When Adele featured on James Corden's carpool karaoke as part of The Late Late Show, her appearance was arguably one of the comedian's best signings yet. The pair duetted to the singer's comeback hit Hello, everyone's favourite girl band Spice Girls and rapped to Nicki Minaj's Monster.
The result was a 14-minute clip that was like watching "two friends have a blast", said Ben Winston, executive producer of The Late Late Show. Adele agreed to film the Carpool a few days before Christmas, in a wet and miserable England.
The clip was like watching "two friends have a blast"
"She's a remarkable woman," Ben told Vulture. "She is the biggest star, I would say, in the world right now. But yet she's the most down-to-earth, lovely girl you could meet. You sometimes wonder if success will change someone, but it wasn't with her. She's as wonderful as you would hope she would be."
Originally, the crew had an hour pencilled in for filming, but James and Adele overran by "a couple of hours" because they were both having such a "great time".
"The first cut of the segment was 54 minutes," said Ben. "We could've made an entire episode of it. I think you've got to be sort of strict with yourself, and kill things that you love. There were some amazing, amazing bits in there. In the same way Adele wrote 50 songs for her album and chose the best ten, we did an hour of Carpool and chose the best 14 minutes."
"She's the most down-to-earth, lovely girl you could meet," said producer Ben Winston
While James, who counts One Direction, Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey among his other celebrity guests, was tempted to show off his own vocals, the actor knew to restrain himself.
"There's something so precious about Adele's voice, you don't want to ruin the moment of Adele singing it," said Ben. "So, yes, he did think about that. And I think it's just right. There are moments where he doesn't join in, and there are moments where he does. It just adds to the joy."
Adele downs her cup of tea during the carpool karaoke
The producer also answered two pressing questions that will no doubt be on fans' minds. Will he use the leftover footage to create a second instalment? "If it's not going to be as good as the first one, I don't think you should do a second one," said Ben.
And how does James drive the car and not get into an accident? "First of all, we don't take routes that are difficult," said Ben. "He's also got two of our cars ahead of him, and three cars behind him – essentially, a convoy. So he's moving at under 20 miles an hour, and we don't let any other cars around him. The second thing is, the cameras are tiny. They're about the size of your knuckle, and they're [stuck on] the windshield. So it doesn't really distract his view. That's how we do it."
