A Little Late (British TV series)

Logo used since 2021

Chloe Robinson

**A Little Late** is a British late-night talk show first shown on Toffa on 1 September 2018 and would often feature guests, comedy and music. The show was initially presented by Joe Haworth, who was previously a regular on Late Night Rambles, until the end of 2020, when former Toffa:AM presenter-turned-comedian Louise Tiltin took over in September 2021, following a nine-month hiatus.

## History

In the summer of 2018, Chris Tell had an idea for a show that took the American style talk show and brought it over to Britain. The show was originally going to be called Late Night but Chris didn't want people to think this was like the NBC talk show with the same name. Chris actually wanted to give the show to Comedy Central but Comedy Central wanted to focus on the shows they got now and the new show they have coming up. Chris later took the show to Toffa and they agreed on it with a 12 episode series. Toffa also suggested that Joe Haworth should host the show as he was a regular and a fan favourite on Late Night Rambles.

On 19 July 2018, A Little Late was announced with Joe Haworth as the host. Fans of Joe was excited about the fact he would be coming back to Toffa.

The first episode came on Saturday 1 September 2018 at 10:30pm and started with Peter Miller coming out of retirement one last time to introduce this show; that day also coincided with Toffa's 15th anniversary since it launched in 2003. The first guest that night was Todd Carlson of Timebomb who also took part in a skit which was about the show. Dara Ó Briain and musical guest Sorry were also guested. After the first episode, people were hooked on the new show. 1.7 million watched the first episode on Toffa knew they had a hit on their hands.

When the first season was done, the show had an average of 1.4m watching and Toffa gave the show a second series with 24 episodes instead of 12. A Little Late came back on 4 May 2019 and gained an average of 2.1 million viewers per episode and even had an international following with people watching the clips on YouTube or watching it on their holidays.

Series 3 was announced at the end of the second series, but would have a new set to tie in with the 1989.1 look that the channel launched at the start of 2020. Series 3 began on 11 January 2020 but ended after 11 episodes. The show had to end early because of COVID-19 and lockdown being put in place. There had been talks of doing the show again once the lockdown was eased and when the show is allowed to have an audience again.

On 17 July 2020, Toffa announced on Twitter that the show will be coming back to finish off their series. It was announced that the series would be on every night for 13 days and would only be on for an hour instead of the usual 90 minutes. The show would also be broadcast from the pub that Joe Haworth used to perform in when he was on Late Night Rambles. During the series, Haworth announced that he would be leaving the show in 2021. The series proved a hit, often peaking at 3m viewers. In the last show of the series in August, it was revealed that former Toffa:AM presenter Louise Tiltin would take over from Haworth in 2021. The decision received mixed reviews, as Tiltin had a track record of being sacked from the show in June 2018 after only six months and according to some "nearly killed the show". The decision was defended by Haworth and Toffa, as Tiltin had taken up stand-up comedy, as well as viewers giving Tiltin a chance to redeem herself.

Another series was commissioned which aired every Saturday from 5 September 2020 up to the Christmas period; including a Christmas special. However, as Toffa didn't air during Christmas week, the special debuted on YouTube on Christmas Day.

Although Haworth was set to continue fronting the show until May 2021 with Tiltin taking over from August, on 28 December 2020 on his Twitter, he announced that he would leave at the end of the year with one final episode appearing on YouTube on 30 December, as both the New Year's Special, and his swansong to the show (unlike previous years, Toffa remained off-air during the New Year period). Although Series 5 was planned for February 2021, Toffa announced early in January that the show would go on hiatus for the time being due to another lockdown, but planned a return for August. It was later announced that month that the show would return on Saturday 4 September and return to the studio with an audience.

The Tiltin era of A Little Late began on 4 September 2021, initially to mixed reviews due to her approach to the show which some dubbed as "unfunny" and "somewhat degrading". However, over the course of her first series, things improved, with the series being noted for Tiltin's comments towards Shamima Begum in the opening of episode 3 following her interview on *Good Morning Britain* that week where she claimed that Begum "[with the clothes she worn the night before her interview] had too much fun at the party in ISIS that she should stay there and be the loyal baby-maker." and added "Worth another shot."

During 2022, despite a small decline in ratings, Tiltin's approach was favoured more positively as she began to find her footing and the show also grew its confidence back. In 2023, as part of Toffa's 20th anniversary, special editions of the show were confirmed, with guest hosts filling in for the summer, one of which also includes Joe Haworth returning once more. Additionally, following the US Writers Strike which resulted in most late night shows being dropped, the initial Spring run was extended to fill the gap for international audiences, continuing up to November for Series 9 with a possible seven-month run.

## Format

The show would begin with a cold open, usually with the big guest that night. After the cold open and the titles, the host would come out and do a monologue which makes jokes about that week's news. The show would then have a skit which might be about the guest or something in the news that week. The host would then interview a guest, do another skit, interview another guest, play a game, introduce the musical act and the show would be over.

## Notable Episodes

In the first season, one episode of the show was filmed on a plane because Joe had to go to Ireland but wasn't allowed to miss the taping. The guest that night was Bradley Walsh, Michelle Keegan and musical guest Stormzy (which was filmed in the studio before the plane episode).

In the season two premiere, A Little Late had a special Star Wars themed episode as the episode was on May the 4th. The show had many gags about the fact Toffa wasn't allowed to use the Star Wars including on where Joe explains that this is Star Battle and not Star Wars. The episode ended with the Lightsaber battle with a fake lawyer from Star Wars.

In the fourth episode of Series 2, A Little Late had a special episode that was devoted to Stand Up. On the show was Harry Max who was Joe's old friend from Late Night Rambles, Russell Howard and musical guest, Axel Of Awesomeness.

A Little Late came back on Sunday 26 July 2020 which was shot at a pub that was like that for the next 13 nights on Toffa. The guest on that night was Microsoft Sam, Jimmy Carr and Toyko Myers. Microsoft Sam was a special interview as this was the first interview with him since the final episode of series 21, ahead of the change in production from Toffa in-house after 13 years, to Toffa Animations.

The first episode of the fourth series aired on 5 September 2020. On the show was Richard Arnold, Kenny The Kangaroo, Jeremy Clarkson and music from Harry Styles. In the Harry Styles segment, One Direction was also on with the boys singing via zoom.