Paul O'Grady
Encyclopedia
Paul James Michael O'Grady MBE
(born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio DJ. He is best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show
and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live
, as well as his drag queen
comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as whom he performed in various television series including Blankety Blank
(1997–1999) and Lily Live!
(2000–2001). He also appeared in the comedy sitcom Eyes Down
(2003–2004) and presented several travel documentaries.
Born to a working class Irish migrant family in Birkenhead
, O'Grady went through various jobs in his youth, including working in various bars, for the civil service and for social services, moving around the country to do so. It was whilst living in London in 1978 that he first turned his hand to drag, developing the character of Lily Savage based upon various female relatives of his.
In 2003, O'Grady was listed in The Observer
as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2006 he was listed by The Independent
at number 32 in their 101 most influential gay
men and women in Britain. In October 2008, he was appointed MBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours list for services to entertainment. On 23 July 2010, O'Grady received an Honorary Doctor of Arts from De Montfort University
, Leicester, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television, radio and the stage.
, Ireland
, but moved to England in 1936 in search for work, and settled down in the working class area of Birkenhead
. His name was accidentally changed from Grady to O'Grady in a paperwork mistake when he joined the Royal Air Force
and he subsequently decided to keep this altered name. Patrick married Mary Savage (1916–1988), who was born in England but whose parents had also been Irish immigrants, from County Louth
. Patrick and Mary were devout Catholics and brought up their children in the faith. Paul was their third child, born at 7:30am on 14 June 1955 at St. Catherine's Hospital, Tranmere
. His birth, over a decade after that of his siblings Brendan and Sheila, was not planned; his mother was 39 and she only discovered the pregnancy when she visited the doctor complaining of indigestion. Paul O'Grady spent his early life at the family's rented home of 23 Holly Grove, Higher Tranmere, Birkenhead, a house that had been built in a former quarry during the early 1930s, and O'Grady would later remark that the house was always damp and cold and that it also suffered from "ominous cracks" which "would appear in the walls and ceilings overnight".
He initially attended St. Joseph's, a Catholic primary school, where he excelled in all subjects but mathematics, and so his parents, hoping that he had a good future ahead of him, budgeted so that they could afford to send him to a private school
, Redcourt, which was the Roman Catholic primary school attached to St Anselm's College. He subsequently failed the Eleven Plus
exam, meaning that he was unable to gain entry to a grammar school
, much to his mother's dismay, and went instead to the Blessed Edward Campion R.C. Secondary Modern and the Corpus Christi High School. It was here that he had his first homosexual experience, having a brief romance aged twelve with another boy, although in keeping with societal attitudes at the time he still assumed that he was heterosexual.
At the time he was also a huge fan of the popular television series The Avengers
and Batman
, and was enrolled in the cub scouts by his mother, which he hated and left after a month. He later became an altar boy at a local Catholic church, though was dismissed from this position after laughing during a funeral service. Following on from this he joined the Marine cadets, later commenting that he was following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, the cartoon Popeye
. He enjoyed the cadets, and at the advice of his captain joined the Boys' Amateur Boxing Club, where he gained his lifelong love of the sport. Meanwhile, he began playing truant from school, getting him into trouble with his parents, and then got into trouble with the police after he led three other boys into breaking and entering a house to commit burglary. O'Grady's first job was a paper round that he managed to keep for a week, being employed by a woman, Mrs Henshaw, whom his mother despised, and through this and other jobs he saved up to afford Mod clothes, for a time becoming a suedehead.
, working as a clerical assistant for the DHSS, who had offices in Liverpool
that he could commute to from his parents' home every morning. To supplement this income, he also got a job working part-time at the bar of the Royal Air Forces Association
club in Oxton
. He was later called for a disciplinary hearing at the DHSS, who accused him of being incompetent and often late, and at which he decided to resign. Hoping for a better and more exciting life, he got a job at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Virginia Water
, Surrey
, and aged seventeen moved away from his parents' home in Birkenhead and travelled south. He subsequently found the work and accommodation to be appalling, although he noted that it was here that he lost his virginity to a woman whom he had met smoking cannabis
at a party. He did not remain in Surrey long however, as soon after he was arrested, accused of stealing from the hotel and was subsequently fired despite protesting his innocence.
Promptly returning home to Birkenhead, he soon got his old job at the RAFA club back, and also began to increasingly socialise within the Liverpudlian gay scene, attending local meetings of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
and getting a job at a gay bar
, the Bear's Paw, all of which he kept a secret from his parents, to whom he was still not "out of the closet
". Nonetheless, at the time he considered himself to be bisexual, and began having casual sex
with a friend and colleague of his named Diane Jansen. Meanwhile, he had befriended a man named Tony on the gay scene, and they had "hit it off after a prolonged bitching session one night, though we were like chalk and cheese." Becoming best friends, the duo would regularly travel down to London to socialise with Tony's friend, the classical music
conductor John Pritchard (1921-1989), whom O'Grady became very fond of.
When O'Grady was eighteen, his mother suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital, the stress of which caused his father to suffer the same fate within a matter of hours; whilst his mother recovered, his father soon died. Only a few days later, O'Grady's life was further complicated when he learned that Diane was pregnant with his child, a daughter named Sharon Lee Jansen. Following her birth on 16 May 1974, O'Grady agreed to pay £
3 every week towards the upkeep of his daughter, but refused to marry Diane as he had begun to recognise that he was homosexual and did not want to enter a marriage that he would hate.
Briefly working as an assistant clerk at Liverpool Magistrates' Court
, O'Grady subsequently got a job working as a barman at Yates's Wine Lodge
, whilst also working the occasional night at the Bear's Paw. Realising that the wage from these jobs was not enough to support both himself and his daughter, he decided to travel to London in search for work. Moving in as a lodger of a gay couple in Westbourne Green
, he once again only found poorly-paid work as a barman. Meanwhile, it was in London that he first began to associate with drag queen
s, particularly a man named Alistair and his stage partner Phil, who went under the stage name of The Harlequeens. Although he made friends in the city, O'Grady was homesick for Birkenhead and Liverpool, and feeling that he had few prospects in London, returned home.
Employed as an accountant in a Merseyside abattoir belonging to FMC Meats, he eventually became disgusted by the place and gained employment at Conny Home in West Kirby
, a home for disabled and abused children, something he would continue for three years. Subsequently entering into a relationship with an older man named Norman, O'Grady moved into his house in Littlehampton
, although their relationship was strained, with both cheating on one another, and ultimately it broke apart. Moving once more to London, where he rented a flat in Crouch End
, O'Grady initially started busking with a friend in Camden Town
before getting a job as a physiotherapist's assistant at the Royal Northern Hospital
. Being made redundant from the hospital due to public sector cuts, O'Grady took up a job at a gay club called the Showplace, where he befriended a Portuguese lesbian
named Theresa Fernandes, and in May 1977 they legally married in order to prevent her deportation back to Portugal, although eventually lost contact and only gained a divorce in 2005. He subsequently took up a job as a cleaner and a waiter at private functions, working for a series of wealthy clients in London, including an elite escort
service. Following this, he began working for Camden Council
as a peripatetic care officer who would live in with elderly people or dyfunctional families, a job that exposed him to the extreme poverty, poor living conditions and domestic violence faced by many Londoners, and would have a lasting effect on him for many years to come.
, creating the character of Lily Savage in the process. Commenting on this, he would later relate that "I wanted to get up there but be larger than life, a creature that was more cartoon than human. I wasn't sure yet." His debut was on the afternoon of Saturday 7 October 1978, at a pub called the Black Cap, where he mimed the words to the Barbra Streisand
song "Nobody Makes a Pass at Me" from the show Pins and Needles
. Coming offstage to a round of applause, another, more experienced drag act in the changing room remarked to him that "Well done, dahling [sic], You weren't bad, no, not bad at all… You've got something you know, de-ah, raw of course but with a little polish… who knows? A word of advice though. If you're considering getting an act together I'd drop the name. Lily Savage is all right for a bit of camp but no one is going to take an act that sounds like an old scrubber seriously, dahling." Nonetheless, the name, which was based upon his mother's maiden name, was one thing that he would maintain, and he would later recollect that:
Following a holiday to Poland, and discovering that he was owed several more weeks off of work, he agreed to go and visit an ex-boyfriend who was living in Manila
, The Philippines. Managing to afford the fare due to a "sizeable tax rebate" from the Inland Revenue
, O'Grady found Manila to be a "culture shock", having difficulty with the climate, the food and the child sex industry, something which deeply disgusted him. He nonetheless learned to like many things about the city, briefly getting a job as a barman and waiter at a brothel known as Gussie's Bar.
