Graham Norton

Graham Norton: hail the king of chat

After a few years in the doldrums, Graham Norton seems to be back to his risque best. So has he regained his edge over chatshow rivals?

Old friends Liza Minnelli and Graham Norton have a lot of catching up to do.

She's been on his show numerous times before but the last time was on V Graham Norton way back in 2003 when she came with her then husband David Gest. A lot of water has passed under that particular bridge since then...

With a new CD to promote, Liza kicks off a tour at the Royal Albert Hall at the end of this month, with dates in Europe and Las Vegas - and she'll be singing tonight.

Joining her on the sofa is Shameless actor turned Hollywood star James McAvoy, who'll have all the goss from the new X Men movie in which he plays the young Professor X, and Lead Balloon star Jack Dee completes the line up.

When Jack Dee is only the third most interesting person on the bill, you know you're in for a good show.

Graham Norton and Alan Carr in ratings war

Camp chatshow stars Alan Carr and Graham Norton will be pitched against each other in a Friday night ratings war.

For those unaware, Sorry, I've Got No Head is a sketch show broadcast on the CBBC Channel.

Despite this being a children's show, it's surprising in many ways. For starters, there is quite a lot of good comic talent involved. Amongst those starring in the show include Marek Larwood, Justin Edwards, James Bachman, Marcus Brigstocke, Mel Giedroyc, Nick Mohammed, David Armand and Graham Norton in a voice-over.

The sketches include Jasmine and Prudith, a pair of eccentric posh women who believe everything costs a thousand pounds; Ross the schoolboy from the Outer Hebrides whose school has been badly damaged in a storm and is thus he is the only one who attends; the easily-scared Fearless Vikings; and The Witchfinder General who accuses anyone of being a witch if he doesn't get his own way.

Another interesting thing about Sorry, I've Got No Head is that it has no laughter track. Most TV sketch shows tend to have one, and you would expect a children's sketch show to do so as well, but this doesn't.

In a way the show treats the audience a bit more like adults than many other sketch comedies. The laughter track provokes you into laughing, which might explain why shows such as That Mitchell and Webb Look and The Armstrong and Miller Show have them, to encourage the viewers to laugh along and keep watching. Sorry, I've Got No Head doesn't see the need for one. Perhaps it's because this show is less of a risk as it's on a digital channel for children.

Sorry, I've Got No Head is quite a diverting show, which in its own way is entertaining for people of all ages. And if you're bit a embarrassed about watching it with other people, you can always look at it on the iPlayer as if it were a guilty pleasure.

Even before the final instalment of The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn, finished shooting, British actor Robert Pattinson had moved on to bigger things.

His co-star in his latest film, which opened this week, is a pretty 600 stone elephant called Tai.

Sadly, Graham Norton's sofa probably won't be large enough for Tai to join him on the show tonight. Instead, he'll have to settle for Robert's other co-star from Water for Elephants - Reese Witherspoon. This is actually the second time the two have worked together, because despite the tiny age gap between them, Robert was actually cast as her son in the 2004 movie Vanity Fair. It was a less than auspicious start to his Hollywood career though because his scenes were ­eventually cut from the film and can only be seen in the DVD version.

We're sure Graham will be quizzing Robert and Reese on their love scenes together in Water For Elephants.

But the relationship R-Patz fans really want to hear about is, of course, the one with his Twilight co-star and real-life girlfriend Kristen Stewart.

Don't hold back, Graham - we want to hear everything.

If you made a movie of Jennifer Hudson's life, critics would say it was too far-fetched to be believable.

We first spotted Jennifer in 2004, getting grief from Simon Cowell about her dress sense on season three of American Idol.

She was eliminated in seventh place in the controversial "Battle Of The Divas".

Undeterred, she went on to become the first reality show contestant to win an Oscar for her show-stopping performance in Dreamgirls and she's recently played Winnie Mandela in a new bio-pic.

But in a tragic flipside to this meteoric success, in 2008 her mother, brother and nephew were all shot dead.

Her sister's estranged husband, William Balfour, is still awaiting trial for their murders. So Graham Norton certainly won't be short of things to chat to Jennifer about on the show tonight.

Alternatively, he could just ask her how she's just lost 80lb with the help of slimming giants WeightWatchers.

Jennifer will also perform the title track from her new album I Remember Me, and she'll be joined on the Norton sofa by singer kd lang as well as musical comedian Bill Bailey.

While we've always not minded Graham Norton, even during his mid-career slump - remember when he was on C4 every minute of the day? - it's only now that we've come to really admire him as a good broadcaster. Perhaps there's something about that 10am R2 slot that makes TV chat show hosts relax and reveal their true selves. It certainly did it for Jonathan Ross all those years ago. Or maybe its just winning on Just A Minute, but now Norton is more mature, more likeable and just downright good.

Tonight, he has David Tennant and his mate, the hilarious comedian Catherine Tate and music from Glee star Josh Groban. Even though this doesn't sound like a whole lot of material to work with - or indeed any good at all - somehow it will end up being very entertaining.

With a new series of Doctor Who fast approaching, the Telegraph's Graham Norton begins his new run with a vintage Who feel. David Tennant and Catherine Tate, both of whom starred together in a previous Who series, join Norton on the sofa to discuss teaming up again in a new West End production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Lancaster-born comedian Jon Richardson talks about his tour, and the singer/songwriter Josh Groban promotes his Straight to You tour, before singing songs from his new album, Illuminations.

Graham Norton may lose Friday slot as part of BBC cuts

Graham Norton's chat show could be booted from its Friday night slot under BBC plans to slash its programming budget after 10.35pm.

Get your credit card out, make the phone call, pledge the money. Then you can sit back, guilt-free, and enjoy the funniest evening on telly since oooh, probably the last Red Nose Day. Anyone who's anyone from the world of comedy is on BBC TV tonight. There's funny stuff by Lenny Henry, Graham Norton, Peter Kay, Harry Hill and James Corden, and a road trip in the company of The Inbetweeners around the rudest places in Britain. There's also a mini episode of Doctor Who featuring two Amy Ponds, a special edition of Outnumbered and a Downton Abbey spoof. Adele sings live, and in a celebrity MasterChef Miranda Hart and Claudia Winkleman go head to head, which ought to be a physical impossibility. We also get a special version of The Choir, Gareth Malone's foolhardy bid to get celebrity chefs to sing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. In between all this are sobering film clips reminding us what it's all about and a ten-minute edition of EastEnders resolving the disturbing story about teenage prostitution.