I've just watched Suzannes's appearance on Granham Norton's show on UK TV, and haven't laughed so much in ages.

It started with Graham dressed as a waitress in a mock-up of Tom's Diner, and just went down hill from there on.

Suzanne was "interviewed" by Graham, and at one point Suzanne ended up singing the tune to Toms Diner, to an unsuspecting lady called Donna over the phone. It was all pretty bizarre!!! I wonder whether Suzanne had been warned what to expect in appearing on his Show.

The show ended with Suzanne doing Luka live. Can't say i recognised the band tho!!

After all the Gigs in the UK, it's good to see all the exposure on TV and Radio. Even my Mum saw the adverts for Retrospective on morning television.

Chris
not Davy

Hi Chris,

I too saw this show last night and found it very funny - though I = thought Suzanne looked uncomfortable and somewhat out of place on there! = She made the best of it however and tried to join in with the spirit of = the show, but you could imagine her thinking: "What on earth am I doing = on here?!". Lol!

I was interested though to learn that Suzanne has a (rather large!) = cat called Cow (!) and 3 lizards (one called Lizzie, appropriately = enough). One of the lizzards she actually found in her flat (near the = piano) when her brother was visiting! She thought it must have come in = with a plant or something similar.

Suzanne also told the story about how, after her mother's cat had = died, her mother set fire to the dead cat and sent the burning body on = its way along a river - in accordance with an old Viking custom, I = think. (I seem to have a vague memory of having heard this story before, = so maybe it was mentioned here on the Undertow previously.)

Anyway, the interview did end up being quite interesting and was = certainly different from any previous Suzanne interview I have ever = seen!

Cheers,

Chris.

I want to complain! No, I don't want to complain but im going to anyway! Late last night i checked that a recording i had done from the tv had caught the end of the programme i wanted to watch and i saw an advert for the Graham Norton show with Ms Vega that i had just missed!! Whats going on? Was there a post that i missed saying that she was on the show? If there was then i apologise for this outburst immediatly and revert to lurkdom, but if there wasnt why not? I know that the work done to keep this all going is not easy and i applaude the work that has been done in the last few months but surely a heads up on a tv appearence wouldn't go a miss!!

Richard

I'm a bit miffed at missing this show too - I think I'm listed for email from all the SV boards and I didn't read anything about this show.

Cams

Cams wrote,

"I'm a bit miffed at missing this show too - I think I'm listed for email from all the SV boards and I didn't read anything about this show."

Sorry about that.

I received the news about the appearance only very recently, and even more recently, there was a bit of a crisis on the tour where I wasn't sure if the appearance would happen or not. I only learned yesterday, on the tape/air date, that it was 'on'...

Sorry -

Eric

I was also very lucky to catch it. A friend called me about 5 mins before it started (Thanks John). I just had time to stick the video on.

Chris not Davy

in that case Eric you are forgiven. You can't tell us what you don't know (but get that clairvoyance sorted out for the future)

Chris, if i sent u a tape could you record said recoreding so i may peruse the show myself!?

(ive just found these smiley faces so i am going a bit smiley mad!!!!)

Richard,

Just email me with your address to chris.stokes@btinternet.com and I'll get a copy to you.

Chris

A quick reminder for anyone who missed seeing Suzanne on the Graham Norton Show on UK Channel Four last Monday that his Look Back programme, featuring highlights from last week's shows, will be on very late tonight, Sunday.

For anyone planning to set their video/VCR that's actually very early on Monday 21st July, between 0150 and 0250 BST (British Summer Time).

