There have been many memorable moments on The Graham Norton Show over the years.
Like when Lady Gaga forged an unlikely bond with June “Dot Cotton” Brown. Or when Will Smith reprised the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme along with former co-star Alfonso Ribeiro.
But none of these can quite top Mark Walhberg’s car-crash appearance on the show in 2013.
Highlights included the artist formerly known as Marky Mark sitting on Graham’s lap and pinching his nipples, fellow guest Sarah Silverman looking visibly irked as the actor kept cutting her off, and Michael Fassbender trying not to blush as Mark challenged him to “a big dick contest”.
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Unsurprisingly, viewers – and Graham – put Mark’s erratic appearance down to a combination of jet lag and booze - something refuted by the actor, who later claimed it was all “pre-planned” (yes, even the bit where he appeared to fall asleep on that famous couch).
Either way, Graham would rather forget the whole “disruptive” episode ever happened, as he found it “annoying”.
He explains: “If they’re disruptive then that is a bore and annoying. Like Mark Wahlberg, I think Mark got a bit confused about the jet lag and wine.
“He fell asleep — that was the good bit. When he fell asleep, that was like we were able to tell stories. The show’s going a bit better now, I wonder why? Oh, he’s asleep.
“And at one stage, he climbed on my lap and was like pinching my nipples, and I remember afterwards thinking, ‘wow, my 20-year-old self, my head would have exploded if someone would tell me he would do that’, but my 50-year-old self was just like, ‘Get off me’.”
Graham’s latest remarks are a little more candid than what he said shortly after the show was first aired, when he told Digital Spy that he didn’t “judge” the actor for his behaviour.
“I think the three of us had met a lot of drunk people over the years,” Graham said at the time. “Mark Wahlberg’s been on the show before and he’s a really lovely guy.
“We’ve all done that thing where you suddenly realise, ‘I’m by far the drunkest person at this dinner party’ and you don’t know how that happened. It was a bit like that, so I don’t judge him harshly at all. It was just a thing.”
Graham has been on the promo trail in the US for his latest novel, A Keeper, when he also revealed exactly why there is usually a British comedian sat at the far end of his sofa.
