We've come to expect musical fun and games from "The Late Late Show" host James Corden. But on Wednesday night, he opened the show on a serious note.
That's because the 38-year-old British native was clearly shaken by the terror attack outside the London-based Parliament that killed four and injured around 40. Among the deaths were the assailant and a police officer; Scotland Yard has declared the incident an act of terrorism.
Corden informed his audience of the news as he knew it at the time of the show's taping, then informed everyone that this was very personal to him.
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"I know a lot of people in England watch this show, as there's a lot of people from Britain who work on this show, and of course, our thoughts go out to everyone who's been affected by this," he said. "Watching the news today, I felt a really long, long way from home."
Corden was born in Greater London and grew up just northwest of the city in Buckinghamshire. Thanks to his hosting duties, he now lives in Malibu, California. He jaunts back home every so often and sometimes even incorporates his home city into his sketches, as when he drove Adele around the city for their "Carpool Karaoke" segment in January 2016.
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The host continued, "It's funny when something like that happens in your hometown, you don't have a feeling of being glad that you're so far away. What you feel is that you wish you could be there with loved ones to stand alongside them."
He ended his brief comments with, "London is a diverse and proud and brilliant city, and one thing is for sure: if this act of terrorism was supposed to divide the people of London, I know for a fact that all something like this does is bring them closer together as one. Tonight we send our heartfelt thoughts to everybody in Britain. Stay safe everybody, please."
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