Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking might just be David Walliams’ biggest fan — and he couldn’t believe it when the comedian surprised him in the studio this morning.

Walliams, who is in Auckland for his An Audience with David Walliams tour, sneaked into the Newstalk ZB studio on Friday before his first show, catching Hosking unawares while singing (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing.

When he spotted Walliams, the broadcaster was gobsmacked. “No fricking way, how exciting is that! This is magnificent.”

“Hello mate, I’ve missed you. I worry about you in those tight jeans, a man of your age,” Walliams joked.

Walliams met Hosking and his wife, Kate Hawkesby, in London last year, joking with the radio host, “I remember Kate, but not you ... still married?”

He revealed the surprise had been in the works for some time “because you have a really huge crush on me, and it would be exciting for you”.

“Yes, I do,” Hosking confirmed.

When asked how the tour was going so far, Walliams said his shows in Australia had been “fantastic”.

“I’ve been so popular in Auckland that we added this show tonight,” he said.

David Walliams paid a surprise visit to the Newstalk ZB studio. Photo / Michael Craig

“I’ve got my funny stories that I’ve thought about what they are and I’m telling them ... but at the same time, the audiences have been so great in Australia, and I’m sure they’ll be even better in New Zealand, they sort of give you permission to kind of push it further and further and just be spontaneous,” the comedian told Hosking.

“It’s really restored my faith in performing comedy. Like, oh yeah, when we all get together in a room, what we really want is a laugh and it’s spontaneous, I’ve been saying some pretty rude things.”

Hosking confessed spontaneity was Hawkesby’s worry because she didn’t want to be embarrassed from their front-row seats.

Walliams jokingly replied that shouldn’t be an issue for the radio host. “You look like the kind of man that’d like attention.”

“No, I don’t want to be part of it, I just want to enjoy your talent,” Hosking responded.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been forced to wear a Highlanders jersey this morning after the team beat the Crusaders on the weekend.

Luxon —a die-hard Crusaders fan— had a bet with Newstalk ZB producer Sam Carran over the outcome of Saturday’s game.

He was a good sport at the NZME offices this morning, laughing as he donned the jersey - but he told ZB’s Mike Hosking to expect a “shocking interview”.

He said Carran was “the nicest man in the country” on the outside but inside was “Machiavellian”.

Luxon said he had warned Carran he was a size XL but the producer had given him an XS jersey.

Luxon last week maintained the Crusaders would turn around their losing form against the Highlanders, but it wasn’t to be.

Luxon told Hosking the Government is still considering whether to appeal the Court of Appeal’s judgement, which sided with the Waitangi Tribunal over its summons of Children’s Minister Karen Chhour.

”We only got the judgement yesterday. So it’s a pretty big judgement and we need to work our way through it, and then take advice on whether we will appeal it and what we’ll do next.

”The key issue was that “we don’t believe section 7AA is the right thing. We think the primacy of a child is important over above their cultural needs”.

Some of the information the Waitangi Tribunal had asked for was from Cabinet discussions, which was “frustrating”, he said.

The Government was trying to act in the spirit of “probity” - “making sure that the different branches of government are respectful of each other”.

Regarding Monday’s announcement about new the regional roading programme, Luxon said the Government was “very up for bringing in private capital” for public-private partnerships.

The Fast-Track consenting process would be critical for many of the projects, and the planned National Infrastructure Agency would deal with financing and funding - working out whether private, domestic or international capital was most appropriate for each project.

New Zealand also needed to become more attractive for foreign capital, Luxon said - adding that NZ was ranked second-least attractive in the OECD in that respect, just ahead of Mexico.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christopher Luxon’s made the right call not going to Waitangi next year.

He's probably going to cop it from the press gallery for being a wuss but most of us have been around long enough to see the logic in this.

We know by now that Waitangi is volatile and unpredictable at the best of times. You can cop a dildo in the face for doing nothing.

So imagine how intense it will be next year with the Treaty Principles bill debate in full swing and the select committee progress already underway.

Already Willie Jackson has warned the Prime Minister about his safety if he goes up there because apparently Māori are angry.

And as Willie Jackson says, "you just never know".

It’s hardly as if Luxon is being made to feel welcome.

He’s apparently been told he’s allowed to come on the 6th but not on the 4th because he’s not welcome at the big meeting the National Iwi Chairs Forum hosts every year.

He’s had a letter from the hikoi organisers telling him he’s not welcome at Waitangi at all.

Luxon loses nothing by giving it a miss. I doubt very much he’ll win votes by going.

But he could actually lose votes by going and standing there like a piñata, taking a verbal bashing over a bill that’s actually not his.

He’s better off leaving the defending to the guy who’s actually responsible for the bill, David Seymour, who says he is going.

So Luxon I think can say he’s done enough, he's been there two years in a row already, he’s shown respect and defended his corner and he’s not being made to feel welcome.

He’s been threatened.

Right-minded people will absolutely, I think, understand why he may not want to go and why he frankly shouldn't.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.