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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Louise Lavigueur

James Corden's most memorable moments on The Late Late Show after he announces exit

James Corden has made quite the lasting impression on viewers with his often hilarious capers since joining The Late Late Show in 2015, managing to get Hollywood's finest and even Royalty to star on the programme.

From Carpool Karaoke to Crosswalk Musicals, the Gavin and Stacey star, 43, made it big in America after he succeeded Craig Ferguson as host.

But on Thursday, James announced he is to leave the American chat show in 2023 after eight years.

And after telling fans the gig had "changed my life", he promised viewers he will "go out with a bang" and provide "so many tears" in his remaining shows.

Let's take a look at some of his most memorable moments.

Carpool Karaoke

James' Carpool Karaoke became an instant hit after his picked up his first guest Mariah Carey and drove her around while showing off his impressive vocals as he sung to the superstar diva's biggest hits.

He later credited her for taking the plunge into unchartered waters.

Corden adapted an initial Red Nose Day sketch to become, Carpool Karaoke.

The genius idea drew in stars from all over with One Direction, BTS, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Foo Fighters, and Billie Eilish all hopping into the passenger seat.

Drawing in hundreds of millions of views on YouTube, James' Carpool Karaoke with Adele has been watched a whopping 254M times.

The most viewed Adele episode sees Corden making a phone call, letting the phone ring before reciting the famous opening of her 2015 hit with: 'Hello, it's me. I was just wondering after all these years if you'd like to meet.'

But despite the hilarious comedy, James uses their time in the car to interview the singer.

Before bursting into an impromptu performance, he said to Adele: ''I heard a rumour that you - which may be surprising to some fans - are quite the rapper", before the Hello hitmaker spun some lyrics.

Adele also spoke about her love of the Spice Girls and her heartbreak when Geri left the group.

'It was a real important period of my life,' Adele told fellow Brit Corden.

''Girl power and just five ordinary girls who did so well and just got out."

And turning up the volume on his Range Rover the pair belted out hit Spice Girls' hit song Wannabe.

Crosswalk Musicals

From Frozen to Les Mis.......the hilarious pop up production literally stopped traffic!

But it also featured a host of big names from with Kristen Bell’s Frozen, Aladdin with the likes of Will Smith and Hugh Jackman.

Viewers couldn't believe there eyes as BTS stop the cars on Beverly Blvd, performing hits such as Butter and Dynamite.

Meanwhile in Aladdin sketch Corden tells Smith: ''We rubbed the lamp and what came out is a friendship that I will cherish forever."

"You ain't never had a friend like me," teased the A-list genie.

But perhaps the biggest laughs came when Corden starred as the Belle of this ball, donning Beauty's iconic yellow gown as he wowed the commuter audience with Dan Stevens as The Beast.

James Corden cast in Frozen 2 in Crosswalk The Musical (CBS)

Drop The Mic

Popular segment Drop the Mic saw Helen Mirren taking her turn on the mic showing she was a 'Dame that didn’t give a damn”.

In a particularly memorable skit, that saw her rap: “Compare me to Meryl, Judi, Maggie, but why? They’re not my competition. They’re my ride or die,” Mirren raps.

But pulling in the viewers Anne Hathaway's stellar performance responding to Corden's Cat women put down, she rapped: A "Catwoman" diss? Gosh! What do I do?

"I can't make fun of you James, 'cause no one's heard of you!"

Her other put downs included: "You're the worst British export since smallpox."

Prince Harry's obstacle encounter

Corden offered opportunity to show Harry's physical strength in an army style obstacle course designed to test them 'mentally, physically and spiritually'.

He said: ''I know we're both a long, long way away from home. Your life now is particularly different to your life back home and particularly when you were in the military.

''So I've actually arranged a little something to take you back to your roots. A little taste of military life, as a gift from me to you, and I'm already regretting saying I'll be part of it.''

The comedy skit saw Corden opted out of climbing a structure as he re-appeared with a ladder before later complaining he was 'too muddy'.

Former army man Harry, took the challenge in his stride and even quipped to Corden about the mud being 'like a facial' as he embraces the LA lifestyle.

Prince Harry also admitted to knowing the theme tune to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air during an appearance on the Late Late Show (Copyright unknown)

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks proved the ultimate sport as he pairs up with Corden to retrospectively reenact scenes from his entire filmography including Forrest Gump, Big, Turner & Hooch, Sleepless in Seattle, The Green Mile, Castawat and many more.

In the hilarious near seven minute sketch the pair can be seen rapping in BIG, taking to the tennis courts in Bachelor Party and even Corden dressing up as canine companion Hooch.

Tattoo Roulette One Direction - 2015

The One D boys had high stakes in a game that would leave one of them etched with a permanent reminder of their Late Late Show experience.

Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne were tasked with having the Late Late Show words inked on their belly in a game of Tattoo Roulette.

The host uttered through laughter: ‘'It’s a game that I’m already regretting thinking of.''

If Corden had lost the game he would be forced to get 1D permanently marked onto his belly.

But it was Harry, who already has a scattering of tattoos, who drew the short straw and during the ad break he was branded with the words in small text on his inner forearm - much to Corden's relief.

Skydiving with Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise, proved the skies the limit when he challenged Corden to jump out of a plane. After making jabs at the Mission: Impossible star's preference to perform his own stunts the pair headed to Perris, California, to show him how easy it is with hilarious results.

According to The Hollywood Reporter Cruise trained for more than a year to perfect the stunt with 500 sky-diving sessions.

However, Corden revealed that he had to skydive with Cruise twice during a resurfaced 2019 interview with Howard Stern.

“We did two jumps to sort of film it right, so we did back to back jumps,” Corden said.

Even though Cruise and Corden jumped out of the plane twice together, Cruise had actually already done a separate jump prior to Corden’s arrival.

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