On the first show of his 30th series (30th September), and with the big red sofa reinstated, Graham welcomes Hollywood scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis,  Monty Python star and comedy icon Eric Idle, Scottish great David Tennant, It’s a Sin star Lydia West, and pop superstar Robbie Williams.

Jamie, talking about her new movie Halloween Ends, says, “It is emotional saying goodbye to Laurie Strode.  I've been playing her for 44 years. That's two thirds of my life so it's very weird. The first movie changed my life 100 percent and every dot of goodness in my life came from Halloween."

Despite starring in so many horror films, Jamie reveals her dislike of the genre, "I don't like watching them.  I don't know why anyone likes watching them, but I'm grateful they do.”  Adding, "They screened it for me in an empty movie theatre and I had the volume control.  As soon as the scary music started I'd turn down it right down.”

Talking about Everything Everywhere All at Once, Jamie says, “It is the craziest movie you have ever seen in your life.  It is weird, but so good, so unexpectedly good.”  And asked about the Oscar buzz surrounding it she says, “The whole Oscar race is a bizarre world but for me to be in that movie and for that movie to be talked about at that level is so moving and beautiful and I am like, 'if you don’t take that shot you are not in the game,’ so for me it’s, ‘Let's go get it, I'm all in.’”

Lydia, talking about the extraordinary success of It’s a Sin, says “It was crazy.  We hoped people would watch it but kind of didn’t believe they would and then we were dealing with a mass audience.  It was amazing.”  

Asked about BBC drama Inside Man, which also stars David, and working with Stanley Tucci she says, "Every day on set with him was so nice.  He was great and every Friday he would make his signature martini.  I didn't know about the whole Stanley Tucci lockdown mixology thing and when I told my friends were like, ‘You had a Stanley martini?’”

David, talking about his new West End play Good, says "It's about an ordinary man trying to do the right thing in 1930s Germany just as the world around him is shifting. Every day in rehearsal it was interesting to think, ‘What would I do in those circumstances, how would any of us be.’  The play is challenging but fantastically written"

Asked if he enjoys being on stage, he say, "It's torture! It's terrifying and I think, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’ Of course it will be fine but it’s like jumping out of an plane, which is very thrilling of course.”  

Asked if he has any rituals before going on stage, he says, “I am quite anti superstition, but because you have no control over a live performance and anything could go wrong I do start developing rituals – but I don't know what they will be until they happen and they are different every time.”  Adding jokingly, "They might be anything that gets me up and out of the foetal position!"

Eric joins Graham for a chat about surviving pancreatic cancer.  

Asked how he feels about life now, he says, “I am definitely more grateful, grateful to be alive.  I am very fortunate and hopefully I can do a bit of good by raising money for research.”

Talking about revealing it on the US series of Masked Singer, he says, “I thought I could raise awareness.” And on his performance, he says, “I asked Paul McCartney if I could sing Love Me Do.  He said, ‘Yes of course you can,’ then joked, “Do let me know me when it airs so I can be sure to miss it!’”

Robbie performs his new single Lost live in the studio before joining Graham for a chat.

Talking about his new album which celebrates 25 of his hits, he jokes, “It’s just Angels 25 times.”   Asked about his great (naked) physique on the album cover, he says, “My weight yoyos so I thought it would be nice to have evidence that I once looked like that!”  Adding, “I loved the idea of the Rodin style pose but I didn’t take into account that I would have to be naked in front of 30 strangers.”

Revealing that he isn’t instantly recognisable in America, he says, “I was in a gay club in LA and was dancing hard – going at it loads like it was 1990s Manchester and this guy came up to me and said, ‘You are an inspiration.’ And I thought, ‘It’s great that men of certain age in America know who I am.  Then he added, ‘At your age it’s great to see you dancing like that!’”  

Talking about his upcoming biopic Better Man, and asked if he was involved in casting the other band members, he says, “Not as much as I’d liked to have been. They cast young handsome men instead!”

And finally, Graham pulls the lever on more foolhardy audience members brave enough sit in the world famous red chair to tell their funniest stories.

The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, Friday 30th September, 10.40pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer.

Graham Norton Picture: BBC/So Television