George Clooney

Radio Times review

It's been another gem of a series. Week by week Norton makes getting the best from A-listers and choreographing good-natured but sharp-edged chat look easy. If he hasn't been cheering up your Friday nights, catch the highlights of the run here - sure to include Chris Pratt's TOWIE impression, George Clooney describing his honeymoon and Seth McFarlane singing "Cyndi Laupe" in a Stewie-from-Family-Guy voice.

Radio Times review

He's got a pretty good track record for attracting big Hollywood A-listers onto the show, but there's one person Graham Norton has always wanted to have as a guest. Tonight, his wish is granted - the gorgeous George Clooney is sitting on the sofa opposite him.

One of Hollywood's most prolific actors, Clooney, 54, is here to talk about his latest film, Tomorrowland (a futuristic story about a place caught between time and space where nothing is impossible), but the conversation is bound to turn to his political activism and humanitarian work. And Graham will probably throw in the odd question about his recent marriage to Amal Alamuddin, too.

Joining him on the show are Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson and Snoop Dogg.

Two US actors and a stiff upper lip grace Norton's studio tonight as Matt Damon, Bill Murray and Hugh Bonneville drop in to give us the lowdown on their roles in George Clooney's The Monuments Men.

Quirky songbird Paloma Faith turns on the funk in the studio with her latest single, Can't Rely On You. If you can't wait until tonight, here's a rollicking live version doing the rounds online that was recorded in a kitchen, complete with backing singers and an acre of tartan.

All performers, and especially comedians, would like to have credibility. This was the subject of Funny Business (BBC Two), a show in which I took a personal interest, because I once harboured the illusion that I could do after-dinner speeches and commercials and thereby pick up some easy money.

Until recently, straight actors lost credibility if they did commercials. Sir Laurence Olivier did a Polaroid commercial, but only on the understanding that it would never be screened in the UK. Today, however, George Clooney hustles coffee and Brad Pitt barks for Chanel No5. The money might go to charity, but it still counts as a fast buck. Nevertheless, the actors get away with it.

For the comedians it has always been a hard choice. A commercial will look like slumming unless it is funny enough to be thought of as part of the comedian's repertoire. Another question mark hangs over the corporate event appearance, where months of big bucks can be earned in a single night. But people who haven't paid to see you, and who are sitting at round tables which ensure that many of them are facing the wrong way, are a soul-destroying prospect.

Intelligent comic operatives such as Barry Cryer, John Lloyd and John Cleese were united in the opinion that the business opportunities form part of the career. But I can say from experience that it hurts when it goes wrong. I once did a big, expensive set of plugs for Australian Telecom in the very year that their opposition came out with a better product. And the money wasn't all that easy. There is a small hill of red dirt somewhere near Alice Springs that is flatter now because of the number of times I had to walk up it.

Do you remember the day you discovered Kettle crisps? Dawn French does: it was at Kirsty MacColl's house, apparently - and amazing they were too. A revolution in fried potatoes that was up there in hers and Jennifer Saunders's list of top 10 nibbles, as shared with the nation over four daft minutes of primetime Christmas Day radio (French and Saunders, Radio 2). "I had some lovely nuts last night," giggled Saunders. Schoolgirl stuff, it's true, but French and Saunders always mined gold from the silliest, most irreverent material. And so, Dawn French dumped Simon Cowell live on air for Gary Barlow, hoping she would stop having to read Hello! magazine to keep tabs on her celebrity boyfriend. Saunders, thoroughly English in her expert self-deprecation, reeled off a list of prestigious awards her badly reviewed Spice Girl musical, Viva Forever, had won, while French gently ribbed her for her post-cancer press coverage. "You're not even brave any more!"

Best of all was the surprise kiss and tell on celebrity snoggers. Having smooched George Clooney, David Beckham and Brad Pitt over the years, French told Emma Bunton (who popped up on the Someone And Their Mum feature) that none of the world's hottest men came close to matching her real favourite: Jamie Theakston (who knew?), former children's TV presenter and Bunton's breakfast show co-host on Heart FM. But mostly it was a joy to simply listen to French and Saunders chatter in the background of my mum's busy kitchen, emitting exactly the right frequency of festive jolliness without being smug or irritating. No mean feat - you just wish they would do more shows.

The comedic lies invented by the panellists to win points are good, but the unbelievable truths are even better. Did you know, for example, that George Clooney used to be an insurance salesman and that Oliver Cromwell loved a practical joke?