S20.E01: Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Radcliffe, Robbie Williams

[Athena]

Quote

The BAFTA-award-winning talk show returns. Among the guests on Graham's sofa tonight: actor and musician Justin Timberlake and Oscar-nominated actress Anna Kendrick, co-starring in new animation Trolls; versatile British actor Daniel Radcliffe; and musical star Robbie Williams, who performs his new single.

[fastiller]

Robbie!!!

[tenativelyyours]

Can't stand Timberlake so I'll have to wait until next episode.  Even though the potential pissing contest between him and Williams could be interesting.  Both are such attention needy manbabies to me when all is said and done.   

Though I haven't taken a look at the schedule.  If the next episode has any of the following: Will Smith, Tom Cruise or Mark Walhberg I'm out for awhile! 

[Matt K]

5 minutes ago, tenativelyyours said:

Can't stand Timberlake so I'll have to wait until next episode.  Even though the potential pissing contest between him and Williams could be interesting.  Both are such attention needy manbabies to me when all is said and done.   

Though I haven't taken a look at the schedule.  If the next episode has any of the following: Will Smith, Tom Cruise or Mark Walhberg I'm out for awhile! 

Next week is supposed to be Danny DeVito, Miranda Hart, Sam Neill, John Bishop and Amber Riley.  Really looking forward to seeing Danny DeVito on the show.

[tenativelyyours]

Thank you!  Busy couches can be the show's downfall and I'm not a huge Bishop fan since I think he is also a bit of an attention hog but Miranda always makes me smile and her with Devito could be really interesting.  Devito and booze could be really interesting as well!  Sorry for the slight threadjack.

[dusang]

I'm interested to see Timberlake on GN -- I always enjoy watching Americans figure out what the fuck is happening their first time on the couch but JT should be well prepped by his wife, Jessica Biel.  She participated in one of my favourite couches -- Biel, Bradley Cooper, James Cordon & Sarah Millican.  That episode started with Graham welcoming Biel back and apologizing for the debacle of her previous appearance with "a very drunk Mickey Rourke."

Robbie also has several of my favourite couch moments -- he, Emma Thompson, & Jimmy Carr comparing notes on public apologies they've had to make is another great clip.

And Daniel... actually, he and Robbie are two celebrities who I kind of didn't like until I saw them on GN.  Rad Dan has so many great moments on Graham, I can't even pick just one.

[attica]

Well, it was disappointing that JT was stuck promoting this movie rather than an album or something actually fun, but: one does what one must. I'm pretty certain that he has his own analogue of the Robbie Williams story, too; his coy act does not move me!

Kendrick was affable as always, Radcliffe is reliably good on the couch. I liked Robbie's song a lot.

[dubbel zout]

JT was trying really hard, and I think Kendrick pushed things a bit, too. Though I liked her reaction to Dead Daniel. I'd be the same way. DD was creepy.

4 hours ago, attica said:

I liked Robbie's song a lot.

I loved the Montagues and Capulets sample from Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet." It was really effective.

[MissLucas]

I don't like corpse humor (hated the subplot in MiB with the alien hiding inside a corpse) and was slightly turned off by Radcliffe's enthusiasm about Dead Daniel. I'm sure the movie has its merits but I'm not interested.

Some tabloids got very upset about Robbie's raunchy anecdote. Apparently they've never seen an episode with Mirjam Margolyes.

The couch had its moments but it also dragged occasionally. No red chair was not cool at all.

[Mumbles]

I prepared myself for what I thought was going to be a hard one to get through, with two of the biggest "Me! Me! Me! Look at me!" types in a business full of them, Timberlake and Anna "who farted?-face" Kendrick. And when he entered in with that lame shtick that he attributed to Peter Sellers, I almost gave up three minutes in. And Radcliffe has made some interesting choices, especially in theater, but everyone I know who's seen Swiss Army Man has hated it as pretentious yet juvenile crap. Still I muddled through because Graham can really control a couch.

Robbie Williams kept my attention but the whole thing was a little try-hard, with the Addicted to Love robot band and the audience forced participation.

Still it's great to have Graham back and on Saturday night too instead of like Thursday at 11:43pm. 

[peeayebee]

I enjoyed it. I like all the guests. What song might I know of Robbie's? Has he sold big in the US?

I was very disappointed not to get a Red Chair bit.

[FormerMod-a1]

19 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

What song might I know of Robbie's? Has he sold big in the US?

