’t you?

We’ve got amazing music performances this year from Nile Rodgers, Rita Ora, Kylie, George Ezra, Paloma Faith, Little Mix, Cheryl, Michael Bublé.

I had a great moment with Michael Bublé where I asked him if he could teach me to sing like him and he said, ‘Why we don’t sing together?’ so we did. It was great because my wife and children came to watch his performance.

I did every dance move I could think of in-between. I even greatly embarrassed my children by doing that floss dance very badly.

It certainly felt very showbizzy. What a lovely man he was, very generous and game for a laugh.

● Michael Mcintyre’s Big Show is on BBC1 tomorrow at 8.10pm.