THE JONATHAN ROSS SHOW TONIGHT: MEET THE FAMOUS GUESTS ON THE SOFA

On The Jonathan Ross Show this week, Jonathan is joined by actor Pierce Brosnan, the stars of hit TV show Severance; Ben Stiller, Adam Scott and Britt Lower and comedians John Bishop and Judi Love. At the end of the show there’s a musical performance from AJ Tracey and Jorja Smith.

Actor Pierce Brosnan talks fondly about being recognised for playing James Bond. 

He says: “I’m recognised. He’s with me for life [Bond]. It was great. A magical time in my life. It opened a lot of doors and allowed me to go off and form my own company and make my own movies - The Thomas Crown Affair/ The Matador - it gave me access to a whole other world as an actor, employment.”

Discussing memorable moments he filmed as Bond he says: “Going down the Thames in the bullet boat was pretty impressive. I was in that boat, yes… on a Monday morning said goodbye to the wife and kids, there’s an oxygen tank here, there’s an oxygen tank there… you’re strapped in double, double. They said, ‘If you flip, you’re going to go to the hospital to have your stomach pumped.’ That was memorable.” 

Of being injured he says: “Yeah I did. It [the boat] goes off the river into a restaurant, drives into a restaurant, wood sliced my face open. So, went off to the hospital, stitched up.” 

Pierce adds: “You live with the injuries. Daniel [Craig]  threw himself at everything. He was truly magnificent. His courage to do that and to endure so much was really impressive. Playing that role you will get hurt, there’s no question about it. You have to have stamina.” 

Discussing rumours about potentially playing an older Bond figure, Pierce says: “No-one’s spoken to me about it. I’ve heard all of the rumours. Listen, they know where to find me. Let’s see where the wind takes us.” 

He then adds: “It’s going to be another man’s job. I’m not looking to go there. I’m quite happy with my career. I’ve done it, it was wonderful. Delightful kind of notion to contemplate.” 

Speaking also about rumours Aaron Taylor-Johnson is in the running he says: “I think he would make a very fine Bond. He was actually in one of the movies I made called The Greatest. This young man we cast as ‘The Greatest’. He was so impressive then. He just had this charisma, he had this presence… so he would be good. But there’s many men on the list I’m sure.” 

Credited with helping Daniel Craig decide to take on the role, Pierce says: “I don’t know if I helped Daniel make up his mind. Daniel is his own man. We talked about that period of time and said, ‘Go do it. You’ve got it, run with it.’” 

Discussing his new Paramount+ series MobLand in which he stars alongside Dame Helen Mirren and Tom Hardy he explains: “Guy Ritchie sent me five episodes last summer and it’s North London/ South London but an Irish family. I thought I was going to do an English accent. He said, ‘Don’t worry we’ll sort it out on the day, put it out of your mind.’”

Pierce admits: “I worried about it for the next five weeks. Day one it’s Tom Hardy and myself, a three-page scene and he [Ritchie] said, ‘Go Irish, more Irish.’ I can’t remember what my Irish accent sounds like. It’s not that strong… I called my dear friend who is a dialect coach and said, ‘I need an accent, a Kerry accent.’ He said, ‘Take a look at this guy.’ So I got a Kerry accent. It all came together in 15 minutes.”  

On working with Dame Helen, Pierce says: “My first film was a film called The Long Good Friday, a classic British gangster movie. I was in that film with her [Helen], but I’d really never seen the lady since then. Last year we did the The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.” 

Asked if he likes to watch himself act, Pierce says: “No, it’s very painful.” He adds: “I’m happy with this work, I think it’s strong work. Everyone in the cast is brilliant. To be with Helen was a dream. We spent the summer together on Thursday Murder Club.”

Later in the show Pierce discusses moving from being the love interest to the dad in roles now: “Oh sure, yes, it’s happening to me as we speak. Your career moves on and you grow out of a certain age. It’s as simple as that. You have to make peace with it.” 

Speaking about the fun he had filming Mamma Mia! he says: “It was beautiful. It was criminal how much fun we had on that movie. No acting required really. It was one of the most pleasurable times of my career as an actor. Hopefully there’ll be a third one.” 

He also reveals he took the film round to friend Barbra Streisand’s house as she wanted to watch it: “She had me up on the couch beside me. She said, ‘Wonderful, darling.’ She had a little dog. I tapped her on the knee and then the dog bit me. Drew blood! So that was my experience showing Streisand [the movie].”