I think Millenium was his biggest hit in the US.  But I also like Love Somebody, Feel, Angels (the 2nd video I embedded), and Rock DJ (this one is a weird video).

 

ETA: Angels was his highest charting hit in the US at 53, Millenium was 72.

[peeayebee]

Thanks. I haven't heard those two of the videos you posted. I listened to part of Love Somebody, but it wasn't familiar either.

[MissLucas]

It's always fascinating to realize how little known Robbie Williams is in the US. Saw him on a German talk show the other night where he joked about it. He seems to enjoy the relative anonymity especially for his family - wife and kids live in LA. My favorite Robbie project was him going Sinatra so to speak on 'Swing when you're winning' - the version of Things with Jane Horrocks is fantastic (sorry, no funny video).

Edited October 11, 2016 by MissLucas

[fastiller]

3 hours ago, MissLucas said:

It's always fascinating to realize how little known Robbie Williams is in the US. Saw him on a German talk show the other night where he joked about it. He seems to enjoy the relative anonymity especially for his family - wife and kids live in LA. My favorite Robbie project was him going Sinatra so to speak on 'Swing when you're winning' - the version of Things with Jane Horrocks is fantastic (sorry, no funny video).

I am one of those odd US fans.  Not many people know who he is in my circle of friends (those who do either live in the UK/Ireland, or if they're in the States they've got family in UK/Ireland).

I really enjoy his music.  I did think that he seemed to have his back to the rest of the couch.  Perhaps he's better in one-on-one situations?

[attica]

Robbie got his start in the 90s boy band Take That, which charted in the US with "Back for Good." If that helps. 

[dubbel zout]

Robbie had a modest hit in the States with Nicole Kidman (seriously) duetting on "Something Stupid."

[FormerMod-a1]

2 hours ago, fastiller said:

I am one of those odd US fans.  Not many people know who he is in my circle of friends (those who do either live in the UK/Ireland, or if they're in the States they've got family in UK/Ireland).

I really enjoy his music.  I did think that he seemed to have his back to the rest of the couch.  Perhaps he's better in one-on-one situations?

I'm in a similar situation with my love of RW music and no one else of my US friends not knowing him.  A few might kind of recognize Millennium, or Back for Good, but that's not even a sure thing.  More will recognize Angels, but the Jessica Simpson version.  However, when his music does come up in my playlist, my 'musical' friends usually comment positively and ask who it is.  I'm always happy (maybe too happy) to share.

[dusang]

3 hours ago, fastiller said:

I did think that he seemed to have his back to the rest of the couch.  Perhaps he's better in one-on-one situations?

I found that really odd because I've seen him on GN before and he usually does very well with the other guests -- he seemed to be including JT in his conversation -- but his body language was so odd being so far from the other guests and really having his back to them.

I did love his story. I also loved both Graham & Anna Kendrick shouting down Daniel Radcliffe when he was like, "you can back out" and Anna's seemingly honest reactions to the story -- when she doubled over in a cringe, that was basically my reaction too!!

[sugarbaker design]

25 minutes ago, dusang said:

I also loved both Graham & Anna Kendrick shouting down Daniel Radcliffe when he was like, "you can back out"

That was actually funnier than the story.

[fastiller]

33 minutes ago, dusang said:

I did love his story. I also loved both Graham & Anna Kendrick shouting down Daniel Radcliffe when he was like, "you can back out" and Anna's seemingly honest reactions to the story -- when she doubled over in a cringe, that was basically my reaction too!!

After GN said that there'd be no Story from the Red Chair, I started wishing that they'd done one with a woman which would've started "One day,,, I was cleaning at this castle that some musician was renting..."

[catray]

Just watched last night... it was an ok episode. I felt like the couch has become more crowded as Graham as become more popular (I mean, I'm assuming he's become more popular; I've always loved Graham) and I really feel like that works against the chemistry of the guests interacting. Daniel has been pretty good on this show (if a little manic) and JT and Anna Kendrick were ok, but not great. Robbie was good (liked the performance) but agree he didn't interact much with the rest of the couch (maybe because he was brought on later?) but his story had me rolling (and cringing).

[SmithW6079]

Any episode with Robbie Williams is funny, because he's so unafraid to say whatever he wants. The handjob story was raunch and hilarious. One thing that I've noticed is how he over-pronounces his "g," especially in gerunds. They could have dispensed with Anna Kendrick and just had a couch of Robbie, Justin, and Daniel, and it would have been hilarious.