He returned to London in the early 1980s and subsequently achieved fame with his creation of Lily, initially playing to gay clubs and pubs up and down the country. He performed many times at the Goldsmith's Tavern, New Cross
where he'd often precede Vic Reeves
' three-hour show Vic Reeves Big Night Out
before promptly leaving to do a show elsewhere. O'Grady's Lily was best known at the time for an eight-year residency at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern
in south London. As Lily Savage, O'Grady was also in several acts which toured Europe. After appearing at The Edinburgh Festival
and gaining a Perrier Award nomination, O'Grady's Lily Savage act became more mainstream and the character became popular on television, making appearances on the ITV
daytime programme This Morning
and as the 'On the Bed Presenter' on The Big Breakfast
. For a few years O'Grady hosted the game show Blankety Blank
as Lily Savage, for the BBC and later for ITV. There was also a comedy show built around the character, Lily Live!
, appearing on ITV in 2000. Performing as Lily, O'Grady also co-hosted the 1996 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party with Ant & Dec
. O'Grady also appeared along side Cilla Black
and Barbara Windsor
(as Savage) in the 2001 Royal Variety Performance
where the trio performed a rendition of "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" from the musical Gypsy.
It was during the 1980s that O'Grady would meet Brendan Murphy, known as "Murph" or "Murphy" to his friends, who would become his partner.
O'Grady retired the Lily Savage character around 2004. He claimed she had "seen the light, taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France" but on his TV show, he said, "she's escaped the convent and she's heading towards these shores!". On 23 May 2008 on the 500th edition of The Paul O'Grady Show, guest star Julie Goodyear
told O'Grady that Bet Lynch
, the character she played in television soap opera
Coronation Street
, had joined Savage in the French convent. On the 7 October 2009 episode of The Paul O'Grady Show, after being prompted by actor Martin Clunes
to "bring Lily back", O'Grady said he could not because she had been "bricked up in a chimney" by the Mother Superior of the convent.
between 1988 and 1990; in 1990 he appeared in the ITV miniseries Chimera
as Tony Donaldson, a social worker skilled in signing for the deaf.
Abandoning drag, to portray himself, in 2000 he appeared in a six-part travelogue
series entitled Paul O'Grady's Orient, filmed in Shanghai, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Bangkok, Bali and Singapore. This was followed in 2001 by Paul O'Grady's America.
From 2002 onwards, he appeared less as Savage and more often as himself. In 2002 he presented Outtake TV
, a blooper
s show, and in 2003 starred as the lead character in the BBC
sitcom Eyes Down
for two series, as the manager of a northern Bingo hall. He also appeared in Celebrity Driving School for the BBC
.
Richard and Judy
are close friends of O'Grady, and gave him one of his first TV breaks on This Morning
on ITV in the early 90s.
In July 2010 The Sun
tipped that Paul O'Grady may judge acts in next year's series of Britain's Got Talent
at the audition stages.
In December 2010, O'Grady hosted Coronation Street: The Big 50, to mark the end of Coronation Street
's 50th anniversary week. The show featured 9 Corrie stars and 3 "superfans" in the bid to be crowned champions. The "Rovers Regulars" team which consisted of Michael Le Vell
(Kevin Webster
), Barbara Knox
(Rita Sullivan
) and William Roache
(Ken Barlow
) won overall. The show also featured popular ITV show The X Factor
as Kirk Sutherland
went on it, singing Sex on Fire
and judges such as Simon Cowell
praised him. It also featured boy band Boyzone
(Keith Duffy
starred on Corrie), singer Kym Marsh
(who played Michelle Connor
), Rachel Leskovac
(who played Natasha Blakeman
) as well as Norris Cole
and Mary Taylor
who went head to head on Countdown
.
on an episode of the lunchtime celebrity chat show Today with Des and Mel
, something that impressed ITV
enough that they asked him to stand in for O'Connor on other occasions as well. Eventually they decided that O'Grady would be a success if he presented his own daytime television show, and so commissioned a series, The Paul O'Grady Show
, which first aired on October 2004 in the 5 to 6pm slot. The show, which involved O'Grady interviewing celebrity guests, aired at the same time at Channel 4
's similar series Richard and Judy
, creating a friendly rivalry between the two programs for ratings. Despite the competition, O'Grady's was a success, and won a number of awards in 2005, including a BAFTA and the award for Best TV Comedy Entertainment Personality at the British Comedy Awards. The show ran on ITV for three series, before O'Grady fell out with the broadcasting company and decided to switch to Channel 4.
In producing the show, O'Grady worked with many of his old friends, including Andy Collins, his warm-up man, whose job it was to "make sure the [studio] audience is relaxed, happy and ready for the main event".
The show gained a devout following, with an "extraordinary hardcore of fans [who] try to be at as many recordings as possible", in many cases arriving at the studio gates two hours before the advertised starting time in order to get the best seats. O'Grady's biographer Neil Simpson
commented on the crowds coming to see the show being recorded when he related that "Groups of middle aged women dominate - but they are joined by beautiful twenty-something women with flawless make-up, flash City boys with Louis Vuitton
briefcases, hip-looking students out for a good time and pensioners just wanting a laugh in the afternoon." In many cases, fans queuing to see the show had to be turned away because too many had turned up, and for live shows as many as a hundred often had to be turned away.
The fourth series of the show appeared on Channel 4 under the title of The New Paul O'Grady Show and began broadcasting in March 2006. On 24 August 2007 the Daily Mirror revealed that O'Grady had rejected a £5 million deal to return to ITV as the "New Parkinson." Instead he signed a £4 million deal to remain with Channel 4 until the end of 2009.
On 28 June 2008, O'Grady appeared in the Doctor Who
episode The Stolen Earth
. On 6 June 2009, the Daily Mirror confirmed that O'Grady will sign a new two year contract with Channel 4 in autumn 2009 to keep his show on air until the end of 2011. However Channel 4 have told O'Grady that his show will face huge budget cuts, and his salary will most likely be halved. On Monday 21 September 2009, O'Grady returned to present the 11th (including ITV series) and final series of The Paul O'Grady Show. On 14 October 2009, O'Grady agreed to an £8 million deal with ITV to host a Friday prime-time chat-show, to rival that of BBC One
's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
from 2010, after budget talks broke-down with Channel 4.
On 30 November 2009, O'Grady was a guest presenter on ITV's GMTV with Lorraine, in celebration of Lorraine Kelly
's 50th birthday. He has guest starred on Livings paranormal
show, Most Haunted Live!
, after presenter Yvette Fielding
was a guest on his show and invited him on. Also in November 2009, O'Grady reunited with Yvette Fielding
to take part in a 2 part paranormal investigation series called Death In Venice where he and Fielding investigated haunted locations in Venice
. The episodes were called "Vampire Island" and "Demonic Doctor".
On 18 December 2009, Channel 4 broadcast the final ever episode of The Paul O'Grady Show, after 11 series which started in 2004. Guests included in the final line up were, JLS
, Beverley Callard
, Catherine Tate
, William Roache
, Linda Thorson
, Honor Blackman
, Joe McFadden, Natalie Cassidy
, Scott Maslen
, Kate Thornton
and Melanie Sykes
.
in March 2010 about his new ITV
show, saying "I have no idea what format it will take yet because we have not sat down with the producers ... The show will still have dogs and children but I want it to be a bit more adult too."
The programme began on ITV
on Friday 10 September 2010 and ran for 10 episodes, ending on Friday 12 November 2010.
