| London’s so like Cork as Norton
comes to town  By
Niamh Hennessy
LONDON was transformed into a Co. Cork village recently all for the sake
of one of Ireland’s most famous exports.
Television presenter Graham Norton recently launched his new chat show on
BBC2 and the production team thought it would be a great idea to portray
his home town of Bandon in Co. Cork in the TV trailers.
But instead of travelling to Bandon to film the trailers, the team instead
decided they would travel just outside London to Ruislip.
All the cast used were Irish people living in London and they included Cáithlin
Redmond who played Graham’s mother, Vass Anderson who played the hurling
coach and Patrica Leventon and Kay Noone who played church ladies.
A BBC spokeswoman said: “We decided not to travel to Bandon for filming,
instead we chose a place just outside London and actors played the parts
of the locals in Bandon. We were lucky we had a nice day for filming.”
She added that it wasn’t Graham’s idea to use his home town
in the television trailers but when he saw the script and the final product
he loved them.
In the trailers the actors pretending to be elderly locals in Bandon talk
about how much the town loves Graham. Scenes are shot in the ‘local
church’, the ‘town’ and the ‘GAA pitch’.
The actors speak about how proud they are of Graham with his ‘mother’
saying: “We’re all very proud of what Graham has achieved it’s
fantastic.”
The show being promoted is The Graham Norton Show which centres around Graham’s
own tastes and passions anything from singing dog toys to comedy clips and
gossip.
According to the BBC it’s a talk show all about the people the stories
and the things that are closest to his heart.
In the first show he chatted to Kim Cattrall also known as Sex and the City’s
Samantha and Hollywood actor Elijah Wood.
The show airs on Thursday nights at 10pm on BBC2 and repeats on Sunday nights
at 11pm.
Graham is one of the best-loved presenters on British television. His chat
shows So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton made him a household name and
picked up nearly every award going including four BAFTAs.
At the BBC his work has included the hit show Strictly Dance Fever and he’ll
soon be leading the search for a new Joseph in Any Dream Will Do.
Born in Dublin, Norton was continually forced to move around Ireland because
of his father’s job.
His family finally settled in Bandon, Co. Cork where he grew up as part
of the minority Protestant community.
In his autobiography So Me, he noted that it was “easier to be gay
than Protestant in Ireland”.
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