He is a sarcastic, breezily insulting and camply subversive gay Irish pixie* who has become the most ubiquitous presenter on TV. How has he managed it?
For Eurovision night, The Independent gives a lengthy profile of the kingly queen of the tellybox.
So how did he manage it?
"Graham Norton didn’t get where he is today by being polite. He got where he is by being breezily insulting, swishily sarcastic, camply subversive...
"He is the master of the raised eyebrow, the muttered aside, the sharp intake of breath, the I’m-saying-nothing-but-you-know-what-I-mean look to the camera. It has made him the most ubiquitous entertainer on TV...
"Norton strikes a delicate balance between indulgence and mockery...
"His humour is as camp as a field of bivouacs, but (unlike, say, Alan Carr) he relies more on sharp ad-libs than gay allusions...
"Norton understands conviviality. He knows that humour is about inclusiveness and collusion as much as one-to-one banter..."
So now you billy-well know!
At least, it's a bit more thoughtful than feeling it's always necessary to call him "the camp..." - as the tabloids invariably do.
Or to call him "the openly gay TV star/host/comic", as the gay news media invariably do.
Presumably for the benefit of all their readers who hadn't cottoned on that Graham Norton was gay.
* Technically, they don't have pixies in Ireland, you're thinking of the aos sí. Thanks.
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