In October 2010, O'Grady attracted media attention when, on an episode of Paul O'Grady Live, he openly criticised the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government for their implementation of mass cuts to government spending on social services, calling them "bastards" and remarking that "Do you know what got my back up? Those Tories hooping and hollering when they heard about the cuts. Gonna scrap the pensions – yeah! – no more wheelchairs – yeah!… I bet when they were children they laughed in Bambi
when his mother got shot." His Bambi quote was soon after quoted by Peter Taffe at the Socialism 2010 conference. Meanwhile, O'Grady also used the show to voice his support for those student protesters who had occupied and vandalised the headquarters of the Conservative Party at Millbank Tower
on Wednesday 10 November 2010., It was revealed on 6 October 2011, that ITV
had axed his show after 2 series.
, the musical Annie
as "Miss Hannigan" (as Lily Savage), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as "the Childcatcher" and in the pantomime
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
as the "Wicked Queen". He has been quoted as saying "I seem to be making a living frightening children". O'Grady announced on 18 October 2009 that he would be doing pantomime again in 2009-10 in Wimbledon
. He appeared at the Mayflower Southampton as Lily Savage in Aladdin in 2010.
to present the Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2. Then, later in December 2003, O'Grady presented a two-part documentary about Cilla Black
's illustrious career, with contributions from Black's other celebrity friends. O'Grady then presented his own radio show for the first time on Christmas Day afternoon of that year.
On 28 December 2003, O'Grady chose the tracks on Desert Island Discs
on BBC Radio 4
.
Throughout 2004 and 2005, O'Grady voiced many adverts for other local radio stations.
O'Grady returned to Radio 2
on Easter Saturday 2006, with his very own live 3-hour special radio show. The show featured special guests and celebrity chat, the best music and a whole host of games and competitions. O'Grady also taste-tested a selection of the finest Easter Eggs in a search for Britain's Best.
O'Grady then stood in for Elaine Paige on her Sunday radio show Elaine Paige on Sunday
for two weeks, on 28 January and 4 February 2007. John Barrowman
then took over from O'Grady for the following two weeks, before Paige returned.
O'Grady returned with his own show on Easter Monday 2007. The show featured special guests and celebrity chat, the best music and a whole host of games and competitions.
In January 2008, O'Grady once again presented Elaine Paige on Sunday, on 13, 20 and 27 January. He sat in for her once again on 31 August, and again on 9 November.
On Christmas 2008, O'Grady returned to Radio 2 with his own show The Paul O'Grady Christmas Show, featuring a seasonal mix of Christmas music and some of the biggest hits of the year, including music from McFly
and Girls Aloud
.
O'Grady presented a two-part documentary on New Year's Eve and New Years Day 2008 on Radio 2, which was a tribute to Bill Cotton
.
From 22 February 2009, O'Grady returned to Elaine Paige on Sunday to present the show for a month, whilst Paige was on tour.
After 6 years, O'Grady was given his own show on BBC Radio 2
entitled Paul O'Grady On The Wireless
, each Sunday.
O'Grady once again presented a Christmas Day show in 2009, from 11am until 1pm. Like The Paul O'Grady Christmas Show that he presented last year, the show featured a round-up of the nation's favourite pantos. There was also a Christmas Motown Triple, a Carpenters Christmas Triple, and Christmas Thank Yous.
On 7 September 2010, O'Grady presented 'Come To The Cabaret', a documentary celebrating the boozy, glitzy and subversive delights of the cabaret.
For the third year running, O'Grady once again presented a special show on Christmas Day. This year, the show was three hours long, running on Christmas morning from 10.00am until 1.00pm. There were Christmas phone messages from celebrity callers, and Christmas triples from Bette Middler, Sir Cliff Richard
and Dolly Parton
.
gay. However, he has previously had relationships with women as well as men
, and married a Portuguese
lesbian
, Teresa Fernandes, who was from a Catholic
family, at Harrow Road
register office
, London, on 1 April 1977 in a marriage of convenience
. They separated in 1980, before eventually divorcing in 2005. He is very close to his daughter Sharyn, who married her childhood friend Philip Mousley at Liverpool Town Hall on 30 July 2005. O'Grady's long-term lover and business partner of 20 years was Irish television producer
Brendan Frank Murphy (4 March 1956 – 9 June 2005), who was HIV
+ and died of brain cancer at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
, London, five days before O'Grady's fiftieth birthday. After the first show of series three of The Paul O'Grady Show, there was a tribute to him.
O'Grady owns a flat in London, and a farm in Aldington
near Ashford, Kent
where his neighbour is Julian Clary
. The farm is stocked with 32 animals, including a flock of geese which O'Grady refers to as the "Geese-stapo" (a pun on the Gestapo
). O'Grady had a grey Shih Tzu
/Bichon Frise
crossbreed dog named Buster Elvis Savage, who was euthanised on 19 November 2009, after he was diagnosed with cancer. A spokeswoman said "Buster had been suffering and in a lot of pain. Putting him down was the kind thing to do." O'Grady would later devote the second volume of his autobiography to his canine companion, describing him as "The greatest canine star since Lassie
."
This came a few days after O'Grady announced on his show that Buster was 'in retirement' after viewers had asked if Buster had been given away, as Buster frequently appeared on his TV show with him, but has recently been replaced by one of O'Grady's other dogs, Olga, a Cairn Terrier after whom O'Grady named his recently formed production company, 'Olga TV'. He also has another dog called Louie, who only appeared a few times in the first ITV series (mainly due to his bad behaviour), before he adopted Olga live on air. On 29 September 2009, O'Grady adopted a puppy called Bullseye, who appeared on his show after much nagging from the crowd.
O'Grady became a grandfather on 26 December 2006, when his daughter Sharyn gave birth to a son, Abel. He revealed on his show on 2 December 2009 that he had become a grandfather again as Sharyn had given birth to a girl in the early hours of that morning.
O'Grady is publicly known for having had many high profile and celebrity friends, including the late politician Mo Mowlam
, actresses Amanda Mealing
and Barbara Windsor
, comedienne Brenda Gilhoohy, and singer Cilla Black
.
for two years. O'Grady went back to his 40-a-day habit after his lover and business partner Brendan Murphy died; he had continued to work on the show at the same time as nursing Murphy. He suffered a second heart attack on 30 June 2006; again he was taken to the William Harvey Hospital
and into intensive care. He was given an angioplasty
operation before being moved to a cardiac unit. He was released on 4 July and again promised to give up smoking. He therefore postponed the new series of his show from 4 September to the end of the month. The delayed second series started on 25 September 2006, and ran over three weeks into January (for the only time in the show's history), due to its 3 week delay start.
who noted that the book did not fall into the most common celebrity biography traps of being ghost written, settling scores or not sounding like it had been written by its subject. His second book entitled The Devil Rides Out: The Second Coming was released on the 16 September 2010. He confirmed on 14 October 2010, during an interview on Loose Women
, that he will write a third and final chapter.
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
(born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio DJ. He is best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show
The Paul O'Grady Show
The Paul O'Grady Show was a BAFTA award-winning British comedy chat show hosted by Birkenhead-born comedian Paul O'Grady. The format was originally devised by Granada Television and was broadcast on ITV before moving to Channel 4...
and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live
Paul O'Grady Live
Paul O'Grady Live was a British comedy chat show hosted by Paul O'Grady, that began airing on 10 September 2010 on ITV1 and ITV1 HD/STV HD/UTV HD in the United Kingdom. The show is a Friday night chat show that features a mixture of celebrity guests, airing at 21:00. The show culminates with...
, as well as his drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as whom he performed in various television series including Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1978 Australian game show Blankety Blanks ....
(1997–1999) and Lily Live!
Lily Live!
Lily Live! was a flamboyant live/scripted comedy show which was made by LWT and broadcast on ITV in 2000 starring Paul O'Grady as Lily Savage.A second series of five shows was made in 2001....
(2000–2001). He also appeared in the comedy sitcom Eyes Down
Eyes Down
Eyes Down is a comedy starring Paul O'Grady as Ray Temple, the manager of a bingo hall in Liverpool, England called The Rio, although the series was filmed in Rayners Lane in London. Although it had moderate ratings, the programme only lasted for two series until it was cancelled by the BBC in 2004...
(2003–2004) and presented several travel documentaries.