Recalling a time he also acted alongside Streisand, Pierce said she didn’t like his tie: “I came on the set, she didn’t like my tie. I said, ‘I’ll go change it. Something blue?’ I went and got something. She didn’t like that either. I just ended up whistling across the set with a whole collection of ties. She picked the tie. I love her. She’s a great lady. Very cool.” 

Pierce later hears that there are theories he’s the inspiration for Ben Stiller’s Zoolander pose. 

Ben says: “Urm, definitely… I mean, it doesn’t get more Blue Steely than this!” 

Severance star Britt Lower has her own link to Pierce, too admitting: “I was named after Britt Ekland. Well, I may have wanted to be you when I was a teenager as well. You were also maybe my first crush…” 

Ben, who directs many episodes and co-produced Severance, explains the plot: “The concept of the show is that Adam [Scott] plays a guy who gets a job at a company where they put a chip in your head. The chip activates and you forget everything about your life outside. When you leave you forget everything at work. Your ‘outie’ and ‘innie’.” 

Britt adds: “It’s great fun. We’re essentially the same person, but two parts of the same person. You meet my character, she’s laying on an office table and wakes up with no recollection of who she is.”

Ben notes of the gap between series: “We had a long wait. A three year break, which was not intentional. We had a writers and actors’ strike that hit us in the middle. We are definitely working on it and it’s not going to be three years [until the next series].” 

He assures fans: “We know the ending and what it’s about is how you get there. You have to have a creative process, you have to know where you’re going. So yeah we know the ending, it’s making a series… you have room within that to figure out how you get there in the most interesting way.”

Britt goes on to reveal: “After season 1 and after season 2 I ran away and performed in two small different tent circuses. I’m playing the ukelele and I was a sort of Ring Master of sorts.” 

Showing a picture of her home on the road she said: “It’s a caravan, a fibre glass trailer. After season 1 I lived in that. I call it ‘the egg’. It has no connection to Severance's egg. Now I live in an egg. I did for a time, about 8 months.” 

Adam Scott also opens up about working with his wife on The Overnight: “I was acting and we were both producing together. I had to wear a prosthetic penis in the movie. Mine was like teensy-weensy… my wife is producing it. Funny how she cast me in this film… when we were shooting these scenes, it had to be applied and put on. So naturally my wife, the producer, would come in and help me get the prosthetic penis on. It was so small. It’s sort of a situation where you’re like just pressing down…” 

On the programme Judi Love talks about new Amazon series Last One Laughing and says it was tough not to break out into the giggles, which the show forces you to avoid: “Bob Mortimer, just from breathing [can make you laugh]. I thought, if I eat and keep that stern face that my mum would give me, hopefully it would get me through. 

“Comedians know how to get into a conversation and we know each other, so we know each other’s weaknesses. Rob [Beckett] was someone I couldn’t be around.” 

John Bishop speaks about loving stand up but also turning his hand to acting throughout his career: “The bits of acting I’ve done have been really odd. I’m not a trained actor. Acting is like playing out. If it looks and sounds like me, I’m brilliant. If there’s anything the character’s got to do, I’m sh*t. I did this thing in Doctor Who, they said, ‘Your character has got to fire a laser gun.’ It’s a big plastic toy. You’ve got to make it look impressive. The director said, ‘It’s got to be fast, do you want a stunt double?’” 

Taking it on himself John says after he’d done the scene: “They went, ‘Cut, cut!’. They went, ‘You know we said we’d put the laser in as a special effect? When you pull the trigger you don’t have to make the noise..!’ It’s instinct.”

Making him feel better Pierce admits he’s done the same in his career when given a dummy gun: “I’ve done the exact same thing. I even shot myself in the foot actually. I pulled the trigger on my foot and blew the leather off.” 

John is celebrating 25 years of stand up, after starting at the Frog and Bucket: “I’m doing a short arena tour, just the arenas in the UK, plus the Frog and Bucket comedy club, so I’m going back and doing the same comedy club. It’s £25 a ticket. It’s an opportunity to celebrate and thank people - that’s why I want to try and keep the price low.” 

He tells Jonathan: “Your show was one of the landmarks, when I came on in 2010 I was at that time touring, breaking through. I’d done little bits of television. At the point I came on your show, I was selling 700 tickets, that weekend I sold 18,000 tickets.” 

John has been doing comedy in New York and said his accent has confused people, detailing one memorable moment: “This bloke stopped me, he said, ‘Hey buddy, tell your guy Zelensky, we’ve got his back.’”  

At the end of the show there’s a musical performance from AJ Tracey and Jorja Smith.

The Jonathan Ross Show airs Saturdays on ITV1.