Chris

After Suzanne appeared on the Graham Norton show, about three weeks ago, I wrote down some impressions of the show, originally in a private email. I intended to post them here earlier, but better late than never, so here they are, expanded in a few places:

~~~~~

Regarding Graham Norton - yes I did see the show. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I don't - particularly when he makes fun of, or tells cruel jokes about non-celebrities who can't answer back - but on the whole he's entertaining, and seems to take into account the differing sensibilities of his guests.

Before Suzanne came on Graham appeared dressed as a waitress in a studio mock-up of Tom's Diner, doing a funny, camp, routine leading in to Suzanne's entrance. Suzanne came down some curved stairs with some help from a couple of hunks, if I remember correctly. (Thinking ahead to 'Deck the Halls' Suzanne should have been singing 'Don we now our gay apparel', in the background.)

SV was the only guest, and appeared in a lacy black top, medium-length black jacket, black trousers, and black high-heels. She looked, to those who know how she is normally, exhausted - (sorry Suzanne) - a point acknowledged by GN when he mentioned how extensive her European tour had been. We now know, of course, that Glynn had only just had his heart attack and was still in hospital in Belgium. This led into an awkward discussion about what the term 'knackered' meant, and confusion over phrases like 'being knocked-up' - which in the US means 'to have been made pregnant' but in England simply means 'to waken someone', usually early in the morning.

(As an English student in New York in the late seventies I was once invited to stay with a fellow student's family for Thanksgiving, in Concorde, Massachusetts. I can still remember the reaction when, in the company of his parents and grandparents, I offered to knock-up his sister in the morning. You could have heard a pin drop.)

GN made much of 'Retrospective', saying he hadn't realised how many hits SV had had, mentioning Luka, Marlene, and Tom's Diner, and said the CD had been a permanent fixture on his car stereo over the previous week.

GN asked SV if she had any pets, and she said yes, she had a cat, and three lizards called Trixie, Trevor, and Lizzie. Lizzie was very small, and just appeared in her apartment one day; she thought she must have come in with some house plants. This disappointed GN, who was hoping she'd say she had a dog, to use as a lead-in to the next item, which was bottled water for dogs, available in several flavours eg: liver, beef, and chicken. He foisted some on the audience to taste, and then tried some himself. Suzanne sensibly declined the offer.

There followed the usual bit where several (five) members of the audience stood up to reveal their most embarrassing moments - the usual scatological fare. (I'll let you use your imagination.) Suzanne looked uncomfortable, responding with something akin to a cross between a fixed-smile and a grimace.

Having heard the above stories SV said she didn't feel so bad about telling her story, which was the one about her mother's cat, Morris, who died, aged 17. She said her mother wanted to give him a dignified funeral, so ended up washing him in the sink, with shampoo, and then blow-drying him. He was then placed in something like a decorated shoe-box and taken down to the East River, where the box was set alight before being cast off to float away into the distance. All it needed was a few flower petals floating on the water and it could have been the Ganges.

One part of the show that worked quite well, I thought, was when GN phoned some American law firm - the sort that offers to sue on your behalf if they think you have a case. You have to phone a help line and describe your grievance to them. GN phoned, and read some poor woman the lyrics of Tom's Diner, right to the end, complete with the da-de-da's. Or is it do-di-do's? He'd been reading the lyrics off cards held up and discarded by Suzanne, Bob Dylan style - if you know what I mean. When the operator finally got a word in edgeways and said she didn't understand what he'd been saying, GN handed the phone to Suzanne, who sang the do-di-do's. The woman said 'ah- I see' in a rather humourless way, despite GN explaining, quite politely, that she was on a television show. GN finished, very huffily, by saying 'OK - sue us!'.

The end of the show featured SV performing Luka (I think - can't remember) with a fake band behind her - (kb, g, b & d). Live vocals to a DAT tape, but the drummer seemed to be doing a fair impression of actually playing.

Suzanne survived it all quite well, considering.

Chris

Sussex, England

If anyone's interested, Graham Norton appeared on Desert Island Discs last week. This is the long-running BBC radio programme where guests have to select eight records that they would choose to take with them to a desert island.

You can see Graham's choice here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddi scs.shtml

and listen to the programme by clicking on Graham's name in the list of guests that appears on the right of that page.

(For the next week or two you just have to click on 'current week' or 'previous week'.)

Graham comes across as pleasant, witty and amusing, revealing far more about his 'normal' self than he does in his zanier on-screen persona.

Chris