Born to a working class Irish migrant family in Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
, O'Grady went through various jobs in his youth, including working in various bars, for the civil service and for social services, moving around the country to do so. It was whilst living in London in 1978 that he first turned his hand to drag, developing the character of Lily Savage based upon various female relatives of his.
In 2003, O'Grady was listed in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2006 he was listed by The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
at number 32 in their 101 most influential gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
men and women in Britain. In October 2008, he was appointed MBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours list for services to entertainment. On 23 July 2010, O'Grady received an Honorary Doctor of Arts from De Montfort University
De Montfort University
De Montfort University is a public research and teaching university situated in the medieval Old Town of Leicester, England, adjacent to the River Soar and the Leicester Castle Gardens...
, Leicester, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television, radio and the stage.
Early life: 1955–71
Paul O'Grady's father, Patrick "Paddy" Grady (died 1973), had grown up on a farm in Ballincurry, County RoscommonCounty Roscommon
County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, but moved to England in 1936 in search for work, and settled down in the working class area of Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
. His name was accidentally changed from Grady to O'Grady in a paperwork mistake when he joined the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
and he subsequently decided to keep this altered name. Patrick married Mary Savage (1916–1988), who was born in England but whose parents had also been Irish immigrants, from County Louth
County Louth
County Louth is a county of Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Louth. Louth County Council is the local authority for the county...
. Patrick and Mary were devout Catholics and brought up their children in the faith. Paul was their third child, born at 7:30am on 14 June 1955 at St. Catherine's Hospital, Tranmere
Tranmere, Merseyside
Tranmere is a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively, it is also a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, it was part of the County Borough of Birkenhead, within the geographical county of Cheshire...
. His birth, over a decade after that of his siblings Brendan and Sheila, was not planned; his mother was 39 and she only discovered the pregnancy when she visited the doctor complaining of indigestion. Paul O'Grady spent his early life at the family's rented home of 23 Holly Grove, Higher Tranmere, Birkenhead, a house that had been built in a former quarry during the early 1930s, and O'Grady would later remark that the house was always damp and cold and that it also suffered from "ominous cracks" which "would appear in the walls and ceilings overnight".
He initially attended St. Joseph's, a Catholic primary school, where he excelled in all subjects but mathematics, and so his parents, hoping that he had a good future ahead of him, budgeted so that they could afford to send him to a private school
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
, Redcourt, which was the Roman Catholic primary school attached to St Anselm's College. He subsequently failed the Eleven Plus
Eleven plus
In the United Kingdom, the 11-plus or Eleven plus is an examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education, governing admission to various types of secondary school. The name derives from the age group for secondary entry: 11–12 years...
exam, meaning that he was unable to gain entry to a grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, much to his mother's dismay, and went instead to the Blessed Edward Campion R.C. Secondary Modern and the Corpus Christi High School. It was here that he had his first homosexual experience, having a brief romance aged twelve with another boy, although in keeping with societal attitudes at the time he still assumed that he was heterosexual.
At the time he was also a huge fan of the popular television series The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
and Batman
Batman (TV series)
Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
, and was enrolled in the cub scouts by his mother, which he hated and left after a month. He later became an altar boy at a local Catholic church, though was dismissed from this position after laughing during a funeral service. Following on from this he joined the Marine cadets, later commenting that he was following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, the cartoon Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
. He enjoyed the cadets, and at the advice of his captain joined the Boys' Amateur Boxing Club, where he gained his lifelong love of the sport. Meanwhile, he began playing truant from school, getting him into trouble with his parents, and then got into trouble with the police after he led three other boys into breaking and entering a house to commit burglary. O'Grady's first job was a paper round that he managed to keep for a week, being employed by a woman, Mrs Henshaw, whom his mother despised, and through this and other jobs he saved up to afford Mod clothes, for a time becoming a suedehead.
Early adulthood: 1972–76
After leaving school aged sixteen, O'Grady's mother got him a job in the civil serviceCivil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
, working as a clerical assistant for the DHSS, who had offices in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
that he could commute to from his parents' home every morning. To supplement this income, he also got a job working part-time at the bar of the Royal Air Forces Association
Royal Air Forces Association
The Royal Air Forces Association, more often known as RAF Association, or simply RAFA, is a UK based charitable organization which provides care and support to serving and retired members of the "Royal Air Forces" and their dependents.The organisation, which was formed in 1943, receives no funding...
club in Oxton
Oxton, Merseyside
Oxton is a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Administratively it is a ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Originally a village in its own right, it became part of the Municipal Borough of Birkenhead upon its creation in 1877...
. He was later called for a disciplinary hearing at the DHSS, who accused him of being incompetent and often late, and at which he decided to resign. Hoping for a better and more exciting life, he got a job at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Virginia Water
Virginia Water
Virginia Water is an affluent village, a lake and, originally, a stream, the village being in the Runnymede Borough Council in Surrey and the bodies of water stretching over the borders of Runnymede, Old Windsor and Sunninghill and Ascot, England....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, and aged seventeen moved away from his parents' home in Birkenhead and travelled south. He subsequently found the work and accommodation to be appalling, although he noted that it was here that he lost his virginity to a woman whom he had met smoking cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
at a party. He did not remain in Surrey long however, as soon after he was arrested, accused of stealing from the hotel and was subsequently fired despite protesting his innocence.
Promptly returning home to Birkenhead, he soon got his old job at the RAFA club back, and also began to increasingly socialise within the Liverpudlian gay scene, attending local meetings of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality
Campaign for Homosexual Equality
The Campaign for Homosexual Equality is one of the oldest gay rights organisations in the United Kingdom. It is a membership organisation which aims to promote legal and social equality for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals in England and Wales...
and getting a job at a gay bar
Gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
, the Bear's Paw, all of which he kept a secret from his parents, to whom he was still not "out of the closet
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
". Nonetheless, at the time he considered himself to be bisexual, and began having casual sex
Casual sex
Casual sex or hooking up refers to certain types of human sexual activity outside the context of a romantic relationship. The term is not always used consistently: some use it to refer to any extramarital sex, some use it to refer to sex in a casual relationship, whereas others reserve its use for...
with a friend and colleague of his named Diane Jansen. Meanwhile, he had befriended a man named Tony on the gay scene, and they had "hit it off after a prolonged bitching session one night, though we were like chalk and cheese." Becoming best friends, the duo would regularly travel down to London to socialise with Tony's friend, the classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
conductor John Pritchard (1921-1989), whom O'Grady became very fond of.
When O'Grady was eighteen, his mother suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital, the stress of which caused his father to suffer the same fate within a matter of hours; whilst his mother recovered, his father soon died. Only a few days later, O'Grady's life was further complicated when he learned that Diane was pregnant with his child, a daughter named Sharon Lee Jansen. Following her birth on 16 May 1974, O'Grady agreed to pay £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
3 every week towards the upkeep of his daughter, but refused to marry Diane as he had begun to recognise that he was homosexual and did not want to enter a marriage that he would hate.
Briefly working as an assistant clerk at Liverpool Magistrates' Court
Magistrates Courts, Liverpool
The Magistrates Courts is a court building on Dale Street, Liverpool. It is a Grade II listed building designed by John Weightman built between 1857-1859. Until the 1970s buildings in Great Crosshall Street were used for juvenile court hearings until a new purpose-built complex was opened...
, O'Grady subsequently got a job working as a barman at Yates's Wine Lodge
Yates's
Yates's is a pub chain, founded as Yates Wine Lodge in Oldham, in North West England by Peter and Simon Yates in 1884.-Business:There are over 70 Yates's pubs or bars in the United Kingdom however, there is no longer one in Oldham. The site of the original Yates' Wine Lodge is marked by a plaque on...
, whilst also working the occasional night at the Bear's Paw. Realising that the wage from these jobs was not enough to support both himself and his daughter, he decided to travel to London in search for work. Moving in as a lodger of a gay couple in Westbourne Green
Westbourne Green
Westbourne Green is an area of London on the western edge of the City of Westminster.-Transport and locale:Nearby places*Paddington*Notting Hill*Bayswater*Warwick Avenue...
