The life and career of Paul O’Grady

TV presenter and comedian Paul O’Grady sadly died in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

He was one Britain’s best entertainers who went from his drag alter ego Lilly Savage to becoming an entertainment juggernaut on his own

Born in Birkenhead, Liverpool on 14th June 1955 his first career was in London working for Camden Council, but by night he became Lilly Savage which is where his career soon took off. During his career as Lilly he was arrested during a police raid in 1987

Lilly became a national icon presenting many programmes such as Blankety Blank and the Lilly Savage Show on the BBC. Paul retired Lilly in 2000 in a chapel.

In 2004 ITV asked paul to host his own tea time chat show, in 2005 the show left ITV and moved to Channel 4 where he stayed for the next 4 years.

In 2013 the show returned to ITV after 4 years. At the time he also began hosting the popular dog programme Paul O’Grady For the Love of Dogs.

He had also hosted a show on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday evenings from 2008- August 2022.

In 2017, Paul would host a programme made famous by one of his best friends, Cilla Black when hosted the revamp of dating show Blind Date which would run for 3 series from 2017-2020.

Paul was also a frequent campaigner for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

Most recently he was back in the theatre in a production of Annie playing as Miss Hannigan.

Paul lived on a farm in Adlington near Ashford raising animals such as Alpachas, chickens, sheep and of course dogs.

Paul O’Grady’s quick wit and amazing humour is what made him an icon and definitely will be missed.

 

 

 

 

Video Credit- Liverpool Echo Youtube Channel

Random Radio Muslings Youtube Channel

Feature Image: Sky news