as the host of "The Graham Norton Show,"

which airs Fridays at 11:00 p.m. on BBC America.

Here is Graham Norton!

Graham Norton, wow.

Welcome to "The Tonight Show."

Thank you so much for being our guest.

Normally, we -- Our time difference, we --

There was no way you can come here and I would go there.

-Exactly. So this is perfect.

It's one of the few things of lockdown, is I get to talk to --

it's weird that there are so few of us who do the same job,

but we never really get to talk to each other.

But now, we do. -Yeah.

And just like me, you, as well, hosted your show from home

for a period of time during the pandemic.

-[ Groans ] -[ Laughs ]

I already like your face.

-It was awful! -What?! Come on!

-It was so boring.

I did not get into show business to put my own mike on.

-[ Laughs ]

-It was -- Also, I was so bad at it.

Our show is like 45 minutes long.

The first one took seven hours.

I'm not joking. It took seven hours to do,

and that was kind of all me, all my fault.

-Yeah, because what -- you were screwing up,

or you just didn't know where to look or pausing or...?

-Oh, it's like, "Are you recording it in HD?"

I don't know! -[ Laughs ]

-Did you get the thing where you had to tell the celebrities

to stop talking about how much they enjoyed lockdown?

[ Laughter ]

Where they're going, you know, "Oh, I'm so loving it.

I get to go to the gym."

It's like, "What gym? The gym is closed."

You know, "They prepared dinner."

"Who is 'they?'"

Is that your mother's preferred pronoun?

And then they have movies in their movie theater.

[ Laughs ]

-I had a couple times, too,

where I'm talking to people

and they said something that was very important,

and their Zoom cut out,

and they didn't realize that their Zoom cut out.

And they're going like, "Well, I just want to say that w--"

And then I'm just sitting there, going like,

"Do I nod, or do I shake my head 'no, this is bad or good?'"

And then I feel so bad, but I'm like, "Hi.

Do you mind just doing that one more time,

whatever you just said?

Because I did not get it on tape."

And they're like, "Oh, gosh."

And they're crying. And they're like, "Oh, no."

-[ Laughs ]

Yeah, "Try to re-create that moment.

You know, you're a performer." -Exactly.

-And also, I like the bits of their house

they choose to show you, like the people who look like

they've been kidnapped are about to hold up the newspaper

with that day's date. -Yeah.

We have a couple of writers that still have that

as their background, and I'm like, "Just move anywhere else."

They're like, "This is the only spot

we can get away from our kids and whatever."

But, yeah, you go for, I don't know, good lighting.

I tried all sorts of different things.

At one point, there was a good shot that I would have to, like,

lean down into it, look up at the sun.

It was --

Isn't it odd though also not having an audience?

You have a audience normally around 600 people?

Is that correct?

-Yeah, we're lucky. We have a really big audience.

And that's amazing. As you know, like, walking out

to that cheering, that applause, I mean, we are a vortex of need.

That fills the void for a few seconds.

But we -- I don't know what you have now.

We have a thing where we get a social-distanced audience.

So it's about 100 people in the audience.

-Oh. -And it's --

I mean, no offense to them, but it's awful.

You know, it sounds like they're emptying

a bucket of wet fish or something.

-[ Laughs ]

-There you go.

Thank you, thank you very much.

-But you also do a great thing on your show called

"Red Chair Stories," and I think it's hilarious.

Can explain what this is and where the idea came from?

-So, it's a thing where people from the audience

sit in a chair, and they try to tell, like,

their best, funniest story,

the story they tell down the pub with their friends.

If it bores us, I've got a lever, and I flip them.

And basically we built -- we -- -You flip the chair back.

-Honestly, we should sell them for Christmas.

We should sell them for Christmas.

Like, "Granny is boring.

Bore off, Granny." boom. -Yeah.

-But we built it -- we built it because we had this comedian on,

a British comedian -- he's gone now, sadly --

Ronnie Corbett.

Well, he used to do a bit

where he would tell a really long, rambly story.

And he would do it in a red chair.

And he was coming on the show, so we thought,

"Oh, let's get audience members to try to tell stories,

and we'll flip them."

Funny. One show.

Our line producer then got in touch with us and said,

"You know that chair?

Eh, that -- that was quite expensive."

-[ Laughs ]

-"Is -- Is there any way we could use that chair again?"

-"Just twice would even make me happy.

Just please, we spent so much money on that flipping chair.

We have to do this bit again."

-Yeah. "We need some economy of scale."

-I love that story. -Yeah, so now, it's been

good value now 'cause we do it every week,

so it's been going for years.

-I read somewhere that you don't consider yourself

a good interviewer, which is surprising to me

because I think you are a great --

-Well, I think -- Isn't it that thing, that like,

I like chatting.

I like chatting to people. That's very nice.

But, like, an interview to me sounds like you're going to go

somewhere or get some revelation.

I have zero interest.

You know when you get those things from, like, the people,

it's like, "Okay, they don't want to

talk about their dating."

I was like, "I don't want to talk about it."

-Yeah.

-I have zero interest in who they're dating.

So we just talk about whatever they want to talk about.

So long as we have a good time.

If they've got some funny stories, I'm happy.

-Yeah, I agree. -Which, I think interviewers

are, kind of, you know, boom, boom, boom.

That's not me. -I love your show.

Who is on the show this week?

Is the big Christmas show this week or no?

-In Britain, we're taping our big Christmas show this week,

and it's good.

We got George Clooney on it.

Viola Davis is on it.

-Ah! -Who else?

-Fantastic. -Michael Sheen, David Tennant.

It's a good one, yeah.

-Well, I love your Christmas shows,

and I also love, just, Christmas music in the U.K.,

I think is almost better than American music for me.

-No.

-Well, there are songs that I love.

I mean, "Do They Know It's Christmas," Band Aid, I'll take.

-Beautiful. -I mean, yeah.

But I will take Slade.

I think there's --

♪ I wish it could be Christmas every day ♪

Yeah, I like that one. -Yes.

That's my favorite song growing up. I loved it.

-Really? I love that song.

It's not big in America at all.

-Oh, it's great.

-I like "Can You Stop the Cavalry?"

I like Cliff Richard.

"Mistletoe and Wine."

I wanted to do something -- I know Cliff Richard

is not on the show, but I'm assuming he has been.

-Yes. -I would like to sing

a little bit of that song for you if that's okay.

-[ Laughs ] -I'll be right back.

-That's delightful. -I got to put

my own wardrobe on. Okay, okay.

I'm getting changed now.

-Do people in America know who Cliff Richard is?

-We -- No, not really.

He had one giant hit here.

And I forget -- Did he do a duet with Olivia Newton-John?

Or no.

-He did "Wired for Sound," back in Walkman days.

-Uh, well....

Let me see if I got this on right.

So, I wanted to do this part.

I like "Mistletoe and Wine,"

but I didn't want to do the...

I didn't want to Cliff Richard's part.

So I want to do the choir boy at the end...

-[ Laughs ]

-...who sings --

I want to make sure I have the right key.

You can, again -- Let me make sure I have the right --

It's not even recognizing my face.

That's how awful this is. -[ Laughs ]

-Alright, here we go. Alright.

♪ [ High-pitched voice ] Christmas time ♪

♪ Mistletoe and wine ♪

♪ Children singing Christian rhyme ♪

♪ With logs on the fire ♪

♪ And gifts on the tree ♪

♪ A time to rejoice in the good that we see ♪

[ Normal voice ] Graham Norton, everybody.

"The Graham Norton Show" airs

Fridays at 11:00 p.m. on BBC America.