, he once again only found poorly-paid work as a barman. Meanwhile, it was in London that he first began to associate with drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
s, particularly a man named Alistair and his stage partner Phil, who went under the stage name of The Harlequeens. Although he made friends in the city, O'Grady was homesick for Birkenhead and Liverpool, and feeling that he had few prospects in London, returned home.
Employed as an accountant in a Merseyside abattoir belonging to FMC Meats, he eventually became disgusted by the place and gained employment at Conny Home in West Kirby
West Kirby
West Kirby is a town on the north-west corner of the coast of the Wirral Peninsula, England, at the mouth of the River Dee across from the Point of Ayr in North Wales. To the north-east of the town lies Hoylake, with the suburbs of Grange and Newton to the east, and the village of Caldy to the...
, a home for disabled and abused children, something he would continue for three years. Subsequently entering into a relationship with an older man named Norman, O'Grady moved into his house in Littlehampton
Littlehampton
Littlehampton is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, on the east bank at the mouth of the River Arun. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton and east of the county town of Chichester....
, although their relationship was strained, with both cheating on one another, and ultimately it broke apart. Moving once more to London, where he rented a flat in Crouch End
Crouch End
Crouch End is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey.- Location :Crouch End is in a valley between Harringay to the east, Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green to the north, Finsbury Park and Archway to the south and Highgate to the west...
, O'Grady initially started busking with a friend in Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
before getting a job as a physiotherapist's assistant at the Royal Northern Hospital
Royal Northern Hospital
The Royal Northern Hospital was a general hospital on Holloway Road, London N7, near Tollington Way. It had inpatient, outpatient, accident and emergency facilities and was also a centre for postgraduate education. Originally located at King's Cross, it began as an independent and voluntary...
. Being made redundant from the hospital due to public sector cuts, O'Grady took up a job at a gay club called the Showplace, where he befriended a Portuguese lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
named Theresa Fernandes, and in May 1977 they legally married in order to prevent her deportation back to Portugal, although eventually lost contact and only gained a divorce in 2005. He subsequently took up a job as a cleaner and a waiter at private functions, working for a series of wealthy clients in London, including an elite escort
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
service. Following this, he began working for Camden Council
Camden London Borough Council
Camden London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London...
as a peripatetic care officer who would live in with elderly people or dyfunctional families, a job that exposed him to the extreme poverty, poor living conditions and domestic violence faced by many Londoners, and would have a lasting effect on him for many years to come.
Lily Savage and Manila: 1978–80
It was whilst working for Camden social services that O'Grady made his first attempt at putting together a drag actDrag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
, creating the character of Lily Savage in the process. Commenting on this, he would later relate that "I wanted to get up there but be larger than life, a creature that was more cartoon than human. I wasn't sure yet." His debut was on the afternoon of Saturday 7 October 1978, at a pub called the Black Cap, where he mimed the words to the Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
song "Nobody Makes a Pass at Me" from the show Pins and Needles
Pins and Needles
Pins and Needles is a musical revue with a book by Arthur Arent, Marc Blitzstein, Emmanuel Eisenberg, Charles Friedman, David Gregory, Joseph Schrank, Arnold B. Horwitt, John Latouche, and Harold Rome and music and lyrics by Rome...
. Coming offstage to a round of applause, another, more experienced drag act in the changing room remarked to him that "Well done, dahling [sic], You weren't bad, no, not bad at all… You've got something you know, de-ah, raw of course but with a little polish… who knows? A word of advice though. If you're considering getting an act together I'd drop the name. Lily Savage is all right for a bit of camp but no one is going to take an act that sounds like an old scrubber seriously, dahling." Nonetheless, the name, which was based upon his mother's maiden name, was one thing that he would maintain, and he would later recollect that:
- I've frequently been asked over the years who Lily Savage was based on and I've always answered that it was no one in particular and she was just a figment of my imagination. The truth, I realize now, is that Lily owes a lot to the women I encountered in my childhood. Characteristics and attitudes were observed and absorbed, Aunty Chris's in particular, and they provided the roots and compost for the Lily that would germinate and grow later on.
Following a holiday to Poland, and discovering that he was owed several more weeks off of work, he agreed to go and visit an ex-boyfriend who was living in Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, The Philippines. Managing to afford the fare due to a "sizeable tax rebate" from the Inland Revenue
Inland Revenue
The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, petroleum revenue tax and stamp duty...
, O'Grady found Manila to be a "culture shock", having difficulty with the climate, the food and the child sex industry, something which deeply disgusted him. He nonetheless learned to like many things about the city, briefly getting a job as a barman and waiter at a brothel known as Gussie's Bar.
Success of Lily Savage: 1980s
New Cross
New Cross is a district and ward of the London Borough of Lewisham, England. It is situated 4 miles south-east of Charing Cross. The ward covered by London post town and the SE 14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich...
where he'd often precede Vic Reeves
Vic Reeves
James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....
' three-hour show Vic Reeves Big Night Out
Vic Reeves Big Night Out
Vic Reeves Big Night Out was a cult British comedy stage show and later TV series which ran on Channel 4 for two series in 1990 and 1991, as well as a New Year special...
before promptly leaving to do a show elsewhere. O'Grady's Lily was best known at the time for an eight-year residency at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern
Royal Vauxhall Tavern
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is a gay nightclub in London. It is also known as the RVT. It is South London's oldest surviving gay venue .-Early history:...
in south London. As Lily Savage, O'Grady was also in several acts which toured Europe. After appearing at The Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
and gaining a Perrier Award nomination, O'Grady's Lily Savage act became more mainstream and the character became popular on television, making appearances on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
daytime programme This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
and as the 'On the Bed Presenter' on The Big Breakfast
The Big Breakfast
The Big Breakfast was a British light entertainment television show shown on Channel 4 and S4C each weekday morning from 28 September 1992 until 29 March 2002 during which period 2,482 shows were produced. The Big Breakfast was produced by Planet 24, the production company co-owned by former...
. For a few years O'Grady hosted the game show Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank
Blankety Blank is a British comedy game show based on the 1977–1978 Australian game show Blankety Blanks ....
as Lily Savage, for the BBC and later for ITV. There was also a comedy show built around the character, Lily Live!
Lily Live!
Lily Live! was a flamboyant live/scripted comedy show which was made by LWT and broadcast on ITV in 2000 starring Paul O'Grady as Lily Savage.A second series of five shows was made in 2001....
, appearing on ITV in 2000. Performing as Lily, O'Grady also co-hosted the 1996 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party with Ant & Dec
Ant & Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...
. O'Grady also appeared along side Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
and Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....
(as Savage) in the 2001 Royal Variety Performance
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
where the trio performed a rendition of "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" from the musical Gypsy.
It was during the 1980s that O'Grady would meet Brendan Murphy, known as "Murph" or "Murphy" to his friends, who would become his partner.
O'Grady retired the Lily Savage character around 2004. He claimed she had "seen the light, taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France" but on his TV show, he said, "she's escaped the convent and she's heading towards these shores!". On 23 May 2008 on the 500th edition of The Paul O'Grady Show, guest star Julie Goodyear
Julie Goodyear
Julie Goodyear, MBE is an English television actress and media personality, best known for playing the long-running role of pub landlady Bet Lynch on British soap opera Coronation Street.-Biography:...
told O'Grady that Bet Lynch
Bet Lynch
Elizabeth Theresa "Bet" Lynch is a fictional character from the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. The character is no longer part of current storylines. Portrayed by actress Julie Goodyear the character first appears onscreen during the episode airing on 23 May 1966. The character...
, the character she played in television soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
, had joined Savage in the French convent. On the 7 October 2009 episode of The Paul O'Grady Show, after being prompted by actor Martin Clunes
Martin Clunes
Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, Doctor Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin and the title character in Reggie Perrin....
to "bring Lily back", O'Grady said he could not because she had been "bricked up in a chimney" by the Mother Superior of the convent.
