On this week’s show (12th January), Graham welcomes American comedy great Kevin Hart, Modern Family's Sofia Vergara, Killing Eve and Broadway star Jodie Comer, Scottish actor Alan Cumming, and singer song writer Tom Odell 

Kevin, talking about his new heist movie Lift, which is set on board a passenger flight, jokes, “In this film I am an action star, you can probably tell by looking at my arms!  Adding, “We wanted a film that the world could gravitate towards.  It’s my first leading man role where I am serious. It’s a proper thriller and for the first time I’m not responsible for the jokes.” 

Asked about surviving a real-life aeroplane scare, he says, “I almost died.  We were landing and as we did the front wheel broke, and I just saw flames coming out of the front of the plane.  It was one of those moments when I thought, ‘This is it’ and I realised that if it happens I was cool with where I was in life.  I didn’t panic.”

On filming in Belfast, he says, “Northern Ireland was amazing and while I was filming, I was double dipping on developing my stand-up.  I was performing in a small intimate  comedy club with 125 people and ended up doing 40 shows because we were there for so long. When we stopped filming, I was ready to go on tour.”

Sofia, talking about playing a businesswoman, turned drug boss in the Netflix series Griselda, says, “It is from an idea I had about 15 years ago.  It is a true story of a woman that no one ever suspected of being one of the biggest drug dealers that ever existed. She created an insane cartel, and I went crazy for the story.  She was Colombian, an immigrant, and a very tough ruthless woman.  She was a monster.  It was the role for me!”

Talking more about the role, she says, “The hardest thing was that I had to wear a wig, fake teeth, fake nose, and have a plastic forehead.  I also had to wear uncomfortable bras that pushed me down to make me look less Latin.  It was a complicated character for me, but it was my first film in Spanish which was so liberating.”

On the subject of Modern Family, she says, “It was one of my favourite things to do in the whole world because it was like going to work with my family.  It was amazing. It was heart-breaking when it ended because I didn’t get to see those people every day.”

Asked about her iconic accent, she says, “There was pressure on me to lose it and I thought it would not be that hard, that I could do some classes and have any role I wanted.  That was not the case – I spent a lot of money and a lot of hours trying and it would get worse.  I would go to auditions, and it was horrific.”  

Jodie, talking about her new survival drama The End We Start From, says, “It’s about the first year of parenthood set in the middle of a climate crisis.  Despite that there is a lot of levity and hope which was important to us all because it’s truthful to life.”

Asked about acting with a baby in tow, “It is in every scene.  We had 15 real babies in the film and the director gave me a baby doll to take home so I could understand the physicality of it.  It was like baby bootcamp.”

Alan, talking about his new cabaret show Alan Cumming is Not Acting His Age and his inspiration, he says, “When I was playing an older man in Daddy it was about objectifying the body of a 50-year-old which gave me the germ of an idea for the new show.  The overall theme is ageing and who gets to decide what is age appropriate.  There are lots of positives and not so positives about getting older.  I talk about sex, death and dermatologists.”

Asked about hosting the American version of The Traitors, he says, “The castle is the same and the missions are mostly the same, but I pretend it’s my castle and the people are all reality stars rather than civilians.  It is a shock to their systems as they have never been to Scotland, and they are in a rural bubble outside Inverness, so they freak out a little bit.”

Tom performs Black Friday live in the studio before joining Graham for a chat about his new album and tour.

The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, Friday 12th January 10.40pm.

Next week (19th January) Graham’s guests include Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and The Last Dinner Party. 

Picture: So Television