ITV paid tribute to Paul O'Grady's former long-term lover during a celebratory film about the much-loved entertainer.
Paul died "unexpectedly but peacefully" at the age of 67 on March 28. ITV, which has had a long working relationship with the star, was keen to pay tribute to him with a special show, which aired at 8pm on Sunday.
For the Love of Paul O'Grady looked back at his incredible career and heard interviews from those who knew him best including Carol Vorderman and Sally Lindsay.
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ITV said: "Following his unexpected passing last week, ITV pays tribute to the iconic and much-loved entertainer Paul O'Grady in this special celebratory film and interviews with those who knew him best."
The programme ended, as you'd expect, on a sad note, with a tribute to Paul - and to his ex, Brendan Murphy, with 'RIP Brendan Murphy' at the programme's credits, reports YorkshireLive.
Paul has in the past spoken of his former best friend, manager and lover, Brendan Murphy, who died suddenly with an inoperable brain tumour in June 2005.
Speaking to the Mirror at the time of Brendan's death 18 years ago, Paul said: "It couldn't get any worse.
"I looked like someone who shouldn't bother coming home from the cemetery. My hair was coming out in cobs and I'd lost two-and-a-half stone. I looked like a hunched-up old man.
"I'd lost my best mate, someone who'd been in my life for 25 years and saw me through the days when I was lucky to earn £50 for standing on a beer crate in the corner of a pub telling jokes. Murph and I were like brothers - joined at the hip, thick as thieves.
"It transcended any sexual relationship we'd had. This was a partnership. A double act, Emma Peel and Steed, Laurel and Hardy We were both 49, barely able to believe what we'd achieved - I'd just won a BAFTA for the Paul O'Grady Show - and then suddenly bang, he's gone...
He added: "One day I had this mate who was feisty and on the ball, the next he's saying to me, 'What's this?', and I realise he's pointing at a cup.
"We got him in for an MRI scan and waited. When they told us it was brain cancer I knew this was the end, but somehow we had to get through it'
"People have said to me since: 'How did you go on TV through all of that?' The truth is Brendan would be in his bedroom, at my house, watching. He couldn't speak, but we had a kind of sign language and I'd send him a secret signal.
"He'd be reassured that life was normal. Neither of us were quitters. I kept a diary and I look at it now... what we went through. I'd go into his bedroom and tap dance or play the trumpet to keep his spirits up.''
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