Return of Lily Savage: 2010–11
However, in March 2010 it was announced that Lily Savage would be resurrected for one last time in the Christmas pantomime Aladdin – A Wish Come True at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, from December 2010 till January 2011.Television career: 1988–present
Following the success of Lily Savage, O'Grady played a prostitute informant, Roxanne, in several episodes of The BillThe Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
between 1988 and 1990; in 1990 he appeared in the ITV miniseries Chimera
Chimera (film)
Chimera is a 1991 science fiction miniseries directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, adapted by Stephen Gallagher from his 1982 novel of the same name....
as Tony Donaldson, a social worker skilled in signing for the deaf.
Abandoning drag, to portray himself, in 2000 he appeared in a six-part travelogue
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
series entitled Paul O'Grady's Orient, filmed in Shanghai, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Bangkok, Bali and Singapore. This was followed in 2001 by Paul O'Grady's America.
From 2002 onwards, he appeared less as Savage and more often as himself. In 2002 he presented Outtake TV
Outtake TV
Outtake TV is a blooper show originally hosted by Paul O'Grady from 2002 to 2003, then, by Anne Robinson from 2004 to 2009 and as of 2010, Rufus Hound. Robinson had been presenting the show 2004 to 2009 and airing on BBC One. It replaced the channel's original blooper show Auntie's Bloomers...
, a blooper
Blooper
A blooper, also known as an outtake or boner is a short sequence of a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms of misspoken words...
s show, and in 2003 starred as the lead character in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sitcom Eyes Down
Eyes Down
Eyes Down is a comedy starring Paul O'Grady as Ray Temple, the manager of a bingo hall in Liverpool, England called The Rio, although the series was filmed in Rayners Lane in London. Although it had moderate ratings, the programme only lasted for two series until it was cancelled by the BBC in 2004...
for two series, as the manager of a northern Bingo hall. He also appeared in Celebrity Driving School for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a married couple who are both British television presenters and columnists. Since their marriage, their television appearances have been largely made as a couple. They are best known for presenting This Morning and...
are close friends of O'Grady, and gave him one of his first TV breaks on This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
on ITV in the early 90s.
In July 2010 The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
tipped that Paul O'Grady may judge acts in next year's series of Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent
Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...
at the audition stages.
In December 2010, O'Grady hosted Coronation Street: The Big 50, to mark the end of Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
's 50th anniversary week. The show featured 9 Corrie stars and 3 "superfans" in the bid to be crowned champions. The "Rovers Regulars" team which consisted of Michael Le Vell
Michael Le Vell
Michael Le Vell is an English character actor, who since 1983 has played the role of garage mechanic, Kevin Webster, in the soap opera Coronation Street....
(Kevin Webster
Kevin Webster
Kevin John Webster is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Michael Le Vell, the character first appeared onscreen on 19 October 1983...
), Barbara Knox
Barbara Knox
Barbara Knox, MBE , is an English actress, best known for playing Rita Sullivan in the television soap opera Coronation Street.-Early life:Knox was born in Oldham, Lancashire...
(Rita Sullivan
Rita Sullivan
Rita Sullivan is a long-standing character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street...
) and William Roache
William Roache
William Patrick Harry Roache MBE is a British actor, best known for his role as Ken Barlow in the soap opera Coronation Street...
(Ken Barlow
Ken Barlow
Kenneth "Ken" Barlow is a long-standing fictional character from the ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by William Roache, and created by Tony Warren. He is currently the world's longest-serving soap opera character, having appeared continuously from the programme's inception in December...
) won overall. The show also featured popular ITV show The X Factor
The X Factor (UK)
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international X Factor franchise. The seven series of the show to date...
as Kirk Sutherland
Kirk Sutherland
Kirk Sutherland is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. The character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 22 May 2000, played by an uncredited actor ....
went on it, singing Sex on Fire
Sex on Fire
"Sex on Fire" is the first single to be taken from Kings of Leon's fourth studio album Only by the Night and as of September 2009, the second most-downloaded digital single ever in the United Kingdom...
and judges such as Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
praised him. It also featured boy band Boyzone
Boyzone
Boyzone are an Irish boy band comprising Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating,Shane Lynch, and formerly Stephen Gately. Boyzone have 19 singles in the top 40 UK charts and 21 singles in the Ire charts. The group currently have 6 UK number one singles and 9 number one singles in Ireland with 12...
(Keith Duffy
Keith Duffy
Keith Peter Thomas Francis John Duffy is an Irish singer-songwriter, actor, drummer, dancer and television presenter. He began his career as part of Boyzone in the 1990s. In the 2000s, he achieved critical acclaim for his acting roles, particularly in soap operas such as Coronation Street and Fair...
starred on Corrie), singer Kym Marsh
Kym Marsh
Kimberley Gail Marsh is an English actress and singer.- Early life :Marsh was born in Wigan, Greater Manchester and raised in Garswood, in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside...
(who played Michelle Connor
Michelle Connor
Michelle Sinéad Connor is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Kym Marsh, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 3 April 2006...
), Rachel Leskovac
Rachel Leskovac
Rachel Leskovac is an Olivier award-nominated British actress best known for playing hairdresser Natasha Blakeman in the British soap opera Coronation Street.-Early life:...
(who played Natasha Blakeman
Natasha Blakeman
Natasha Blakeman is a fictional character from the British ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street, played by Rachel Leskovac. The character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 12 May 2008...
) as well as Norris Cole
Norris Cole
Norris Benjamin Cole is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Malcolm Hebden, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 11 March 1994 and remained until his departure on 14 April 1997, only to return on 1 December...
and Mary Taylor
Mary Taylor (Coronation Street)
Mary Taylor , is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. played by Pattie Clare, made her first onscreen appearance on 26 November 2008 and departed on 15 May 2009 but returned in March 2010 and has appeared on the show ever since...
who went head to head on Countdown
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of counting backward to indicate the seconds, days, or other time units remaining before an event occurs or a deadline expires. Typical events for which a countdown is used include the launch of a rocket or spacecraft, the detonation of a bomb, the start of a race, and the...
.
The Paul O'Grady Show: 2004–09
O'Grady stood in for Des O'ConnorDes O'Connor
Des O'Connor, CBE is an English comedian and singer. A former talkshow host, he was the presenter of the long-running Channel 4 gameshow Countdown for two years...
on an episode of the lunchtime celebrity chat show Today with Des and Mel
Today with Des and Mel
Today with Des and Mel was a British television series hosted by Des O'Connor and Melanie Sykes. The show featured celebrity guests, phone-in competitions and chat between the hosts. It was produced by Carlton Television, at The London Studios...
, something that impressed ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
enough that they asked him to stand in for O'Connor on other occasions as well. Eventually they decided that O'Grady would be a success if he presented his own daytime television show, and so commissioned a series, The Paul O'Grady Show
The Paul O'Grady Show
The Paul O'Grady Show was a BAFTA award-winning British comedy chat show hosted by Birkenhead-born comedian Paul O'Grady. The format was originally devised by Granada Television and was broadcast on ITV before moving to Channel 4...
, which first aired on October 2004 in the 5 to 6pm slot. The show, which involved O'Grady interviewing celebrity guests, aired at the same time at Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's similar series Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy
Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a married couple who are both British television presenters and columnists. Since their marriage, their television appearances have been largely made as a couple. They are best known for presenting This Morning and...
, creating a friendly rivalry between the two programs for ratings. Despite the competition, O'Grady's was a success, and won a number of awards in 2005, including a BAFTA and the award for Best TV Comedy Entertainment Personality at the British Comedy Awards. The show ran on ITV for three series, before O'Grady fell out with the broadcasting company and decided to switch to Channel 4.
In producing the show, O'Grady worked with many of his old friends, including Andy Collins, his warm-up man, whose job it was to "make sure the [studio] audience is relaxed, happy and ready for the main event".
The show gained a devout following, with an "extraordinary hardcore of fans [who] try to be at as many recordings as possible", in many cases arriving at the studio gates two hours before the advertised starting time in order to get the best seats. O'Grady's biographer Neil Simpson
Neil Simpson
Neil Alexander Simpson is a former Scottish international footballer known for his time with Aberdeen F.C.....
commented on the crowds coming to see the show being recorded when he related that "Groups of middle aged women dominate - but they are joined by beautiful twenty-something women with flawless make-up, flash City boys with Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier – commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton , or shortened to LV – is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes,...
briefcases, hip-looking students out for a good time and pensioners just wanting a laugh in the afternoon." In many cases, fans queuing to see the show had to be turned away because too many had turned up, and for live shows as many as a hundred often had to be turned away.
