Mo Gilligan on the return of his Lateish Show: 'You end your week on a high and you start your weekend on a high'

Virgin Radio

5 May 2023, 11:00

Comedian Mo Gilligan joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to talk about the new series of The Lateish Show.

The double BAFTA-winning chat show returns for its fourth series tonight at 10pm on Channel 4. Speaking about tonight’s first episode of The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan, the presenter told Tom Allen, who was in for Chris: “We’ve got the fantastic Harry Hill. Alex Scott is on the show, we also have Chris and Rosie Ramsey. We’ve also got Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Joe Russo on the show. So yeah, we’ve got a feast of a line-up, and Babatunde [Aleshe] is going to be joining us from Birmingham as well. 

“So yeah, we’ve got a bit of everything. We got a Hollywood blockbuster actor. We have a director from Hollywood. We've got a fantastic couple from the North East. We've got a former Champions League-winning footballer, and a sensational comedian, Harry Hill. And music from Jax Jones, so a little bit of everything.”

The show will also feature fan-favourite games, sketches, and music from a live house band: The Compozers. “We've still got everything everybody loves,” Mo explained. “Everybody loves Nursery Grimes, we have Reply or Deny, where the audience get to ask their favourite celebrities a question and they get to reply it or deny it.

“We have an item called The Show Off, which also gives people at home a chance to win a prize. So, we don't want to leave anyone out, and our studio audience get a chance to win a prize.”

Mo continued: “I've always wanted to set the show up as a show where you end your week on a high and you start your weekend on a high as well.

“Especially with this weekend being the bank holiday. It's gonna be a busy weekend for a lot of people.”

Referring to the King’s coronation, the comedian said: “He's go to relax. He's got a big day. He's got a big, big day tomorrow.” 

Mo’s The Lateish Accelerator Programme - which provides paid production roles for underrepresented groups - continues this series. He explained: “When I got into TV, it was very new for me and I was like, ‘Right, I'm the person in front of the camera, but also there's a lot of people who don't get the opportunity behind the camera that come from places where they're like, ‘Oh, do I have to go to university to be a researcher?’ or, “I don't have a credit to become a producer or even like a runner’. So that's why we created the Accelerated scheme to give people those opportunities to kind of have their start in the industry, and just let this be their ladder somewhere, how they might start. 

He added: “I feel like that's how you make really good TV, when everyone has an opinion, and they're listened to, whether you're just a young runner, or a young producer or a researcher, that's how you get to make the best TV, where I can ask someone, ‘What do you think about this game?’ and they say ‘Oh yeah, it's really cool, man, but you should do this’. I think that's how you get the best formula.”

Mo’s new world tour, called In The Moment, begins in March 2024, starting off in the US, and before that he will embark with some pals on The Black British Takeover tour. “We did it last year, at The O2 Arena, so we're going to take it on tour,” he said of the latter. “We wanted to take it outside of the O2 this year. I think we're in Cardiff, we are in Newcastle, we are in Birmingham, Manchester and London. And then once that's finished, I do my own tour, In The Moment, which starts in 2024.

“I love stand-up. That's my first love. TV is amazing, it's given me a lot of great opportunities, but stand-up’s my first love. It still makes me hungry.”

The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan starts tonight (5th May) at 10pm on Channel 4.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.