Paul O'Grady

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Paul James O'Grady (b. 14 June 1955 in Birkenhead, Wirral) is an English comedian and television personality. He is the creator of comic drag character Lily Savage (the "Birkenhead bombshell"), a vampish Liverpudlian woman. He is noted for his strong Scouse accent.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Lily Savage 1.2 Television 2 Personal life 2.1 Health 3 Catchphrases 4 External links

[edit] Biography

O'Grady was brought up in an Irish Catholic household in Tranmere. The address was 23 Holly Grove, in a cul-de-sac near Mersey Park. He attended St Anselm's College, Birkenhead. When he was 19 he worked as a clerk in a magistrate's court and met a woman ten years his senior, with whom he had a daughter, Sharyn. Three years after his daughter was born, Paul wed a Portuguese lesbian waitress called Teresa Fernandes in a marriage of convenience.

His jobs have included civil servant, barman for Yates Wine Lodge, office work in an abattoir and a woodsman. He has also worked in a children's home in Kirkby and spent some years as a peripatetic care officer for camden council. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2006 he was listed in The Guardian as one of the most powerful men in media.

Paul has been a life long fan of Tranmere Rovers Football club.

[edit] Lily Savage

In 1977, Paul went to Manila where he worked as a waiter in Gussy's Bar (also a brothel). It was here he got the idea for Lily Savage, his now famous drag alter-ego. 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. Lily was best known at the time for her eight year residency at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern Vauxhall in London He was in numerous double and treble acts. High Society with Adrella {Peter Searle} L.S.D. with David Dale and Sandra Hush (David Hunter), The Playgirls, again with Hunter and The Glamazons with Paul Banks, a former nurse. He toured the continent with some of these acts appearing at Madame Arthurs in Denmark and various night clubs and theatres in Berlin, Hamburg, Finland, Sweden, Amsterdam, Paris and Israel. After appearing at The Edinburgh Festival for which he was nominated for a Perrier Award he then found the act becoming more mainstream. Lily first became popular on television, making appearances on ITV daytime programme This Morning, and as the 'On the Bed Presenter' on The Big Breakfast, a Channel 4 morning show. O'Grady once played a prostitute called Roxanne in an episode of The Bill. For a few years Lily hosted the game show Blankety Blank for the BBC and later for Talkback Thames shown on ITV, as well as her own comedy show Lily Live! (made by Carlton Television for the ITV Network, 2000). Lily Savage also co-hosted the 1996 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party with Ant & Dec. As well as numerous national tours he has appeared on stage in 'Prisoner of Cell Block H, The Musical,Annie as Miss Hannigan, Chitty,Chitty,Bang Bang as The Childcatcher and the panto 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' as the Wicked Queen. He was quoted as saying 'I seem to be making a living frightening children'

[edit] Television

In 2000 he appeared in a travelogue show as himself, entitled "Paul O'Grady's Orient", which was followed in 2001 by "Paul O'Grady's America". These were amongst his first major television appearances out of drag. From 2002 onwards, he has appeared less as Lily and more often as himself. In 2002 he presented Outtake TV, a bloopers show, and in 2003 for two series starred as the lead character in the BBC sitcom "Eyes Down", as the vicious yet hilarious manager of a northern Bingo hall. He also appeared in Celebrity Driving School for the BBC.

Since then, he has had success as the presenter of his own early evening talk show, The Paul O'Grady Show, on the ITV network. He won the position after he stood in for Des O'Connor on the now defunct lunchtime celebrity chat show Today with Des and Mel. He impressed the producers so much that they commissioned his own series. (The stand in also led to him becoming good friends with co-host Melanie Sykes). The Paul O'Grady Show somewhat controversially ran head to head with Richard and Judy, (who are close friends of Paul, and gave him one of his first TV breaks on This Morning), on rival terrestrial station Channel 4. He has guested on LivingTV's paranormal show, Most Haunted Live, after presenter Yvette Fielding was a guest on his show and invited him on. He holds many awards and in December 2005 he won the Best TV Comedy Entertainment Personality category of the British Comedy Award. In 2004 he won the BAFTA and is also the recipient of two Royal Television Awards and three National Television Awards.

On the 10th January 2006, in a shock decision, O'Grady decided to defect from ITV and take his daytime chat show to Channel 4 after the company which produces Granada programming apparently 'forgot' to renew his contract. It was said that he had wanted to produce the series with his own company and had wanted to from the start but Granada always refused. He is still in an ongoing dispute with ITV, regarding the use of props and studio design for his daytime chat show (The New Paul O'Grady Show). As a consequence of this, O'Grady has decided he never wants to work for ITV again and has pulled out of appearing on a new talent show and host of The British Soap Awards. He was very outspoken in his anger towards ITV for a while after his move to Channel 4, but less so recently. He still can be fairly scathing though towards his former employers who he dismisses at inept and avaricious and he described his exit from ITV at the 2006 TV Quick Awards (at which he won the Ten Years at The Top Award) as 'like leaving the last lifeboat on The Titanic'.