The fourth series of the show appeared on Channel 4 under the title of The New Paul O'Grady Show and began broadcasting in March 2006. On 24 August 2007 the Daily Mirror revealed that O'Grady had rejected a £5 million deal to return to ITV as the "New Parkinson." Instead he signed a £4 million deal to remain with Channel 4 until the end of 2009.
On 28 June 2008, O'Grady appeared in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
. On 6 June 2009, the Daily Mirror confirmed that O'Grady will sign a new two year contract with Channel 4 in autumn 2009 to keep his show on air until the end of 2011. However Channel 4 have told O'Grady that his show will face huge budget cuts, and his salary will most likely be halved. On Monday 21 September 2009, O'Grady returned to present the 11th (including ITV series) and final series of The Paul O'Grady Show. On 14 October 2009, O'Grady agreed to an £8 million deal with ITV to host a Friday prime-time chat-show, to rival that of BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross was a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 November 2001. The programme featured Ross's take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band...
from 2010, after budget talks broke-down with Channel 4.
On 30 November 2009, O'Grady was a guest presenter on ITV's GMTV with Lorraine, in celebration of Lorraine Kelly
Lorraine Kelly
Lorraine Kelly is a Scottish television presenter, journalist and actress, best known as a presenter for TV-am, and later GMTV and ITV Breakfast, on Lorraine.-Early life:...
's 50th birthday. He has guest starred on Livings paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
show, Most Haunted Live!
Most Haunted Live!
Most Haunted Live was a spin-off of the paranormal reality television series Most Haunted and was also produced by Antix Productions. The show consists of paranormal investigations broadcast live over a period of one or more nights, usually with interactive sections that involve the...
, after presenter Yvette Fielding
Yvette Fielding
Yvette Fielding is a British broadcaster, producer and actress. She is best known for being the presenter of the TV shows Blue Peter, Most Haunted and Ghosthunting With....-Early life and career:...
was a guest on his show and invited him on. Also in November 2009, O'Grady reunited with Yvette Fielding
Yvette Fielding
Yvette Fielding is a British broadcaster, producer and actress. She is best known for being the presenter of the TV shows Blue Peter, Most Haunted and Ghosthunting With....-Early life and career:...
to take part in a 2 part paranormal investigation series called Death In Venice where he and Fielding investigated haunted locations in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. The episodes were called "Vampire Island" and "Demonic Doctor".
On 18 December 2009, Channel 4 broadcast the final ever episode of The Paul O'Grady Show, after 11 series which started in 2004. Guests included in the final line up were, JLS
JLS
- Music :* JLS, an English boyband** JLS , debut album by JLS* JLS a Spanish Rock band based in Zaragoza , Spain formed in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic by lead Leo Susana.- Organizations :...
, Beverley Callard
Beverley Callard
Beverley Jane McEwan is an English actress, best known for her role as Liz McDonald in ITV's Coronation Street, and Flo Henshaw in BBC Three's Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.-Early life:Beverley Jane Moxon was born in Leeds on 28 March 1957 to Clive and Mavis Moxon...
, Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate
Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...
, William Roache
William Roache
William Patrick Harry Roache MBE is a British actor, best known for his role as Ken Barlow in the soap opera Coronation Street...
, Linda Thorson
Linda Thorson
Linda Thorson is a Canadian actress, most famous for her work as Tara King in The Avengers.-Personal life:...
, Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman
Honor Blackman is an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger .-Early life:...
, Joe McFadden, Natalie Cassidy
Natalie Cassidy
Natalie Ann Cassidy is a British actress, most commonly known for appearing in the television soap EastEnders where she played Sonia Jackson for many years. She has also appeared in the BBC Two sitcom Psychoville and was a contestant on the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing.-Career:As a...
, Scott Maslen
Scott Maslen
Scott Alexander Maslen is an English actor and model, best known for his portrayal as DS Phil Hunter in ITV's The Bill and now Jack Branning on the BBC's flagship soap EastEnders.-Early and personal life:...
, Kate Thornton
Kate Thornton
Kate Thornton is an English journalist and television presenter. Early in her career, she was notable for her articles at the Daily Mirror and for her role as editor of Smash Hits magazine...
and Melanie Sykes
Melanie Sykes
Melanie Ann Sykes is an English television presenter and model.-Career:Melanie Sykes was born to an English father, and an Anglo-Indian mother. She first came to public attention as the bikini-clad girl in the Boddingtons beer advertisements with the broad "Northern" accent in the mid-1990s...
.
Paul O'Grady Live: 2010–11
Paul O'Grady spoke to The PeopleThe People
The People, previously known as the Sunday People, is a British tabloid Sunday-only newspaper. The paper was founded on 16 October 1881.It is published by the Trinity Mirror Group.In July 2011 it had an average daily circulation of 806,544....
in March 2010 about his new ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
show, saying "I have no idea what format it will take yet because we have not sat down with the producers ... The show will still have dogs and children but I want it to be a bit more adult too."
The programme began on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
on Friday 10 September 2010 and ran for 10 episodes, ending on Friday 12 November 2010.
In October 2010, O'Grady attracted media attention when, on an episode of Paul O'Grady Live, he openly criticised the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government for their implementation of mass cuts to government spending on social services, calling them "bastards" and remarking that "Do you know what got my back up? Those Tories hooping and hollering when they heard about the cuts. Gonna scrap the pensions – yeah! – no more wheelchairs – yeah!… I bet when they were children they laughed in Bambi
Bambi
Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
when his mother got shot." His Bambi quote was soon after quoted by Peter Taffe at the Socialism 2010 conference. Meanwhile, O'Grady also used the show to voice his support for those student protesters who had occupied and vandalised the headquarters of the Conservative Party at Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower
Millbank Tower is a high skyscraper in the City of Westminster at Millbank, on the banks of the River Thames in London, in the United Kingdom. The Tower was constructed in 1963 for Vickers and was originally known as Vickers Tower. It was designed by Ronald Ward and Partners and built by John...
on Wednesday 10 November 2010., It was revealed on 6 October 2011, that ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
had axed his show after 2 series.
Theatre
As well as numerous national tours, O'Grady has appeared on stage in Prisoner Cell Block H - The MusicalPrisoner (TV series)
Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...
, the musical Annie
Annie (musical)
Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster...
as "Miss Hannigan" (as Lily Savage), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as "the Childcatcher" and in the pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Snow White
"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
as the "Wicked Queen". He has been quoted as saying "I seem to be making a living frightening children". O'Grady announced on 18 October 2009 that he would be doing pantomime again in 2009-10 in Wimbledon
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
. He appeared at the Mayflower Southampton as Lily Savage in Aladdin in 2010.
Radio work
O'Grady made his radio debut on 12 April 2003, when he stood in for Jonathan RossJonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...
to present the Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2. Then, later in December 2003, O'Grady presented a two-part documentary about Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
's illustrious career, with contributions from Black's other celebrity friends. O'Grady then presented his own radio show for the first time on Christmas Day afternoon of that year.
On 28 December 2003, O'Grady chose the tracks on Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
Throughout 2004 and 2005, O'Grady voiced many adverts for other local radio stations.
O'Grady returned to Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
on Easter Saturday 2006, with his very own live 3-hour special radio show. The show featured special guests and celebrity chat, the best music and a whole host of games and competitions. O'Grady also taste-tested a selection of the finest Easter Eggs in a search for Britain's Best.
O'Grady then stood in for Elaine Paige on her Sunday radio show Elaine Paige on Sunday
Elaine Paige on Sunday
Elaine Paige on Sunday is a showtunes radio programme on BBC Radio 2 hosted by the actress Elaine Paige. Launched in September 2004, the show is produced by Malcolm Prince and regularly attracts 3 million listeners.- Guests :...
for two weeks, on 28 January and 4 February 2007. John Barrowman
John Barrowman
John Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...
then took over from O'Grady for the following two weeks, before Paige returned.
O'Grady returned with his own show on Easter Monday 2007. The show featured special guests and celebrity chat, the best music and a whole host of games and competitions.
