PLUME: Now, if this were a BBC show, would you have the same kind of freedom that you have on Channel Four?

NORTON: The BBC say I would… I’m not sure. I think there’s more of a public mandate, because you’re being directly funded by television license there – it’s like tax money is paying for you. So I think you have to take the complaints more seriously, in a way, whereas on Channel Four, it’s funded by advertising. So we’re able to kind of go, “Just switch off. No one asked you to watch.” If people who hate you are paying your wages, you do kind of need to listen to them a bit more seriously.

PLUME: The BBC did make an offer to you recently, right?

NORTON: They did.

PLUME: Which you turned down.

NORTON: I did.

PLUME: Surprisingly enough.

NORTON: Well, I was happy where I was.

PLUME: It definitely sounds like the kind of thing that most entertainers wouldn’t do. A lot of people were shocked by your decision.

NORTON: People were surprised, but you know, hopefully I’m in it for the long run. What’s interesting is that at the same time when I turned it down, they then kind of poached other people, and it’s been very interesting to see what’s happened to them since they went to the BBC. It hasn’t been a very easy ride for them. I think because of the issues I just mentioned – because it is public broadcasting.

PLUME: And, in the long term, you feel that you made the right decision?

NORTON: Yeah. I may end up on the BBC at some point.

PLUME: Technically, in America, you are.

NORTON: Well, that is the weird thing. Because when the BBC were poaching, one of the things I really wanted was to be on BBC America. That was one of the hardest things to walk away from, and I think about two days after I said no to the BBC, we got a phone call from BBC America saying they wanted to buy the show. We were like, “Okay!”

PLUME: That’s kind of like having your cake and eating it too.

NORTON: It really was. It was. My cake is eaten and uneaten.

PLUME: Was it surprising to get the response you’ve been getting out of the US so far?

NORTON: Yeah. Well, we knew it couldn’t be that alien to Americans, because so many American guests came on and found it funny and had a good time. So I guess it was just finding out what a general population would feel. Most of the reaction I get – because really I tend not to go into the heartland of the States, so I tend to just do the coasts, so I think that audience is a different audience – I don’t know how it’s going down in Pigeon Forge.

PLUME: Do you actually feel a palpable sense of the States turning towards the show?

NORTON: Oh, I don’t know. I think it’ll always be kind of a small thing there, but it’s a nice thing. It’s like my life, my career, is absolutely here. It’s just a nice thing to know that some people in America are watching the show and enjoying it. It just gives it a kick. It just cheers us up every now and again when someone like you phones or we’re flicking through an American magazine and we see an ad for the show. It just cheers us. We like it. But how important it is or what the long term ramifications of it are, I’m really not sure.

PLUME: I know in the past in interviews, you’ve mentioned that you’ve aspired to success in America as some sort of Holy Grail for UK performers.

NORTON: Well, certainly I think American television is – that’s proper TV. I’ve had meetings in America with various people and stuff like that, and you do walk into an American network and realize that what we’re doing here in just like amateur dramatics.

PLUME: But you get away with so much more interesting television.

NORTON: Well, exactly … some of our television is much more fun, and we can take risks and stuff – but when American TV hits, it is brilliant. The best of American television is better than anybody else’s. Having said that, you make more television than anyone else, so obviously the worst of it is worse than anyone else’s.

PLUME: We’re a volume business.

NORTON: Yeah, but the good thing about volume is somewhere in there you will find incredible quality.

PLUME: But it takes a lot longer to find it.

NORTON: I guess. You have to do more flicking.

PLUME: Is success in America still something you aspire to?

NORTON: You know, success is sort of the wrong word. I’d just like to work there a bit, just have a reason to go – because I just really like America. So success isn’t really – it would just be a job, whether I was working there for a British market, or whether I was doing something small over there for a small American market. I’d just quite like to work over there a bit.

PLUME: Has there been a thought of doing more specials in the States?

NORTON: Well, we’re doing a week of shows in New York at the end of March for Channel Four, but also for BBC America. They’ll be showing them as well. So if that’s a success, maybe we’ll do that more often. I’m really kind of excited to see how the show works with an American audience in a New York studio.

PLUME: How did Betty’s participation in the show come about? One of the more interesting aspects of the show…

NORTON: She used to work in the coffee bar in my drama school, and when I got the show she wrote to me and said, “Really glad you got the show! Can I come and see it?” So I said, “Of course you can! How nice!” Then, once she found her way to the studio, she never went away. Even now that we’re five nights a week, she still comes every night. She cannot be stopped.

PLUME: It’s a nice part of the show, I have to admit. Is there anything that you won’t do to Betty?

NORTON: We wouldn’t do anything she wouldn’t want to do, so she kind of draws her own lines. So far she hasn’t drawn a line.

PLUME: I was about to say, I can’t see anything that she’s objected to so far.

NORTON: No, so far she’s objected to nothing.

Continued below…

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