Graham Norton realised he wasn't ready to retire during lockdown

Lockdown made Graham Norton realise he wasn't ready to retire.

The Graham Norton Show host, 58, had been considering retiring from the showbiz industry before the Covid-19 pandemic, but realised during the first lockdown last year that he didn't like having so much unstructured time on his hands and wasn't ready to give up work.

"I had this idea that I was going to cut down on my workload, just kind of take my foot off the pedal a bit, and yet the opposite has happened. I'm busier now than I think I've ever been," he told the Mirror.

"I was thinking I wanted to retire, and then in that first lockdown, I was getting a preview of what retirement might be like and not liking it so much. So I started thinking, 'Actually, aren't I lucky that I get to work?'"

The Irish presenter insisted that "free days don't seem like such a treasure" when you don't have work, and added, "Having somewhere to be or somebody who wants you to show up, or just having a purpose in a day changes your free time, makes it different."

Norton's schedule is currently packed full of work commitments. In addition to The Graham Norton Show, which returns with a James Bond special on Friday, he is also a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK, hosts a book club on Audible, and has his own show on Virgin Radio.