Norton nervous over West End debut

Graham Norton has admitted that he is worried about embarrassing himself when he makes his West End debut.

The Irish comedian will take on the role of a drag artist in the musical La Cage Aux Folles from January 19, replacing actor Douglas Hodge.

"What I genuinely don't want to do is wreck this show," Norton told The Telegraph. "I have said to the producers, 'Someone will stop me, please, won't they, and tell me this can't go on if it's not working?'

"I'd much rather be fired before I start than be allowed to go on and humiliate myself. But so far no one has said: 'Um, maybe we should think about moving this back a month or two'."

Norton also revealed that hosting Andrew Lloyd Webber's BBC shows helped him to understand stage actors for the first time.

"Prior to doing those series with Andrew, I always thought musical theatre wasn't just in another country, it was on another planet," he explained. "It wasn't my world but after working with them, you realise they're not aliens.

"I got deeply jealous of the people doing it and I saw far more musicals than I normally would. And it's because of doing the TV shows that I met a man called David Grindrod - who's 'Mr West End Casting'."