It is not very often Graham Norton is disarmed. On his Friday night chat shows, he is the ringmaster – corralling conversations and egos with unfazed poise. During his many years on the radio, he was agile and hilarious. On his podcast, Wanging On, he is more sly and savage than anywhere else.
He is never off his guard. Most of us consider him one of the best broadcasters of his generation and a superlative interviewer – his talents only brought into starker relief when Claudia Winkleman launched a chat show just like his and it turned out to be a flop. Norton is someone you seldom see under anyone else’s control. Which made his “world-exclusive” interview with Madonna a little unnerving.
Next week, Madonna releases her 15th album, Confessions II – the follow-up to 2005’s Confessions on a Dancefloor. That record – structured like a DJ set and leading with the sensational ABBA-sampling “Hung Up” – was a phenomenon. It was both a reinvention after 2003’s concept album American Life and a return to her nightclub roots as well as confirmation that no matter how many decades into her career, she would not stop shapeshifting. She probably never will. In 2023, she did a theatrical and quite mad world tour, Celebration, that celebrated her legacy and explored her life’s work. Now, she is returning to the dancefloor and, to mark it, she offered a special interview with Norton.
