Press clippings Page 8

The 007 publicity machine has parachuted in a special line-up for a Skyfall-themed episode tonight. Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and new baddie Javier Bardem join Norton for a chat about the latest Bond instalment. Lacking a comedian on the couch to contribute jokes, Norton may have to work overtime to get the best from Craig, but we're confident that a bit of gentle teasing and perhaps a martini will loosen him up.

Vicki Power, The Telegraph, 25th October 2012

I recently attended a Graham Norton Show recording, so I can bear witness that it's a brilliantly slick operation and Norton is a master of audience-wrangling, winning us all over immediately and making us feel a big part of the show - though not bigger than the array of guests, who we'll see again in this end-of-series compilation.

Remember Madonna, being her usual steely and scary self, despite Norton's efforts to try to get her to loosen up a bit? And what of the great Sir David Attenborough, all soft and mooning, not over a gorilla, but a comely young woman - actress Cameron Diaz? Just watch his face as he hangs on her every single word.

We also see again Dame Judi Dench, Hugh Grant, Katy Perry and the voluble, unstoppable force that is Will Smith.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 6th July 2012

Graham Norton's best bits are trotted out for another viewing in a compilation episode, and there are plenty of them. The BBC's king of chat (and Telegraph agony uncle) has managed this series to enjoy light-hearted badinage with an increasingly impressive array of A-listers. He even managed to loosen Madonna up. Also worth revisiting tonight are chats with Judi Dench, Hugh Grant, Will Smith, Cameron Diaz and Katy Perry. It's a long time and a lot of sport until October, so enjoy the banter.

Vicki Power, The Telegraph, 5th July 2012

Judi Dench's 'Graham Norton' appearance draws 4.1m

The Graham Norton Show drew 4.1m (26.9%) viewers on Friday as Judi Dench and Dev Patel dropped by to promote their new film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Liam O'Brien, Digital Spy, 11th February 2012

National treasure Dame Judi Dench may bring an unfamiliar air of gravitas to Norton's saucy sofa as she snuggles in alongside Slumdog Millionaire Dev Patel, one of her co-stars in new big-screen comedy drama The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Music comes from Will Young, whose continuing success is an itch Simon Cowell just can't scratch.

Colin Kennedy, Metro, 10th February 2012

"She just likes working so if someone offers her a job, she takes it. She's crazy," says Geoffrey Palmer affectionately in an attempt to explain why Dame Judi Dench has had so many disparate roles during her lengthy career. Having started out as a Shakespearean actor, she cornered the market in gritty TV drama before becoming the queen of middle-class British sitcoms.

Then Hollywood caught up and cast her as M in the Bond films, since when she's played Queen Victoria, Elizabeth I and Iris Murdoch, among others. Her peers, including Simon Callow and Samantha Bond all talk fondly, telling stories of her mischievous side, illustrated by the occasional outtake that'll bring a smile. "You always wanted to be in Judi's gang because they had the most fun," says As Time Goes By's Philip Bretherton. And you can absolutely see why.

Jane Rackham, Radio Times, 30th December 2011

Dame Judi Dench may be a Hollywood superstar now, but to say she's paid her dues is a bit of an understatement. This documentary, which spans her 50-year career, shows her first TV appearance in Z Cars and her time in gentle sitcom-land with A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By. But it wasn't until she became "a newcomer in her 60s" playing M in Goldeneye and bagging awards for Mr Brown and Shakespeare In Love that she was unleashed as an international star. Friends and fans Michael Parkinson, Geoffrey Palmer and Simon Callow bow down.

Hannah Verdier, The Guardian, 19th December 2011

Judi Dench talks situation comedy

Let me just start this off by, again, saying that I think Dame Judi Dench is about ten shades of brilliant.

Bill Young, Tellyspotting, 23rd August 2011

It would take more than a waistcoat full of explosives to kill off Psychoville's cast of grotesques.

Series two opens with a funeral for a clown, but as we say RIP to Mr Jolly - the children's entertainer-turned-suicide bomber - a new mystery arises concerning a missing locket belonging to the Ravenhill Mental Hospital's sadistic Nurse Kenchington.

Fans of Psychoville will know better than to expect this plotline to be solved in any conventional sense.

Instead, just gorge on the details as Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith carry on twisting the horror genre into unexpected shapes like so many balloon animals.

So we welcome back serial killer David Sowerbutts, angry clown Mr Jelly, Dawn French's bonkers midwife and toy collector Mr Lomax.

Imelda Staunton's secret agent returns too, chanelling the spirit of Judi Dench in the Bond movies and there's a new character to populate your nightmares: The Silent Singer.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 5th May 2011

Well, on first viewing Headcases is halfway there. Gone are the brilliantly OTT rubber puppets that made Spitting Image such a hoot, replaced with so-so animation.

But what the caricatures lacked in laughable looks they made up for with gags. The ultra-vain Victoria Beckham serving Steven Spielberg a naff Vienetta while boasting about her movie-star appeal raised a chuckle.

"Chav dames" Helen Mirren and Judi Dench bitching their way around Hollywood was another gem.

The Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty junky characters didn't quite work. But, with a nod to Spitting Image's political past, the pelvis-pumping Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown as Scrooge were inspired.

Worth sticking with.

The Sun, 7th April 2008

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