David Beckham and Jonathan Ross. Photograph: Brian J. Ritchie/Hotsauce/Rex Features
Jonathan Ross called time last night on what has been nearly a decade of almost solid chatting on the BBC. His guests were the quiet David Beckham, the grizzled Mickey Rourke, and the unforthcoming Jackie Chan.
Of course, any event in which David Beckham takes part, and speaks for a period of time, and appears to be enjoying himself, or at the very least, not in hell, that's news, right? And Chan: "I don't want to be an actor who can fight. I want to be a fighter who can act." You can't beat a sentiment like that. Later, Rourke sat there, looking like a dissected neck muscle, trying to say "disturbing".
But the mix was far more potent than any of its curious ingredients. Tears hung in the air – who would succumb? Ross himself? Roxy Music? The studio audience, the gruff crew? There was a peculiar charge that not even those crappy opening graphics could disarm.
Of course, Ross will revive his strange magic next year on ITV. But a year is a long time and, having bitched and moaned about him for ages, his departure suddenly feels very sudden.
Disaffection has its own momentum, and even the people who weren't bored by Jonathan Ross in an elemental way were nevertheless bored with seeing him on the telly. The Brand/Sachs affair was a flash of madness (I never thought it was Ross's fault; I always thought he had been led astray by Brand. But it was still madness; no animals were harmed in the making of that radio moment).
However, the show had an end-of-the-affair feeling to it. People at the crest can get away with almost anything and people past the crest can get away with almost nothing.
And yet nobody sensible ever said Ross wasn't at the top of his game, and nothing showed that better than his interview with Beckham. Who else would have the nuts to ask whether Fabio Capello's real problem was the fact that his English wasn't good enough? A lovely moment – but the question remained: how good's the game? (interviewing I mean, not football). The problem with celebrity interviews is that these buggers have, since the days of Laurence Olivier, been thinking of ever more outrageous ways to say absolutely nothing. What do you do with that?
Either put those people with someone so funny that the event will be funny however mute they are; or put them with someone so fawning that they will keep on talking, however little they're actually saying.
Nobody has ever been as good as Jonathan Ross at straddling this funny-fawning axis, because it is nearly impossible (flattery has to be sincere; jokes have to be not sincere. You could watch all 273 hours of Ross and still not know how he does it).
However, you know, he was great but he wasn't God. His whole schtick with women was to pretend he wanted to have sex with them. Fine, probably he meant it. But it gave no momentum at all to interviews in which the woman had something to say (I'm picturing, at random, his interview with Sarah Silverman. He leched at her; she looked at him, as if to say "why is he leching at me? Doesn't he know I'm a comedian? Am I supposed to make a joke, or just take it?")
Sometimes when he interviewed male comedians, there'd be the odd two-stags-rutting moment.
And yet, tinged with the romance of severance, last night's show distilled the best of Jonathan Ross: giving Beckham his Yasser Arafat hug. Smiling with real joy at Jackie Chan.
Some people, sports stars, actors sometimes need a bit of space to express themselves but also need a showman to take some of the attention-flak. Ross is brilliant at all that.
The band, the piano, the poofs, all the furniture had started to look a bit old-fashioned, a bit Royal Variety performance (who invented the musical interlude? Logie Baird?).
But actually, the format wasn't broke, and nobody's even fixed it. We've just stamped on it and made a mess. And in due course, it will reappear on ITV.
It doesn't do to get mawkish – it's not the end of the world, certainly not for Ross, who is generally thought to feed on adversity and get a bit lazy in good times. But it's hard to shake the feeling that he was cut down for no good reason, just for the insult of his riotous, unstoppable thriving.
(right) with his wife .
 presented his final episode of '''' on the  after more than nine years. He also finished hosting his programme on . Ross announced his departure from the BBC in January 2010, having decided not to renew his contract with the broadcasting organisation.

The guests that appeared on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' on Friday were English football player , American actor  and , an actor from Hong Kong. Ross has stated that he was "ashamed of" few programmes and that "the vast majority are shows I am proud of." He felt "grateful, lucky and honoured" to have been able to work at the BBC. 

When talking about his programme on BBC Radio 2, during his final pre-recorded three-hour-long edition broadcast yesterday, Jonathan Ross commented: "It has been a tremendous experience for us - obviously I like to think that the place has always been a little livelier while we are around. There were certain periods when it was a little too lively, but it's been a great experience and a learning experience, bizarrely for people of our age." The final song to be played at the end of the show was "", performed by .

Jonathan Ross is expected to present a new television chat show on commercial British channel  at some point in the future. It is believed that  will be the replacement for Jonathan Ross as of 2011.