Hundreds of people turned out to say farewell to Paul O’Grady on Thursday, including a member of the Rolling Stones.
But had the late entertainer been able to attend his own funeral, he may well have ignored Ronnie Wood and gone straight to the labradoodle sitting solemnly in a buggy as the cortege went past – just one of dozens of pups lining his local streets to pay tribute to the biggest dog-lover in showbusiness.
The funeral took place in Aldington, the Kent village where O’Grady had lived for more than 20 years. In his home town of Birkenhead, fans gathered to celebrate his life in their own way, singing along to Who Let the Dogs Out? in the spring sunshine.
“Paul!” was their answer. A suspicious pug surveyed the scene from the basket of a mobility scooter, while a woman waltzed by with her cockapoo.
Back in Kent, O’Grady’s husband, Andre Portasio, arrived at St Rumwold’s church in a horse-drawn carriage with Conchita, one of their dogs, on his lap. A dog-shaped wreath guarded the coffin, a tribute to Buster, a regular on O’Grady’s TV show in the noughties, who died from cancer in 2009.
Sharyn Mousley, O’Grady’s daughter, entered the church with a young man holding the wig of Lily Savage – O’Grady’s drag alter-ego. Lilies were everywhere: on the coffin, and arranged around a photograph of a smiling O’Grady positioned in front of the Grade I-listed church.
A trio of puppies from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home greeted friends and family, with the celebrity chef Andi Oliver and Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay stopping to pet the dogs on their way in.
Among the puppies was Ernie, who had met O’Grady several times during filming For the Love of Dogs, his ITV show about the animal shelter.
“Ernie met Paul two years ago when he was about five weeks old. He’s met him several times. We felt he should come along today,” said Ali Taylor, head of canine behaviour at Battersea.
Up the road in Aldington, the local Women’s Institute (WI) had put on tea and cakes, all of the proceeds from which will go to Battersea. “We wanted to honour Paul because he was very much part of our village. He was lovely, an absolutely lovely man,” said the chair, Ginny Taylor.
The service, for which a bronze statue of O’Grady’s beloved Buster had been placed on top of a leopard-print throw, featured a series of personal tributes to the broadcaster.
The comedian Julian Clary delivered the eulogy at the private service, described afterwards by Rev Canon Roger Martin as “very entertaining”.
The Salvation Army Band played songs including Tomorrow from the musical Annie, in which O’Grady had been starring in a touring production at the time of his death.
The Salvation Army captain, Jo Moir, who mentored O’Grady when he trained as a Salvation Army volunteer for a 2016 TV documentary, paid tribute outside the church.
She said: “Paul had a long association with the Salvation Army back when he was a kid in Birkenhead. He worked with us when he was a social worker – we forget he was a social worker before he was a performer.
“And then in the 1980s, during the HIV and Aids epidemic, he came across us reaching out to the young men, many of whom were dying alone. He never forgot that about the Salvation Army, and he’s been a supporter ever since.”
O’Grady’s coffin was placed next to the grave of his former partner Brendan Murphy, who died in 2005. Mourners then headed to a wake at Port Lympne safari park in Kent.
O’Grady died last month from sudden cardiac arrhythmia. He was 67.
