He may be only 52, but Graham Norton has hinted that he’s already thinking about an early retirement.
The chat show host wants to quit while he’s ahead – and before he’s forced to scrape the barrel for celebrity guests.
According to the Daily Mirror, he explained at a recent question and answer session: “You want to get out when people are still watching your show. You don’t want it to be when people say ‘That is still on, that is still a thing?’.”
“The thing no one wants is the inching backwards, where you’re kind of going ‘Yes the cast of Towie can come on…’ That’s about retiring when you’re on top.”
He added: “I’m not jumping tomorrow but it is in my head.”
Talking with his Radio 2 show co-presenter Maria McErlane at an event ahead of the publication of his memoir, the Irishman revealed he wanted to step down before he got too old to enjoy retirement.
“Neighbours of mine went on a round-the-world trip when they retired. They had to be airlifted three times because they were too old to do this trip. They got stuck on every hike they did. So I don’t want to be them.
“You want to get out of work when you have still got time to enjoy your life.”
He added there would be no return to the TV screens once he’d made the decision: “You can’t come back. You could only come back to do I’m A Celebrity or Celebrity Big Brother or really awful things.”
Graham has hosted The Graham Norton Show since 2007.
It is unclear whether he would also step down as the UK’s Eurovision commentator.
