After ferrying almost every big-name singer you can think of around California (and beyond!) for a musical car-ride, James Corden has now aired his last ever Carpool Karaoke.
Back in September, James announced he would be hanging up his microphone and stepping down as host of the US talk show The Late, Late Show, and he’s now into his final week of shows.
To see his recurring Carpool Karaoke segment out in style, he reunited with his A-list pal Adele for a bumper edition of the Emmy-winning skit that saw him driving him to his studios.
With big laughs, tearful moments and a surprise revelation or two crammed into the 20-minute video, here are all the key moments from the Gavin & Stacey creator’s final Carpool Karaoke…
1. A rude awakening for James Corden from Adele
So, one thing that quickly emerged in this video was that James had no idea this sketch was actually happening.
In fact, Adele crept into his house in the wee small hours to spring the surprise on him that she’d be the one driving him to work for a change.
“It’s really, really early in the morning and it’s the last week of The Late, Late Show, so I’m going to wake James up and drive him to work,” she explained.
Creeping upstairs and into James’ bedroom (“I’ll take my shoes off, or Julia will kill me”), she wasted no time in throwing open the curtains – and when that failed to rouse him, she then took drastic measures and clashed some rather loud cymbals.
“Come on!” she told him. “Last week of shows, so I’m going to drive you to work. Do the final Carpool.”
2. Adele may be an amazing singer and award-winning songwriter, but it seems there’s one area she’s apparently not so gifted in
As James jumped into the passenger seat for a change, she warned him: “I’m actually not a brilliant driver.”
“I know you’re not a brilliant driver,” he agreed. “I’m well aware of this.”
Adele continued: “I also can’t sing without closing my eyes.”
“Oh, well this is going to be great!” the Emmy winner then joked.
The Someone Like You singer then pulled out of James’ driveway, only to almost hit another car in the process.
“I can’t believe I just pulled out of your drive and nearly crashed!” she said with a signature cackle.
The pair then had their first emotional moment as Adele revealed she felt “very sad” at the prospect of living in California without her pal – although admittedly he was more worried about the fact she was “very close to that car in front”.
“I know that if I crash, you’ll keep it in the fucking edit!” she joked.
3. The pair’s rendition of Rolling In The Deep is something to behold
Listen, we get it. James Corden’s singing isn’t for everyone. But if you’re the sort of person who usually fast-forwards through the musical bits of Carpool Karaoke, we’d recommend at least sticking around for his and Adele’s rendition of Rolling In The Deep – if for no other reason than the Grammy winner introduces some interesting new harmonies and ad libs into the mix… all while driving, no less.
4. James reveals that Carpool Karaoke was almost over before it began
“No one would do it,” James admitted of Carpool Karaoke’s conception. “Everyone on planet earth said no. And suddenly, Mariah Carey said yes, so we’re buzzing. And she goes, ‘I’ll do it on Saturday’.
“So, we scramble around, we turn up, we’re waiting around a little bit, Mariah comes out, and the first thing she says to me, ‘I’ll do the chat, but I ain’t singing’.
“And I looked at [my producer] and I said, ‘what do I do?’, and he went, ‘you’ve just got to get her to sing’.”
And somehow – despite Mariah’s initial reservations – he managed it.
5. James admits he once tried to prank Adele on The Late, Late Show… but it went incredibly wrong
“Oh, you want to talk about that?” Adele asked when James brought the subject up.
“Let’s explain this,” James began. “You, as long as we’ve been friends, have always said, ‘no one could ever prank me, I’m un-prankable, I can’t be pranked’. And then I remember you saying, ‘I’d love someone to try’.”
James went on to reveal the extreme lengths he went to in order to try and lure Adele into a rented home in LA where she’d be led to believe there was a wild bear outside – which included hiring out a property, flying over an animatronic bear from Canada and even asking Gayle King to record some fake news reports to play inside the house.
Unfortunately, that’s not quite how it played out.
