Smallscreen News

Gorillaz, Mary Portas on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

By April MacIntyre May 26, 2010, 18:00 GMT

03/22/2010 - Jonathan Ross and wife Jane Goldman - "Kick-Ass" UK Premiere - Arrivals - Empire, Leicester Square - London, UK © Solarpix / PR Photos

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross airs Fridays, 10:20 p.m. ET/PT on BBC AMERICA

On May 28, Jonathan welcomes Queen of Shops, Mary Portas who chats about her humble beginnings in retail before becoming a retail maven. Mary shares that she used to work for Top Shop, luxury department stores Harrods and Harvey Nichols and this is where she learned her eye for retail and branding. 

She recently dealt with one of her most difficult stores yet - the owner of a small, family-owned bakery. On her experience in the bakery, “The whole business was so wrong and the food was so dated. So I went into the product first...and [the owner] would not listen to a word I said. It was so stressful that I had to ring up a friend to give me good energy cause I actually could not go into the shop anymore.

And in the end, the owner locked herself upstairs and wouldn’t come down.” And as a special treat from Jonathan to Mary, members of Jonathan’s house band gave an impromptu runway fashion show from clothes bought at a charity shop. 

Also joining is retired, international football star and current sports broadcaster, Gary Lineker, who talks to Jonathan about heading to South Africa for the World Cup and how he believes England’s star player Wayne Rooney is essential to England for hopes of advancing, “Our chances would diminish drastically [without him]... he loves being the main man. We really need him.” And he thinks England’s biggest challenge will be from Spain and Brazil. 

British comedian Ross Noble also joins Jonathan to talk about his most recent stand-up comedy tour across the UK. Rounding out the show is musical performance from electronica, virtual band Gorillaz who perform two songs, On Melancholy Hill and Clint Eastwood.