Wednesday, 31 December 2008

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Graham Norton: I feel sorry for Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand

Gay comedian admits he’s made prank calls in the past

Graham Norton has his own BBC2 chatshow

Graham Norton reckons Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand were let down by the BBC chiefs who decided to air their prank calls to Andrew Sachs, 78, on Radio 2 in October.

Russell, 33, quit his job following the controversy while Jonathan, 48, has been suspended until January without pay by the BBC.

Graham, 45, insists it's up to comedians to push the boundaries as far as they can.

‘When you’re working at that end of the comedy spectrum, which I am a lot of the time, things are sometimes going to go wrong,’ he tells The Times Magazine.

‘I’ve done an awful lot of prank calls myself… But I’m lucky enough to have always had producers around me who’ve protected me from myself.

‘After the event, it’s all too easy to say, “What on earth were you thinking of?”

'The whole point is they weren’t thinking. They were just in their zone, doing what makes them so brilliant, only this time it went wrong.’