On the 27th March 2006, Paul O'Grady began hosting his talk show, now called The New Paul O'Grady Show, on Channel 4. It is shown weekdays from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and this series ended its run on the 16 June 2006. Channel Four's Richard and Judy went head to head with ITV's Paul O Grady Show during 2004 with the friends being forced against each other, but ever since O'Grady's decision to move to Channel Four, they have agreed to end old quarrels. Richard and Judy and O'Grady share the Channel Four 5pm-6pm slot with each show sharing 3 Months of the Channel 4 teatime schedule.

When Paul retired his Lily Savage character, he claimed she had "seen the light, taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France" but recently on his current TV show, he said, "she's escaped the convent and she's heading towards these shores!", which may signal the return of the Lily Savage character.

[edit] Personal life

O'Grady is openly gay, although he has been married twice. O'Grady is now very close to his daughter, who married her childhood friend Philip Moseley at Liverpool Town Hall on 30 July 2005. His long term lover and business partner of 20 years was Brendan Murphy, a charismatic and no-nonsense irish man who died of cancer on 12 June 2005, two days before Paul's fiftieth birthday.Their relationship was a tempestuous one, the pair frequently being described as 'the gay taylor and burton'. After the first show of series three of the "Paul O'Grady Show", there was a tribute to him.

O'Grady owns a 200-acre farm near Ashford, Kent. The farm is stocked with 28 animals, including a flock of geese which O'Grady refers to as the "Geese-stapo". O'Grady has a grey Bichon Frisé dog called Buster, who usually appears on his TV show with him, or occasionally will be replaced by Paul's other dog, Olga. He also has another dog called Louie, who only appeared a few times in the first ITV series, before he adopted Olga live on air. O'Grady is a frequently traveller on The Orient Express, likes to dress well and has numerous hobbies.

[edit] Health

In April 2002, O'Grady suffered a heart attack after weeks of complaining he felt unwell. After an emergency operation and weeks of rest, Paul's health recovered and he gave up smoking for two years.

O'Grady went back to his 40-a-day habit after ex-lover and business partner Brendan Murphy died in 2005. He had continued to work on the show at the same time as nursing his beloved partner. As a result, he suffered a second heart attack on 30 June 2006 [1]. Again he was taken to the William Harvey Hospital and was taken into intensive care. He was then given an angioplasty operation, before being moved to a cardiac unit. He was released on 4 July and again promised to give up smoking [2]. He therefore postponed the show from 4 September to the end of the month. The delayed second series started on Monday 25 September.

[edit] Catchphrases

O'Grady has a number of catchphrases which he uses on his show regularly;

• "Y'aright?" (Are You Alright?)
• "Evenin' folks"
• "On tonight's show, it's the one and only..."
• "If/when I want your opinion, I'll slap it outta ya"
• "Spend it on yourself"
  (referring to a cash prize)
• "Bert, put that clip on!"
• "Bert, stop picking your nose!"
• "Don't you do your Windy Miller bit at me!"
• "Live at five on four" or "Live on four at five"
• "C'mon Bust!" (to Buster, his dog)
• "Give me strength!"
• "<Insert DVD name here> is out now on DVDVD."
• "Look, butter wouldn't melt in their mouth"
• "Times are hard and friends are few"
• Plays three notes on a xylophone, "We have a fun packed show for you today, campers!"
• "It makes me heave!"
• "Its time to play with my beautiful organ as we play the organ game"
• "I'm not grey! It's ash blonde."
• " Stop sending me your tat!" (Whilst reading the 'post bag')
• "Oh Puh-lease!"
• "No, seriously!"
• "Wikipedia? Sounds like a skin disease" (after someone questioned his age after reading it on here)
• "A Brand spanking new motor"
• "He's like today's Greta Garbo!"
• "A big thank you to all my guests..."
• "Keep Up!" (Speaking to the audience when playing the organ before The Organ Game)
• "Alright, I'm comin!"
• "I was Born Blue-grey, and I shall Die Blue Grey"
• "I look like I've been dug up and hit with a shovel."
• "Why buy a book if you can join a library!" His metaphor for marriage.
• "Riff raff" (referring to the audience)
• "Behave or I'll throw my tea over you!" (to audience)
• "They've only came in for the warm" (reffering to audience)

[edit] External links

• Paul O'Grady at the Internet Movie Database
• Article about move to Channel 4 at digitalspy.co.uk