Graham Norton insists he found Alison Hammond’s blunder about his dead dog funny

Graham Norton has made it clear that he wasn’t upset or offended by Alison Hammond’s faux par on Friday’s This Morning, when she asked how his dog was, despite it being deceased.

Speaking on his Virgin radio show on Sunday, Graham, 57, said: ‘Now, I meant to say this yesterday, big up Alison Hammond she got so much flak for apparently, you know, being insensitive or upsetting me.

‘I did This Morning and she said, oh, how’s your dog? And I said oh it’s dead. And I did it in a deliberate way to be awkward. And it was going to be funny. It was funny. 

‘And I think she found it funny. I found it funny. People kind of deliberately misrepresented what happened to kind of, you know, be horrible to her.’

Sure to make sure Alison was not criticised for the blunder, Graham added: ‘So I love Alison Hammond and if there was any awkwardness, it was my fault. I mean, I made it a bad thing.’

‘That’s the other thing, I feel like people then think I’m kind of heartless. I was bereft when the dog went, but now I can use it for comedy.’

Alison and Dermot O’Leary’s debut as the new Friday hosts of This Morning wasn’t without a few on-screen hiccups.

Chatting to Graham, Alison had said: ‘I love you! Last time I saw you, you were with your dog, have you still got it?’

A deadpan Graham responded: ‘No. Dead.’

This sparked a nervous laugh from Alison, with Dermot holding his head in his hands.

Luckily Graham saw the humour in it.

The hilarity continued when, during an interview with Cold Feet star Fay Ripley, Alison asked how she’d coped with two sons during the lockdown.

The actress then clarified she actually had a son and a daughter, leaving Alison looking visibly embarrassed. 

Later Dermot praised chef Clodagh McKenna as she whipped up a delicious Irish stew.

She asked him, ‘Is your Gran in Ireland?’ leading him to say in a deadpan response: ‘No she’s in heaven.