Alison O'Connor: Aren't we lucky to have someone like Graham Norton?

There's nothing high maintenance or aloof about the West Cork presenter who is incredibly generous with everything, including his time

Guests Lizzo, Salma Hayek Pinault, Shania Twain, Julianne Moore, Johannes Radebe, and Tom Grennan during the filming for the Graham Norton Show last week. Picture: Ian West/PA 

It’s a hot sofa tonight,” we’re told. The buzz lifts even higher. With that phrase where else could we be other than at a recording of The Graham Norton Show in London.

It’s a bit of a distance between Ahakista, Co Cork, and the BBC Studios in White City but that is where this particular adventure began. 

We were lucky enough to get our hands on one of the hottest tickets of the summer in West Cork — the Graham Norton Table Quiz, the annual highlight of the Ahakista Festival. A generous friend who had queued from 5am couldn’t go in the end and gave them to us.

Almost 400 people were packed into a marquee that night. The annual event is hugely hyped, but still manages to surpass expectations. It’s belly laughs from the off. What’s clear is the affection and respect with which Graham is held within his local area. 

But this is no surprise given how much he has given back since moving there. He is incredibly generous, including with his time, hosting charity events such as this, or with his regular appearances at the West Cork Literary Festival.

On a daily basis he just goes about his business whether it’s at the market in Bantry on a Friday morning or having a drink in a local pub. It was really sweet after his wedding this year — where a number of local people were invited to attend the second day of the nuptial celebration — to pick up afterwards on the sense of local pride that so few details had leaked out to the media beforehand. “Their man” was entitled to his wedding privacy, and largely he got it.

So on that last Saturday night in July he looked tanned and happy on an evening that would raise money towards a permanent community centre in Ahakista, as well as for charities the Mercy Foundation and Community Air Ambulance.

Collette O'Reilly taking a selfie with Graham Norton at the Ahakista Festival Fundraising Quiz last year. Picture: Tony McElhinney

There was a real feeling of joy in that tent, the novelty of being able to gather freely in such numbers still being felt. Our team was under no illusion whatsoever that we might win the quiz, lack of quiz ability being one reason, the other the fact the hard-working festival committee cleverly puts in not just local questions, but tricky local ones like — how many sheets of tin were use in the new roof for the Tin Pub.

Later on, it comes to the raffle. Suddenly my husband, who has been carefully checking his tickets, is on his way to the stage and has won second prize, a €100 voucher for the Church Restaurant in Skibbereen. Such luck!

Immediately the tension rose in the marquee as it came time for the final prize of the night — donated by Graham Norton — two tickets to his show. I looked down and could scarcely believe I had the winning ticket. I was between delight and mortification as I made my way up.

Graham handed me the prize and leaned in to hear my name. Just as he announced it, I lent in again and confessed my relationship to the winner of the previous prize. He picks up the microphone and curses for the first time of the night: “Her fucking husband just won the restaurant voucher,” he announces, laughing.

As I escape back to my seat he shouts after me:

No wonder you looked sheepish coming up — You should definitely do the Lotto tonight.

So there we were last Thursday for the recording of the show which would be broadcast the following night. The warm-up comedian was an absolute ticket so by the time Graham takes to the set everyone is buzzing. There has already been talk of us all taking part in a movie and he explains that at the end of the show a brief scene will be shot, at which the audience responded with a “woohoo”.

“I know,” he responds with that classic Norton wit “But the cameras will be on me. All I know is that it is an actor pretending to be an actor and I’d tell you more if I knew more.”

What a “hot” sofa it turned out to be. Salma Hayek, Julianne Moore and Shania Twain. Adding further A-list spice Lizzo joins them shortly after. At the end of the sofa is Strictly Come Dancing pro Johannes Radebe. He is wonderfully charming but must have been pinching himself at the company he was keeping.

Salma is an absolute hoot, interjecting with questions to her fellow sofa sitters, at one point asking Graham if he minds. Not at all. This is a man comfortable in his own expertise and happy to let the flow go. 

Shania talks about how her record company was tight with money for touring at the start of her career. Salma asks her if she thinks it was sexism. Shania responds that women are more expensive because of hair and makeup. Later though she is telling Graham how she now brings her horses on tour. 

“No wonder your record company could not afford you,” Salma says in a wonderfully droll way.

They are joined by singer Tom Grennan. He gives a fantastic performance of his hit ‘Here’. There is a wonderfully sweet moment at the beginning when he sings the first few bars but then stops suddenly, nervous. “Sorry,” he says, “I’m thinking Lizzo is in the building. Younger Tom is like this: ‘fucking hell'."

Remarkably, by the time it’s over, Salma, Julianne, Shania, and Johannes have been sitting on the sofa from 7.10pm to 8.45pm. They leave. We stay in place for the movie bit. “You were great,” Graham tells us at one point. “Now do it all again — that insincere clapping was amazing.” 

On comes actor Nicholas Galitzine who is introduced as his character, Hayes Campbell.

A couple of minutes of typical talk show chit-chat and it’s all over. But it’s not … because then Anne Hathaway comes onto the set. She is the co-star in this movie, The Idea Of You. She also thanks us for our clapping contributions.

Afterwards those of us with wristbands — yes we were in that relatively small group — were led downstairs to a hospitality room. Were we lucky enough to meet the chat show host? We sure were.

High maintenance? Aloof? Eager to get away?

The direct opposite in fact. No disappointment here whatsoever. Just as you’d imagine, given all we know about how he is when at home in West Cork. Aren’t we lucky to have him?