The Graham Norton New Year's Show: Who is on tonight as the chat show host rings in 2026
What better way to see out this year?Graham Norton will be ringing in 2026 with his New Year’s Show tonight – but who is on his sofa as he celebrates the festivities?
The Irish chat show host will once again gear the nation up for midnight with a special instalment of The Graham Norton Show.
Graham has pulled out all the stops and will be joined in the studio by some big A-list names.
He will also have everyone up on their feet as we motor towards 2026 thanks to his New Year’s music guest.
Here’s who is on The Graham Norton New Year’s Show tonight and what time it starts.
The Graham Norton New Year’s Show: Who is on
Graham will be joined in the studio by Oscar-winning actress Laura Dern and fellow Hollywood star, Will Arnett. The pair will be talking about their upcoming film, Is This Thing On?
The movie is co-written by Will and Bradley Cooper and stars them both. It follows the story of Alex, who stumbles into stand-up comedy while facing divorce from his wife Tess. Laura and Will play the warring couple.
Bizarrely, it is loosely based on British comedian John Bishop’s first gig in Manchester 25 years ago. John took to the stage while working as a salesman and has said of the film it is “so weird (that) this is happening, but so brilliant at the same time”.
Laura tells Graham: “I fell in love with the script. Then Bradley (Cooper) came on board. Will and I are both old dear friends of his, so we met through him and became this married couple. It is a wonderful story.”
Will explains: “I happened to meet John Bishop, and he told me the story of how he became a standup comedian and what it did for him. I was really taken with his story and asked if I could write a movie based on his life, which is quite a daunting thing to ask somebody.
“He’s been great throughout. It was inspired by his story, and some of the incredible moments are the most true. We then built it out from there to focus on the relationship.
“Some forces wanted it to be a romantic comedy, but Bradley rewrote the script and somehow blackmailed Laura into doing it. Once he was on board, he elevated every step and made it much more dramatic.”
Tom Hiddleston talks The Night Manager
Next up is British fave, Tom Hiddleston.
Tom will be chatting to Graham about his highly-anticipated return to The Night Manager. He reprises the lead role of Jonathan Pine after almost 10 years, with the show making its comeback tomorrow (January 1, 2026).
Tom describes series 2 as “intense and thrilling”. He adds: “It’s been ten years off camera and ten years have passed in the story. Jonathan is living another life, and his identity has been erased.
“He is still working for the security services, and we find him still chasing down corruption. The old dragon slayer in Jonathan is back. I love this character so much and the story is incredibly compelling.”
Tom also tells Graham about returning to the new Avengers movie as Loki – despite his character being killed off. “Loki has died one or two times,” Tom laughs. “He likes to keep you guessing.
“On the last day of shooting for Avengers: Infinity War all the studio execs were there, there was a big round of applause, lots of thankyous, tears, and hugs, and they were like, ‘Goodbye and thank you for ten years, come and see us any time’.
“Then three months later I get the call inviting me back!”
The Graham Norton Show: Carey Mulligan and Tim Key
Triple Oscar-nominee Carey Mulligan and comedian Tim Key will be joining Graham’s New Year Show to chat about The Ballad of Wallis Island. The British feel-good movie sees an off-the-wall lottery winner invite his favourite band to perform a gig on a private island.
Tim reveals the film began life as a short flick that took just three days to film in the noughties. Tim says it was parked for years until he and his co-writer and co-star, Tom Basden, decided to turn it into a feature film.
Carey says to Graham: “My husband (Marcus Mumford) and I were really big fans of Tim’s late might poetry programme and Marcus did that deeply nerdy thing and DM’d Tim to tell him he was a massive fan.
“I then emailed him about a charity event that he declined and then four years later I got an email from Tim asking me to be in the film with the subject line ‘Filming Opportunity’. Of course, I said yes!”
Adolescence’s Owen Cooper
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Owen Cooper is one of Graham Norton’s youngest guests to ever appear on the show. The teenage actor will be speaking about Adolescence, the Netflix phenomenon of 2025.
Graham asks Owen about the show’s enormous success and he replies: “Straight away I thought it was going to be more than a TV show – I read the script and then heard the word ‘Netflix’.
“I was nervous about what the reaction to it would be, but a week after it went out everything blew up. It has been a good year.”
The schoolboy won the 2025 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. He was 15 when he scooped the gong, making him the youngest ever recipient of an Emmy.
Owen recalls to Graham: “It was crazy and all a bit of a blur. The amount of people I met there was insane. It really was the best day of my life.”
He then talks about his return to school following the success of the gritty drama. Owen says: “It wasn’t too bad. The first day back was a bit weird, but I’ve still got my GCSEs to do.
“I’ve only got about six months left and then I am gone.” He then adds with a smile: “And then hopefully I am going to be an actor.”
The Graham Norton New Year’s Show: What time is it on?
You can celebrate New Year’s Eve with Graham Norton at 10.30pm tonight (Wednesday December 31, 2025). The show airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer for one hour, with a finish time of 11.30pm.
Bringing the music to The Graham Norton New Year’s Show is Alison Limerick. The British singer-songwriter is celebrating the 35th anniversary of her massive dance hit, Where Love Lives.
Alison will be throwing it back to the 90s and performing the song live in the studio. She will then join Graham and the rest of his guests for a natter.
Graham will end 2025 by pulling the lever on more audience members who are brave enough to sit in his big red chair. If the stories aren’t funny, they will be flying backwards into the New Year!