He continued: “The worst thing was, you got there early… and obviously we hadn’t told any of your team [about the prank] because we didn’t want them to feel compromised [by hiding] anything from you. And your assistant spots this tiny camera that’s hidden on a shelf… and we’re all going, ‘oh my god, no’. And he runs out, of course, and tells you. And you were like, ‘I’m being spied on’.”
“I was like, ‘who fucking owns this house? I’m not happy about this’,” Adele recalled. “And then we go downstairs, and there’s another room that I need to wait in.”
Adding to the situation was the fact that, for another part of the prank, James had covered the room in photos and merchandise of Adele – prompting him to call the whole thing off and come clean when he sensed his friend’s discomfort.
“She’s unprankable,” James concluded. “She cannot be pranked.”
6. Adele and James get tearful as they open up about how deep their friendship runs
“This song is special for both of us,” Adele said when she spotted the next track that had been queued up.
“I don’t know how much you want to… we don’t have to talk a lot about it, but the first verse of this song… was inspired by a conversation you and I had, and it was January 2020, and we’d been on vacation together with the kids. And we were on our way home, and my mood had changed, and it was, like, the first year that I felt I had to hold myself accountable for being an adult.
“Whereas the year before that, when I left Simon [Adele’s ex-husband] and that, you and Jules and the kids were so integral in looking after me and Angelo and making sure [we were OK]... you were like an adult to me, you and Julia were always giving me advice.
“So, I remember saying to you on the way home, you just seemed down, and you let it all out to me that you didn’t feel strong and we were having a six-hour conversation about it the whole way home.”
“It was work stuff, and the internet, and all those things,” James recalled, while Adele continued: “It got me thinking, I felt so unsafe with you feeling unsafe, because you’ve always been [a steady figure], since I was like 21, you’ve always been like that.
“So, I went to the studio a couple of weeks later, I wrote this song, and I sang it into my phone and sent it to you, and I remember you saying, ‘that’s exactly how I was feeling’.”
“It was everything that I was feeling,” an emotional James agreed. “I was floored by how you’d managed to take everything that I was feeling about myself and life and just put it in a verse. It was such a privilege that, from a conversation so honest between two friends, that you would create such a thing.”
The two then began a poignant – and tearful – rendition of Adele’s I Drink Wine, taken from her fourth album 30.
7. Adele is probably not going to be reaching EGOT status any time soon
On a lighter note, James pointed out that since their first Carpool Karaoke experience, Adele is now only one award away from EGOT status, as the recipient of an Emmy, Grammy and Oscar.
However, she ruled out a future Tony win.
“I really don’t think that is ever going to happen,” she began, before candidly stating: “I would never write a musical or anything like that, because I fucking hate musicals. I don’t think I’ve ever said how much I fucking hate them. I just don’t need to hear everything in fucking song all of the time. You know?”
“I also think that EGO suits me better,” she joked.
8. Both Adele and James then shed some tears as they reflect on his impending move back to the UK
“I keep thinking this is the last Carpool Karaoke I’m ever going to do, it’s a lot!” James began.
“I’ll miss everything [about The Late, Late Show]. I think I underestimated how many friends I’d make, it’s like a family, so more than anything I’ll just miss going into work with my friends every day. And I’m really going to miss Los Angeles. I love it here. It’s been a brilliant adventure, but I’m just so certain that it’s time for us as a family, with people getting older and people that we miss, it’s time to go home.”
Adele later became tearful as she told the presenter: “You’re one of my best friends in the whole world. I’m going to miss you so much. “
James insisted: “Our friendship, and our families’ friendship, has absolutely nothing to do with distance. And time.”
“I’m just not ready to come back yet, otherwise I would come back with you,” Adele admitted.
Ending on a laugh as they hugged it out through their tears, James said: “The craziest thing is… I’m going to see you tomorrow.”
Watch James Corden and Adele’s final Carpool Karaoke in the video above.