COVER Graham Norton
Graham Norton chats about his latest book, a life-changing experience and talk show secrets
By his own account, Graham Norton is not a worrier. Of course, on the surface he has little to worry about – a charmed existence as the nation’s favourite chat-show host has turned him into a national treasure and a second career as a novelist has given him fresh purpose.
And Graham doesn’t fret much about his job or the fact he’s single at 55. When we meet to discuss the current run of The Graham Norton Show and the release of his second novel, A Keeper, Graham – witty, friendly and more thoughtful than his TV alter-ego – explains that nothing much fazes him. It’s all down to the near-death experience he had in 1989, when he was attacked by a group on a London street and left for dead. “I was stabbed and that changed my outlook,” recalls Graham.
“It was during the summer break between the second and third year of drama school. I lost half my blood and it was touch and go if I’d survive. When I went back to drama school I felt different.
“People would see the casting for a play up on the board and what part they’re playing. They’d run into the toilets, slamming doors and crying, and I’d be giving it a big old eye roll, like, ‘Who cares? It doesn’t matter!’”
The Irish-born host credits the awful experience to keeping him on an even keel no matter what life threw at him. Initially he struggled to find acting work before launching a stand-up comedy career that got him noticed. Graham landed the role of Father Noel Furlong in the sitcom Father Ted in 1996, and then guest- hosted The Jack Docherty Show in 1997 before landing his first chat show, So Graham Norton, in 1998.
“I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on anyone, but in terms of how my life has panned out it was a very good thing to happen, particularly in terms of timing,” muses Graham. “It was the precise time when it would have been easy to go down the rabbit hole of forgetting what was important and what mattered, and in retrospect I am quite grateful that it happened.
“I do think having a worst-case scenario at all times is quite good,
‘It was touch and go whether I would survive’
because you realise that this is the worst case and I can cope with it. Anything else is not so bad.”
Perhaps it’s helped Graham to retain his down-to-earth attitude despite the soaraway success of his career as a chat-show host. The Graham Norton Show, which has just returned to BBC1, still attracts the biggest A-listers on the planet, from Tom Cruise to Cher and Tom Hanks.
“If somebody had told me 21 years ago I’d still be doing a chat show and still enjoying it as much as I did then, Graham with his much-loved mum Rhoda
I’d have said they were crazy,” muses Graham. “But I do still love doing it, because you never get over listening to stars telling funny stories and hopefully having fun.”
Graham can swap witty banter with the best of them, but he took a risk back in 2016 when he branched out into novel-writing and produced Holding, a murder mystery set in rural Ireland. “Having always said I wanted to write a novel, I realised it was time to put up or shut up,” he says. “But I was pleased with how it went.”
He’s too modest. Holding was highly praised and won an Irish Book Prize. Graham received compliments in unexpected quarters. “Some people, like your friends, are dutybound to read the thing. But then
I saw Imelda Staunton backstage after a performace of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the first thing she said was, ‘We loved your book’. She meant that she and her husband [Downton Abbey’s] Jim Carter had both read it! It was sort of amazing, because if you didn’t like it you wouldn’t have brought it up. I thought, ‘I guess you mean that’ and it was lovely.”
He’ll have to prepare for more of the same when the nation picks up A Keeper, his new mystery set in rural Ireland. It follows two timelines – a woman in the Seventies and her daughter now, clearing out her house, and is based in part on a true story.
“This book came from a story my mother told me,” says Graham, referring to his 87-year-old mum, Rhoda. “The story in the Seventies is about a woman who places a lonelyhearts ad and my mum’s friend’s
‘If somebody had told me 21 years ago I’d still be doing a chat show and still enjoying it as much as I did then, I’d have said they were crazy’
daughter did that. There’s a twist to the thing – the letters aren’t quite what you think they are. That bit is true.”
Although Graham has gained in confidence as a writer he expects the knives to come out for his second effort. “I think its reception will be harsher just because people’s expectations were very, very low for the first book,” he chuckles. “This time, there will be people who read the kinder reviews the first time who will be saying ‘Hmm, please can I review his second book?’ There will probably be some shockers this time.”
The reviews for A Keeper so far are excellent. But even if there are a few ‘shockers’, as he puts it, thanks to that one life-altering incident years ago, Graham will be ready for them.
■ The graham norton show is on Friday nights on BBC1. a Keeper is out now (hodder & stoughton, £20)