An Audience with Adele: Emma Thompson and Emma Watson among star crowd (2024)

Adele opened her pre-recorded ITV special, An Audience With Adele, with the songs Hometown Glory and Hello in front of a star-studded crowd.

The singer performed songs from her new album, 30, and older tracks to an A-list crowd including Dame Emma Thompson and her husband Greg Wise, Years And Years star Olly Alexander and Boy George at the London Palladium.

Presenter Graham Norton, actor Jodie Comer, broadcaster Kate Garraway and actors Bryan Cranston and David Tennant were also at the pre-recorded event. Comedians Harry Hill and Michael McIntyre, and musical star Andrew Lloyd Webber were also amongst the A-list crowd.

Adele wore a black gown studded with glittering jewels and was backed by three vocalists and a band.

She said: “I got really emotional when I came round the bend up there. I am very, very nervous. Of course I am.”

She also quipped that she had been given a mug of chamomile tea and not a “hot honey” as requested.

Later, Adele was forced to restart her new single Easy On Me after botching the intro.

Swearing loudly, she told her band: “One more time. I’m really scared.”

The singer broke down in tears as she was reunited with her old English teacher, Ms McDonald, from Chestnut Grove School in Balham.

Asked by Dame Emma Thompson who she had been inspired by in her life, Adele said: “She left in year eight but she got me really into literature, I’ve always been obsessed with English and obviously now I write lyrics. But she also did street dance, I was too scared to go in, but like in the canteen they used to do these dances and stuff like that.

“She was so bloody cool, so engaging, and she really made us care, and we knew that she cared about us and stuff like that. She used to have all these gold bracelets and gold rings. She was bloody cool and so relatable and likeable, that I really looked forward to my English lessons.”

Dame Emma then surprised Adele by inviting Ms McDonald on stage and the pair embraced. After smudging her make-up, Adele went off stage for a moment, asking her friend Carr to entertain the crowd while she was away.

Hollywood star Jackson and Dawn French were among the celebrity guests who stood to ask questions, with the latter asking whether strangers ever opened up to her about their personal lives due to the emotional nature of her music.

French first up who joked: “Tonight is all about you Adele, so when are you going to write a song about me?”

The comedian followed up by asking: “Your music is so relatable, do you have tonnes of people coming up to you to tell you all about their breakups and their relationship issues?”

Adele responded: “To be honest, when I’m not in like singing mode, which is most of my life obviously, not much.

“But at a party or something like that, someone will have a drink and then come over and tell me their whole like relationship history.

“And I’m just trying to have a laugh.

“And sometimes if I get to meet my fans and stuff like that, especially on the tour last time, I like to go into the crowd and meet people and some of the stories were wild.

“They really credited me for either getting them through or making them kick him out.”

She jokingly added: “So kind of yeah, why you alright?”

Jackson was next up who questioned the pop star if she had ever used her stardom to get out of a ticket or in any other situations.

Adele recalled a time when she first moved to LA and she was driving in a rental car that had windows that were tinted too dark, which she was unaware of.

She added: “I was minding my own business and then suddenly a police car pulls up behind me, and hinting that I need to pull over so I just stopped where I was, I had never been pulled over in my life.”

The singer explained that the police officer then instructed her to pull over into the carpool lane which she followed.

She added: “I had all the windows down as I’ve been taught to do before, especially getting pulled over in America, you never know what they’re gonna do.

“Gave him my British driver’s licence, which might as well have been like a blockbuster card, he’d never seen one before, also looks nothing like me, it’s like me when I was like 17.”

The pop star recalled that the police officer then went back to his car and came back to her while on the phone to his wife, who was screaming at her husband for pulling over the star.

She said: “He’s like ‘I’m so sorry, Adele. Sorry, do whatever you need to do’.

“That was hilarious. But yes, I did kind of I didn’t mean to, I was ready to go to jail. But he was… well she saved the day really.”

Responding to a question from England football manager Gareth Southgate, Adele told him: “I loved watching you this summer. It was one of the best.”

He replied: “Thank you for your support. We saw the videos of you getting quite into it.”

Asked who, of all the celebrities in the room, she would most like to collaborate with, Adele chose actor Daniel Kaluuya.

She said: “Obviously I’m not an actress, but I just think that you are the greatest actor. I really, really do. I am mesmerised by you and your work.”

Turning to Southgate, she added: “And you, if you want to sign me as a footballer.”

As the show drew to a close, Adele tweeted: “Home Sweet Home. I’ve always dreamt of doing An Audience With… There was so much love in the room for each other, it felt like such a gig! Everyone was raucous and bang up for it! And my teacher Ms McDonald was there, it was just heaven.”

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