Graham Norton

Comic Relief chat show breaks record & raises £1m

Graham Norton's Comic Relief chat marathon has raised £1m for the charity as well as breaking the world record for the most number of questions asked on a TV chat show.

Sponsored innuendo, anyone? Graham Norton hosts seven hours of celebrity chat to raise money for Comic Relief. He's gunning for the Guinness world record for most questions asked on a TV chatshow, and Keith Lemon, Sarah Millican and Russell Tovey are among the stars queuing up to answer them. Terry Wogan and Nick Grimshaw are ready to take the hot seat once Norton runs out of chat (unlikely) and to give viewers a break from his lovable face. With music from Example, Hurts and Laura Mvula.

If his chat show is anything to go by, Graham Norton could keep up his chirpy line in celeb quizzing in his sleep. Which is just as well, for tonight he embarks on a mammoth six-hour chat-athon in a Guinness Book of World Records bid to pose the most questions asked on a TV chat show. All in aid of Comic Relief. Our Graham's not flying solo, though - Frank Skinner and Terry Wogan are on the subs bench and there's music from Example, Paloma Faith, Hurts and Laura Mvula. Celeb guests chatting along include Louis Smith, Martin Freeman, Russell Tovey, Heston Blumenthal and Sarah Millican.

Graham Norton will be prattling on (or, to be strictly accurate, on and on and on and on and on and on and on...) in a Comic Relief fundraiser tonight on BBC Three[/]. Yep, another one.

Comic Relief's Big Chat With Graham Norton will kick off at 7pm, and unless the whole thing goes tits-up and he develops laryngitis or something, it'll continue into he early hours - by which point, and here's the thing, our host hopes to have smashed the world record for the most questions asked on a TV chat show.

Among his many guests will be Martin Freeman, Sarah Millican and Louis Smith, with the likes of Frank Skinner and Nick Grimshaw doing co-host stints.

Graham Norton admits nerves ahead of Comic Relief chat

Graham Norton is nervous ahead of his Comic Relief challenge - which will see him joined by 38 guests - and revealed his biggest fear is running out of time.

Graham Norton prepares for his chat show marathon

Graham Norton is limbering up to smash a Guinness World Record - from the comfort of his armchair.

Friday night is chat-off night as Alan Carr giggles back into action. Slipping into a slot just 35 minutes before Graham Norton on BBC1, Carr's got the advantage for his tenth series, welcoming popster-cum-crooner Robbie Williams, together with a trio of Comic Relief fund-raisers - Jack Dee, Dara O'Briain and Mel C. And if new dad Robbie starts talking nappy changes, you can always hop channels to see if Graham Norton's craic is any better than Carr's.

Friday night has become Chat Night on television, what with Graham Norton, Piers Morgan and his Life Stories and now a tenth series of Alan Carr: Chatty Man. Carr is an amiable presence who plays it for laughs. These should be plentiful as his first guest is Robbie Williams, a man not known for his bleak introspection. Williams will be singing his new single Be a Boy and giving us the lowdown on his life, which seems to be rather happy since he married girlfriend Ayda Field and became a dad to Theodora Rose.

Richard Gere makes his debut on Graham Norton's chat show tonight to plug his new film, Arbitrage. He'll share the sofa with John Malkovich, who stars in Red 2 with Helen Mirren and Bruce Willis, and Atonement actress Saoirse Ronan, with country star Taylor Swift providing the music. The absence of a comedian may mean Norton putting in extra legwork to keep the atmosphere light, but as often happens on this show, Hollywood A-listers prove surprisingly funny given half a chance.