Producers won’t allow me drop camp role, says Norton

HE has made his name with his innuendo-laden humour, but Graham Norton has suggested that TV producers are not letting him drop his camp on-screen role.

Norton, 43, who was poached by the BBC for a reported £3.5 million (€5m), developed his trademark style on Channel 4 show So Graham Norton.

Since moving to the BBC, he has developed a tamer style with shows like Strictly Dance Fever and the late-night topical chatshow The Bigger Picture.

But Norton jokes in the forthcoming BBC3 documentary The Trouble with... Gay Men, that there are “scores of straight producers making sure I am as gay this week as I was last week”.

MediaGuardian reported that he tells the programme: “So you say ‘I don’t want to do this really gay joke’ and they say basically ‘you think of a better joke’ and then you say ‘all right’.”

Norton was recently announced as the host of How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, a BBC1 show which attempts to find a new star for the West End production of The Sound of Music.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “Graham is making light-hearted comments in the context of the programme which is an affectionate look at the gay community.”