Graham Norton has shared the changes he made to his chat show to stop him from “getting bored”. Currently airing its 33rd season, The Graham Norton show recently had three more series greenlit by the BBC.
With season 34 set to kick off in the autumn, Graham explained how he switched up his filming schedule to make things less dull.
According to the chat show host, filming used to be split into sections across the year, but he decided to film in one long block to make things more interesting.
Speaking on his podcast Wanging On with Graham Norton and Maria McErlane, Graham said: “I used to do a thing where we’d end in February and then we’d have a few weeks off, and then we’d come back for eight weeks in April, May.”
“And about five or six years ago I got rid of that bit,” he added, saying the decision stopped him “getting bored” with the show.
BBC
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He continued: “And now it’s lovely, so we’re on for about half the year, off for about half a year. And it means by the end of February, I’m still really enjoying it, I’m not bored with it and then I kind of miss it because I’ll be looking forward to coming back at the end of September.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Graham touched on the future of the show, saying: “We signed a thing saying three more.”
BBC
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On getting older, he joked that the set would need to be redesigned to accommodate him, saying: “They’ll have to get rid of those steps on to the stage – just a little ramp, a low ramp to get me up there, and I’ll have those shows with a wheel on the heel and I can just scooch on to the stage and go, ‘Hello, welcome’. The guests will introduce themselves.”
Elsewhere, the show’s producer Graham Stuart recently cleared up the mystery behind the seating arrangements for the long-running show, saying they “aim to arrange the order to maximise chemistry”.
The Graham Norton Show airs Friday nights on BBC One and streams on iPlayer.
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