When Claudia Winkleman stood in for her friend Graham Norton to host his long-running chat show earlier this year, many fans probably thought little of it.
After all, it was hardly an eccentric decision by BBC execs to ask Claudia – the corporation’s top-rated female star – to fill Norton’s shoes while the Irishman jetted off to tour Australia.
It was only one episode, but the impact was huge. In fact, I can reveal Claudia’s successful stint on BBC1’s The Graham Norton Show in February was something of a practice run, or even a pilot, for a much larger project.
For yesterday, the Beeb confirmed my story from October – that Claudia is to have her own Friday night chat show, and Norton’s production company So Television is to make it.
In a statement yesterday, Claudia, 53, said: ‘I can’t quite believe it and I’m incredibly grateful to the BBC for this amazing opportunity,’ before adding with her trademark modesty: ‘I’m obviously going to be awful – that goes without saying – but I’m over the moon they’re letting me try.’
Now Claudia seems set to become a Terry Wogan or Michael Parkinson for our times, with The Claudia Winkleman Show, which will run for seven episodes in the spring, making her the BBC’s first high-profile female chat show host.
It is also, I’m told, a deal worth ‘an absolute fortune’ (some suggest ‘the low millions’) which will ensure once and for all that Claudia will be going nowhere near the BBC’s rivals, ITV.
Claudia Winkleman tries her hand at hosting The Graham Norton Show in February
‘It’s a lot of cash,’ reveals my source. ‘People are always circling around Claudia and she would never sign a deal that would tie her to one network. But this does mean that there will be little time, or need, for her to do anything with ITV.
‘The BBC share her with Channel 4, which they are fine with – but ITV is a different ball game.’
I’m told nothing is being left to chance, and that ‘cash will be thrown’ at getting ‘the very best guests’, including Hollywood A-listers. No doubt Claudia and her husband, movie producer and communications expert Kris Thykier, will use their impressive contacts book to lure the biggest names in showbusiness for the initial episodes.
There is even chatter that the show might air in the US.
‘Claudia won’t just be sitting in front of a camera interviewing people,’ says a friend of the star. ‘She will be working all-out to make sure that it’s absolutely amazing. It’s a passion project for her; it’s what she has wanted since she started out in television.
‘This is going to be big, all frills, all the bells and whistles.’
While Claudia and Kris are popping open the champagne at her success, however, they might want to spare a thought for her former Strictly co-star Tess Daly.
The presenting duo revealed in October that they had decided to stand down from the dance show, which Tess had hosted since 2004, and Claudia since 2014.
In her announcement, Tess said: ‘After 21 wonderfully joyful years on Strictly, we have decided that the time is right to step aside and pass the baton over.’
Friends of Claudia said at the time that she and Tess had made a ‘pact’ that they would quit together. However, there was no mention of the chat show, though I was told that the project had been in the pipeline for some months.
A source who knows Team Claudia told me back then that she had had enough of the Strictly grind and felt ‘it was time’ to get her eponymous chat show up and running.
‘Nobody was supposed to know about Claudia’s new project when she quit Strictly,’ says my insider.
‘It was supposed to be a clean break. The plan was to get an exit strategy together to leave Strictly and then the chat show would then be announced when the time was right. It was all top secret but we assume Tess knew.’
One thing’s for sure though, Claudia’s future looks much brighter than Tess’s – she has yet to reveal any new work commitments.
Claudia and Tess Daly on their last Strictly
Meanwhile, Claudia’s upcoming role will not only catapult her to an even higher stratosphere of celebrity, it will also net Kris, her husband of 25 years, a pretty penny, too.
Kris’s new talent agency Little Arrow appears to have launched a production arm that has teamed up with Graham Norton’s So outfit – meaning that Kris’s firm will be paid by the BBC to make his wife’s show.
Last year, Claudia left celebrity talent agency YMU – home to the likes of Ant and Dec, and Davina McCall – to be represented by her husband and his co-founder Holly Bott, who also left YMU. Therefore, there will be no agents or other fees – and instead Claudia and Graham will split the income.
The BBC refuses to divulge how much a production company gets paid to make its programmes, as the corporation deems such information to be commercially sensitive. ‘Claudia is a very clever woman, especially when it comes to money,’ says a source who is familiar with the project. ‘She hated people knowing that and talking about her wealth – but she has a lot to be proud of.’
Claudia, the daughter of former newspaper editor Eve Pollard and book publisher Barry Winkleman, began her career hosting the little-watched celebrity show Liquid News in the early Noughties.
But it was when she replaced Jonathan Ross as the host of the BBC’s film show that she really shot to fame – and found herself among the UK’s most popular female presenters such as Holly Willoughby and Davina McCall. Now, though, the mother-of-three, who studied art history at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College), Cambridge, is easily Britain’s most-watched female presenter.
In November, 14 million viewers tuned in to see her host Celebrity Traitors, and on Thursday she will once again be at the helm of the popular series when its third ‘civilian’ (non-celebrity) series begins.
And while the BBC is not expecting The Claudia Winkleman Show to match The Traitors’ ratings, bosses still hope that millions will tune in.
‘Claudia crosses the age range so well,’ says a BBC insider. ‘Kids like her, as do the older generation. But she is also very clever, so those who commissioned this show are sure that the content will be brilliant.’
BBC staffers who have been around for long enough will remember that, back in 2006, bosses tried to launch Davina McCall as a big-name female chat-show host, with a programme called, simply, Davina. But, despite much fanfare, it bombed.
‘There is no chance of that happening again,’ stresses a source close to Claudia’s project. ‘This is going to be a huge success. It will have it all: great guests, great interviews and lots of giggles.’
All of which will mean Claudia, her husband – and, of course, Graham – will be laughing all the way to the bank.
