On this week’s show (28th November) Graham welcomes eight-time Oscar-nominee Glenn Close, Emmy award-winning Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård, British actress Miriam Margolyes, Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, and singer songwriter Jessie J.

Glenn, talking about her new film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, says, “It is a great part, and we had a very happy cast.  We didn’t hang out in our own trailers at all, but wherever we were we had a moveable green room where we would gather and laugh and sleep and tell stories.  We had a great time.”

Revealing she has written into all her contracts that she can keep any of her costumes, she says, “I can pick whatever I want unless it is rented though I have nicked a few of  those things too!  I have an extraordinary collection.  

“I had prosthetic earlobes in Hillbilly Elegy which I kept and decided to have them framed for Ron Howard.  He was slightly taken aback because put together in the frame they looked like a vagina!”

Talking about hanging out with Kim Kardashian whilst working on All’s Fair and asked if it was awkward having a movie night watching Fatal Attraction, she says, “No not at all.  I hadn’t seen it in a very long time, and all the memories flew back, but I didn’t know I showed my breasts so much.  They were very visible.”

Asked about her many Oscar nominations, she jokes, “I don’t want to break the run by actually winning.  Sometimes I take a speech with me just in case, but it isn’t the same speech each time!”

Alexander, talking about playing a biker in gay rom-com Pillion, says, “It is a sort of love story and coming of age movie.  It is very intense.”

Asked if the sex scenes were awkward, he says, “They are only uncomfortable if you don’t understand why you are shooting them and they feel gratuitous.  There are graphic scenes in the movie, but they are all pivotal moments in the story, so I was excited to shoot them.  We had an intimacy coordinator who brought out the awkwardness and clumsiness of sex, and not the romanticised, beautifully coordinated version.”

Miriam, talking about The Little Book of Miriam, and asked about the title, says, “It wasn’t my choice.  I wanted to call it all sorts of other things, but my publishers are respectable people, and they decided on that one.”

Asked about the success of her books – with some 1.5 million sold – she says, “I feel quite humble.  I never thought I was a writer, so I have been immensely lucky.”

Telling one of her wonderful anecdotes she says, “I once went to a health farm and had a sauna.  Because it was snowing, I ran out of the sauna stark naked and started rolling around and rubbing the snow all over me.  I then noticed the director of the establishment with a party of visitors.  I was taken to his office and told never to do it again!”

When Alexander says, “I am surprised they were shocked, I think it is the done thing,” Miriam says, “Perhaps not in Newport Pagnell!” 

Nicola, talking about performing at the National Theatre in The Playboy of the Western World, which opens next week, says, “We did our first run through today with an audience.  It was terrifying but very, very exciting.”=

Talking about being reunited with her Derry Girls’ co-star Siobhan McSweeney in the play, she says, “She is so amazing on stage.  We play rivals which is great fun.”

Jessie performs H.A.P.P.Y live in the studio before joining Graham for a chat.

Talking about being back after a seven-year hiatus with a new album, she says, “Life just happens.  I started writing it in 2019 then Covid hit and then lots of stuff happened, but it feels like the right time.”

Asked about her health, she says, “This year has been wild.  I am good.  I have just recovered from breast cancer, so I am just happy to be here.  I love being back.”

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

The Graham Norton Show BBC One and iPlayer Friday 28th November 10.40pm

Next week (5th December) Graham’s guests include Kate Winslet, Seth Myers, Jacinda Ardern, Alan Carr and Cat Burns.

Picture: BBC/So Television/The Graham Norton Show/Christopher Baines