In January 2008, O'Grady once again presented Elaine Paige on Sunday, on 13, 20 and 27 January. He sat in for her once again on 31 August, and again on 9 November.
On Christmas 2008, O'Grady returned to Radio 2 with his own show The Paul O'Grady Christmas Show, featuring a seasonal mix of Christmas music and some of the biggest hits of the year, including music from McFly
McFly
McFly are an English pop rock band who first found fame in 2004. The band consists of Tom Fletcher , Danny Jones , Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd . They were signed to the Island Records label from their 2004 launch until December 2007, before creating their own label, Super Records...
and Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are a British and Irish pop girl group based in London. They were created through the ITV1 talent show Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The group consists of Cheryl Cole , Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. They are signed to Fascination Records, a Polydor...
.
O'Grady presented a two-part documentary on New Year's Eve and New Years Day 2008 on Radio 2, which was a tribute to Bill Cotton
Bill Cotton
Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton, CBE was a British television producer and executive, and the son of big-band leader Billy Cotton....
.
From 22 February 2009, O'Grady returned to Elaine Paige on Sunday to present the show for a month, whilst Paige was on tour.
After 6 years, O'Grady was given his own show on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
entitled Paul O'Grady On The Wireless
Paul O'Grady on the Wireless
Paul O'Grady On The Wireless is a radio programme on BBC Radio 2 hosted by the comedian, author and television presenter Paul O'Grady. The show is produced by Malcolm Prince and regularly attracts over two million listeners. The show is broadcast on a Sunday evening on BBC Radio 2 in the United...
, each Sunday.
O'Grady once again presented a Christmas Day show in 2009, from 11am until 1pm. Like The Paul O'Grady Christmas Show that he presented last year, the show featured a round-up of the nation's favourite pantos. There was also a Christmas Motown Triple, a Carpenters Christmas Triple, and Christmas Thank Yous.
On 7 September 2010, O'Grady presented 'Come To The Cabaret', a documentary celebrating the boozy, glitzy and subversive delights of the cabaret.
For the third year running, O'Grady once again presented a special show on Christmas Day. This year, the show was three hours long, running on Christmas morning from 10.00am until 1.00pm. There were Christmas phone messages from celebrity callers, and Christmas triples from Bette Middler, Sir Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
and Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
.
Personal life
O'Grady is openlyComing out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay. However, he has previously had relationships with women as well as men
Bisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
, and married a Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, Teresa Fernandes, who was from a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
family, at Harrow Road
Harrow Road
The Harrow Road is an ancient route in Greater London which runs from Paddington in a northwesterly direction to Harrow. With minor deviations in the 19th and 20th centuries, the route remains otherwise unaltered...
register office
Register office
A register office is a British term for a civil registry, a government office and depository where births, deaths and marriages are officially recorded and where you can get officially married, without a religious ceremony...
, London, on 1 April 1977 in a marriage of convenience
Marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than the reasons of relationship, family, or love. Instead, such a marriage is orchestrated for personal gain or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as political marriage. The phrase is a calque of - a marriage of...
. They separated in 1980, before eventually divorcing in 2005. He is very close to his daughter Sharyn, who married her childhood friend Philip Mousley at Liverpool Town Hall on 30 July 2005. O'Grady's long-term lover and business partner of 20 years was Irish television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
Brendan Frank Murphy (4 March 1956 – 9 June 2005), who was HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
+ and died of brain cancer at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is a public hospital located on Fulham Road, in the Chelsea area of London, England. It is managed by the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and opened in May 1993.-History:...
, London, five days before O'Grady's fiftieth birthday. After the first show of series three of The Paul O'Grady Show, there was a tribute to him.
O'Grady owns a flat in London, and a farm in Aldington
Aldington, Kent
Aldington is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village centre is eight miles south-east of the town of Ashford...
near Ashford, Kent
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. In 2005 it was voted the fourth best place to live in the United Kingdom. It lies on the Great Stour river, the M20 motorway, and the South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 railways. Its agricultural market is one of the most...
where his neighbour is Julian Clary
Julian Clary
Julian Peter McDonald Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
. The farm is stocked with 32 animals, including a flock of geese which O'Grady refers to as the "Geese-stapo" (a pun on the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
). O'Grady had a grey Shih Tzu
Shih Tzu
The Shih Tzu is a breed of dog weighing with long silky hair. The breed originated in China and is among the earliest breeds. Shih Tzu were officially recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1969...
/Bichon Frise
Bichon Frisé
A Bichon Frise , is a small breed of dog of the Bichon type. They are popular pets, similar in appearance to, but larger than, the Maltese.-Etymology and History:...
crossbreed dog named Buster Elvis Savage, who was euthanised on 19 November 2009, after he was diagnosed with cancer. A spokeswoman said "Buster had been suffering and in a lot of pain. Putting him down was the kind thing to do." O'Grady would later devote the second volume of his autobiography to his canine companion, describing him as "The greatest canine star since Lassie
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
."
This came a few days after O'Grady announced on his show that Buster was 'in retirement' after viewers had asked if Buster had been given away, as Buster frequently appeared on his TV show with him, but has recently been replaced by one of O'Grady's other dogs, Olga, a Cairn Terrier after whom O'Grady named his recently formed production company, 'Olga TV'. He also has another dog called Louie, who only appeared a few times in the first ITV series (mainly due to his bad behaviour), before he adopted Olga live on air. On 29 September 2009, O'Grady adopted a puppy called Bullseye, who appeared on his show after much nagging from the crowd.
O'Grady became a grandfather on 26 December 2006, when his daughter Sharyn gave birth to a son, Abel. He revealed on his show on 2 December 2009 that he had become a grandfather again as Sharyn had given birth to a girl in the early hours of that morning.
O'Grady is publicly known for having had many high profile and celebrity friends, including the late politician Mo Mowlam
Mo Mowlam
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.Mowlam's time as Northern...
, actresses Amanda Mealing
Amanda Mealing
Amanda Jane Mealing is a British actress best known for playing Connie Beauchamp in the BBC One medical drama series Holby City.-Early life:...
and Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....
, comedienne Brenda Gilhoohy, and singer Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
.
Health
In April 2002, O'Grady suffered a heart attack after weeks of complaining that he felt unwell; after an emergency operation and weeks of rest, his health recovered and he gave up smokingTobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
for two years. O'Grady went back to his 40-a-day habit after his lover and business partner Brendan Murphy died; he had continued to work on the show at the same time as nursing Murphy. He suffered a second heart attack on 30 June 2006; again he was taken to the William Harvey Hospital
William Harvey Hospital
The William Harvey Hospital, located in Willesborough, Ashford, Kent, England, is one of the three main hospitals in the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust area...
and into intensive care. He was given an angioplasty
Angioplasty
Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel, the latter typically being a result of atherosclerosis. An empty and collapsed balloon on a guide wire, known as a balloon catheter, is passed into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size...
operation before being moved to a cardiac unit. He was released on 4 July and again promised to give up smoking. He therefore postponed the new series of his show from 4 September to the end of the month. The delayed second series started on 25 September 2006, and ran over three weeks into January (for the only time in the show's history), due to its 3 week delay start.
Books
On 18 September 2008, O'Grady released his first autobiography entitled, At My Mother's Knee... And Other Low Joints, which was given a positive review by Private EyePrivate Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
who noted that the book did not fall into the most common celebrity biography traps of being ghost written, settling scores or not sounding like it had been written by its subject. His second book entitled The Devil Rides Out: The Second Coming was released on the 16 September 2010. He confirmed on 14 October 2010, during an interview on Loose Women
Loose Women
Loose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...
, that he will write a third and final chapter.
Stand-up videos
| Title | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Live from the Hackney Empire | 1991 | Live at London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... 's Hackney Empire Hackney Empire The Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney, built in 1901 as a music hall.-History:Hackney Empire is a grade II* listed building... |
| Live: Paying the Rent | 1993 | |
| Live and Outrageous from The Garrick Theatre | 2 June 1997 | Live at London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... 's Garrick Theatre Garrick Theatre The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a... |
| The Live Show | 1 October 1999 |