Elaine C Smith has spoken of her shock and heartache over the death of long-time friend Paul O’Grady.
Elaine, 64, saw her friend of more than 20 years in Edinburgh four days before he died.
Paul, who died in his bed on Tuesday, had been playing Miss Hannigan in Annie at the Edinburgh Playhouse.
Elaine said she went to visit Paul, 67, in the dressing room along with Two Doors Down writer Simon Carlyle where they discussed Paul being in the hit BBC show.
Elaine, who plays sharp-tongued Christine O’Neal in the much-loved sitcom, said: “Paul really wanted to be in it.
“He said he’d give his eye teeth, saying, ‘I’d love to be Pat over the back’, and I said, ‘Sadly she died but you could be Rena up the high flats’ and he burst out laughing and said, ‘Even that line makes me laugh. I want to be that’.
“As we were driving back to Glasgow, Simon and I were saying, ‘How can we get Paul into Two Doors Down?’ It would be brilliant. The writers were thrilled someone like Paul, who was an icon to Simon, loved the show.
"It’s lovely to have him and Peter Kay, Russell T. Davies and Richard E Grant saying it’s the best thing.
“I just can’t believe he’s gone.”
She added: “Christine and him would have had a fish tea together and put the worldcto rights.”
Elaine, who will play Miss Hannigan in the touring show when it hits Aberdeen and Glasgow in May, said she has been left reeling at Paul’s death.
She said: “I’m in a terrible state about it. I’m sort of stunned by it, to be honest. We had arranged to meet when I was down in London doing rehearsals for the show. He was saying, ‘I’ll come there and have lunch.’”
Elaine has played two of Scotland’s greatest comedy creations – Mary Doll in Rab C Nesbitt and lovable neighbour from hell Christine.
Paul’s rise to fame was as Lily Savage – an equally strong character. And Elaine thinks Mary Doll wouldn’t have been the one to challenge Lily’s mighty character.
She said: “Christine from Two Doors Down would have given Paul more of a run for his money.
“I did use to laugh that Mary Nesbitt and Lily Savage at times looked like they were sharing the same wig. His was just slightly bigger.”
Elaine and Paul became friends when she was in the cast of Calendar Girls and she appeared on his ITV chat show The Paul O’Grady Show.
She said: “I’ve known him on and off for 20 years. Always loved him. What you saw was what you got. Really funny, acerbic but a genuinely kind man. Very compassionate. Never lost who he was.
“We weren’t best pals phoning each other every day but he was the type of person that when you met up again, it felt like you had just seen him the week before.
“He was very, very genuine and immediate. You just admired him for what he had done and achieved.
“Of course he was a trailblazer but he also gave a voice to the working class. As Lily, he gave working-class folk a dignity.
“You know Paul was tough and he didn’t take any prisoners. I wouldn’t say he was angelic but he was truthful and just really funny.”
Their paths crossed again when Paul took on the role of the orphanage’s matron in Annie.
That character has been split between four actors for the tour including Elaine, Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood and Coronation Street’s Jodie Prenger.
It’s the second time Elaine has played the part. The first being was in a production in 2016.
She said: “I thought, ‘Great, I’ll go and see Paul when he’s in Edinburgh and refresh myself with the show’, because it’s been about seven years since I did it.
“I took Simon, who is a big fan of Paul, and went in before the show to get my wig fitting and he came in to see us and then we went to see him in the dressing room afterwards.
“We had a real laugh. It was great to see him.
“He was laughing as the cast had gone out the night before and he said, ‘I can only do that once a week’.
“He was in great spirits. He was talking about his new radio show, about the new series of For the Love of Dogs, how much he was looking forward to going to Dublin to do Annie and going back to Liverpool. He was off this week from Annie and said he was looking forward to the break.
“I still can’t believe he’s gone, nor can Simon as Paul was one of his idols.
“But it was lovely to see him in Annie. The warmth he got from the audience was incredible.”
Elaine got a message in the early hours of Tuesday morning to say Paul had died.
She said: “It was 3am and I got a text because my friend had come in from New York and got the news.
“I had to get up and was sitting in the lounge just not believing he’d gone, especially as I’d seen him so recently.”
She said that while Paul is a huge loss to his family, it will be felt far wider.
She added: “But what a life he had. He leaves a really big gap, especially for his husband and those that were really
close to him, but all of us in the business.
“His reach was very, very far.”
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