Graham Norton says Taylor Swift video idea came while she was on show’s sofa

By Casey Cooper-Fiske, Press Association Senior Entertainment Reporter

TV presenter Graham Norton has said pop superstar Taylor Swift came up with the idea of featuring her fellow guests on his show in a music video while she was being interviewed on the programme.

The Irish presenter of BBC One’s The Graham Norton Show, featured alongside actor Cillian Murphy, singer Lewis Capaldi, About Time star Domhnall Gleeson, Past Lives actress Greta Lee, and British actress Jodie Turner-Smith, in Swift’s video for Opalite, which was released on Friday.

Norton explained: “The whole thing came to her in a blinding flash while she was on the sofa… and the next thing you know she’s written this whole treatment.

“Taylor properly wrote this, it’s all storyboarded and she properly directs it. Taylor is a marvellous director – I didn’t think I had that (performance) in me.”

The Eurovision commentator said Swift’s ability to remain calm on set is “extraordinary”.

He added: “It was like a movie shoot, a massive, massive deal. Everyone was lovely on set, it was a really, really fun experience.”

Norton went on to say he kept a bottle of Nope-alite, a fictional spray which is advertised in the video, but it was accidentally binned by a new cleaner who mistook it for an empty bottle of real cleaning product.

The 62-year-old said he had struggled to keep the video a secret, having worked on it in November, and added that he was “in awe of myself” for keeping the video a secret.

He added: “On New Year’s Eve I was with a gaggle of gays and I just thought this is so good, surely I can tell them, but I didn’t.

“There was many extras in my scene, no one joined all the dots and realised it was everyone off the Graham Norton sofa.”

He said a large portion of the video was shot in Croydon and other parts of London, with additional parts filmed in the US.

During his time working on the video, Norton said he did not meet Swift’s fiance, Kansas City Chiefs NFL player Travis Kelce, but that her mother, father and brother were on set along with the photographer who shot her engagement photos.

Opalite is the latest single taken from Swift’s latest studio album The Life Of A Showgirl, which was released in October last year.

It comes after the singer, 36, announced her engagement to Kelce in August and revealed in My that she had regained control over her back catalogue.