The genial face of chatshow TV is back with Queen of the Universe. He discusses the joy of Eurovision, his late start as a novelist – and his even later marriage
‘There’s so much grit out there; let’s just be nice shiny oysters in here’ … Graham Norton on season 2 of Queen of the Universe.A cultural form that has always been about fun, flamboyance and play is under sustained attack, yet we are having a conversation that, to my mind, is so avoidant as to be almost wilful.
But as much as I try to drag Norton under, he keeps bobbing back to the surface, suggesting that the anti-drag movement has a positive side. “It’s so ridiculous that I think that bit of the right wing have sort of overestimated how thick people are. I think people are gonna go: ‘Oh, wait a minute. So everything you say is bullshit?’ Because clearly we are not facing a threat from drag queens. It’s just a form of entertainment. It’s older than God.
If his enduring memories of his family are of love and acceptance, he still felt stifled by sleepy, small-town life, and only began to feel any affection for the place much later. “When my father was ill and dying, and when he died, that was when I started to appreciate lots of Irish qualities that I hadn’t appreciated, or I’d dismissed and actively disliked when I was growing up. That sense of community, that idea of people being involved in other people’s lives, I hated all of that.
He reckons he wasn’t any good. “I was always much happier as a compere; I was never comfortable being the turn. Some comperes aren’t good, and the acts hate you because it’s hard to follow someone who has just gone on and died. No one thought I was a good comic; no one thought my act was any good. But I did get some respect as a compere.”
If he sees one of those shows now, on a Facebook memory or whatnot, he can’t watch it. “I find them so hard. I guess maybe I’m a prude now. I just think: ‘How was that ever on television?’ But it was!”
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