The Graham Norton Show – Tuesday 8th October 2013 – Report

I'd been in Portsmouth for most of the day volunteering at the Conan Doyle Collection, but I left just after lunch to catch a train back into London and head over to the ITN studios on the Southbank where they were filming the show. I got changed on the train into my Martin Freeman style outfit – white sta-prest trousers, black brogues, paisley shirt and crimson Hobbit jacket. I also had my copycat Freeman shades, but I didn't wear them very much as it was getting dark and I felt like a bit of an idiot. The queue was already going round the block, but thankfully my friends had saved me a place near the front. I quickly discovered I knew LOTS of the people there from other Sherlock related activities, especially from Setlock. At one point it felt like a Setlock reunion.

We waited in line, chatting about various things, catching up with each other or in some cases, meeting each other for the first time. Everyone was a Cumberbitch, a Cumberbabe, a Cumbercookie or a member of the Cumber Collective, and everyone was already freaking out quite a bit just at the thought of being in the same room as the man himself. Representing the Freemanites, I felt as though I was the calmest one there.

This calm dissipated slightly after we'd collected our wristbands and been told to return at 6:30pm. We all went to the pub across the road and I ended up having a conversation with three fangirls about what would happen if Benedict was to do a Kissing Booth for charity. £10 for a kiss on the cheek. £50 for a kiss on the lips. £100 for a 5 second snog, £200 for a 10 second snog, gradually going up in hundreds the more time you wanted with him. We were saying that people would be paying thousands just to snog him for ten minutes. Suddenly I wasn't that calm anymore.

At 6:30pm, we wandered back over to join the queue. There were now literally hundreds of people milling around all waiting. Our wristband numbers were shouted out in groups and we all had to go forward to the front. We were then allowed through the front doors into the building and led through to the studio itself.

Our seats were near the back but with a really good view of the sofa and right on the aisle. We had to wait for quite a while for everyone else to get seated but they were playing music on the stereo system to keep us entertained and we were swapping Sherlock spoilers and discussing theories for Series 3 so it all passed fairly quickly.

Pretty soon, the entire place was packed. The music went off. The lights dimmed. We were all expecting Graham to come dashing out, but in the first instance we got someone else - a production team member and a sort of “warm up” act. He was actually quite funny, definitely got a few laughs out of the audience and made everyone feel relaxed and ready for a good evening.

Finally, he was given the word through his ear piece that they were ready to go, and he introduced Graham onto the stage. We all gave a massive cheer and everyone started clapping even though we weren't sure whether they were filming yet or not. They never actually told us when they were and when they weren't so we just had to assume that most of the time they were!

The first thing they did, interestingly, was record the music part of the show, even though that appears last. He told us they were doing things a bit back to front that evening because the guests hadn't arrived yet! So, we got treated to James Blunt's new single first. He played it twice in total. The second time had a better response from the audience. I think we all got into it a bit more and were doing more clapping along. It was a pretty decent song, I liked it.

After he'd finished, James announced he was off to the pub and would be back later for the interview part.

Apparently there were still no guests, so they moved on to doing different things. Next came the opening credit sequence. This always starts off the same way - with Graham stood on the stairs in the audience, saying welcome to the show etc and it usually involves some sort of gimmick or joke. Seeing as Harrison Ford was the other main guest (aside from Benedict), they went for an Indiana Jones gag. It was pretty cool and they did about five takes to get it right.

Finally, Graham had word that they were OK to start the show and all of the guests were announced onto the stage - Harrison Ford, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jack Whitehall.

Only problem was - Benedict still wasn't there.

The other two guests came on and sat down. Graham assured everyone that Benedict was on his way and currently whizzing across London on a motorbike coming straight from a film set.

This was a relief, but it still made some of the Cumberbabes in the audience a little nervous that he would be a complete no show.

Graham got on with interviewing Harrison Ford and Jack Whitehall, who both made for interesting guests. I could sense, however, that the group of people I was sat with were getting anxious and not really concentrating all that hard and to be honest, I couldn't really tell you very much about what happened during that first part of the interview, because I was a little distracted too.

I can say that Harrison's new film looks quite good and they showed some amusing pictures of him dressed in crazy Halloween outfits.

Benedict was about an hour late, but eventually, finally, he showed up.

He was looking handsome and dapper in a simple but sharp black suit with a white shirt and thin black tie. His hair was short and neat, slicked back. All very nice.

He got a hell of a lot of screams and whoops and cries.

Unlike last time, however, Graham didn't really talk to any of the Benedict fans, instead opting to talk to the Harrison fans, which was only fair considering the Cumber Collective had their chance at the last show. This meant he didn't actually speak to me or anyone in my group which my parents will no doubt be relieved over - they were worried I would completely embarrass them by fangirling or something.

Without going into too many spoiler-ish details, some of the highlights of the rest of the show include:

- Benedict's Chewbacca impersonation and subsequent comments by Jack Whitehall
- Benedict's embarrassed apology for what he said to Harrison last time they met
- Harrison complementing Benedict on his acting skills and Ben's reaction to
that
- Benedict's views on WikiLeaks (yes, he gets political, folks)

There were many good moments, but those stuck out in my mind and hopefully they'll leave them all in the final edit. Once I see the show, I'll know what they've left out and might be able to fill you in.

At the end, James Blunt returned and gave a short interview, then all the guests were clapped off. Benedict gave lots of waves to the audience off camera and was very sweet before he disappeared into the green room.

We then had to stick around whilst Graham filmed a few short adverts that are shown on BBC1 in between other programmes. That didn't take very long at all and then we were free to go. The entire thing was finished by 10pm, an hour later than they originally advertised - due to Benedict's lateness!

A quick word about Graham himself - he was really hilarious and switched on, even when the cameras weren't rolling. Always interacting with the audience and making everyone laugh, it was great.

To sum up, I really enjoyed the entire evening. It was great to actually be part of it in a live studio audience and laughing with a whole bunch of other people rather than just sat on your own laughing to yourself as you watch it. I'd definitely be up for going again, especially if the guests were people I was highly interested in.

Afterwards, me and my friend attempted to find Benedict's motorbike, but we suspected he either left immediately whilst all the audience were still in their seats, or would still be inside waiting until everyone had dispersed before he emerged. Either way, I had a late night bus to catch and couldn't hang around for much longer. Still though, brilliant day, great experience.