{"id":398513,"date":"2026-04-18T10:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T10:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/398513\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T10:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T10:16:08","slug":"graham-norton-back-in-the-day-my-monologues-were-full-of-terrible-jokes-about-people-life-and-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/398513\/","title":{"rendered":"Graham Norton: \u2018Back in the day, my monologues were full of terrible jokes about people\u2019 | Life and style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born in County Dublin, Graham Norton<\/a>, 63, studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. In the 1990s, he was a standup and appeared in the sitcom Father Ted. Since 2007, he has presented The Graham Norton Show for the BBC. He hosts Eurovision, is a\u00a0judge on RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race UK, and is presenting new reality show The\u00a0Neighbourhood, which starts on 24\u00a0April on ITV. He has won nine Baftas and written three memoirs and five novels. He is married and lives in London and West Cork.<\/p>\n

When were you happiest?
Our wedding weekend in Ireland.<\/p>\n

What is the trait you most deplore\u00a0in\u00a0yourself?
Impatience married with being very quick to judge.<\/p>\n

What was your most embarrassing\u00a0moment?
I called Elizabeth McGovern Elizabeth Montgomery throughout a show. But, bless her, she didn\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n

What is your most treasured\u00a0possession?
I don\u2019t care about anything. I\u2019m so happy to throw things away.<\/p>\n

Describe yourself in three words
Old gay man.<\/p>\n

What do you most dislike about your\u00a0appearance?
Oh my God, let\u2019s start with eyebags. I\u00a0could get rid of them but I\u2019m just too lazy, so instead I\u2019ll just moan.<\/p>\n

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Ryan Gosling.<\/p>\n

What is your most unappealing habit?
There\u2019s a long list: nail-biting, nose-picking \u2026<\/p>\n

What is the worst thing anyone\u2019s said\u00a0to you?
When I was growing up, my mother would accuse me of showing off. That\u2019s the most shaming, humbling, horrible thing. What was I doing? Showing off!<\/p>\n

Would you choose fame or\u00a0anonymity?
When people say to Billy Crystal, \u201cOh,\u00a0I\u00a0wish I was rich and famous,\u201d he\u00a0always says, \u201cTry being rich first.\u201d And I know what he means.<\/p>\n

What was the last lie you told?
I lie all the time. It\u2019s probably been since we\u2019ve been talking.<\/p>\n

To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?
Back in the day, when comedy was crueller, my monologues were full of terrible jokes about people, and you can\u2019t apologise because then you\u2019re asking people to forgive you. Your punishment is to walk around knowing you said these horrible things.<\/p>\n

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Mother-slash-husband \u2013 not that I\u2019m married to my mother, but you know what I mean.<\/p>\n

Which living person do you most\u00a0despise, and why?
It\u2019ll be one of those tech bro billionaires.<\/p>\n

If not yourself, who would you most\u00a0like to be?
My dog. What breed is he? He\u2019s not public facing. I\u2019ll acknowledge his existence, but that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

How often do you have sex?
I feel, over 60, one should not discuss one\u2019s sex life.<\/p>\n

What is the closest you\u2019ve come to\u00a0death?
I was stabbed in my 20s. It was a late-night mugging and, while taking my wallet, they stabbed me in my chest.<\/p>\n

What do you consider your greatest\u00a0achievement?
Now that I\u2019m at this end of my career, I\u2019m gobsmacked that I\u2019ve managed to cling on for as long as I have.<\/p>\n

How would you like to be remembered?
I couldn\u2019t care less.<\/p>\n

Tell us a secret
I could tell you the name of my dog, but no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Born in County Dublin, Graham Norton, 63, studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-398513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}