The news of Paul O'Grady's death on March 28, 2023 came as a great shock to all of us, and the tributes to the comedian, broadcaster and activist that followed showed just how widely loved he was.
Paul's big TV break came in 1995 when, after many years of performing as his drag alter ego Lily Savage in London's Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Lily became the 'On The Bed' interviewer on Channel 4's The Big Breakfast.
As Lily, he hosted a successful revival of Blankety Blank on BBC One and Lily Live! on ITV, and after retiring his Lily persona in the early 2000s, Paul headlined his own chat show on ITV and later Channel 4, but the role he was perhaps best-known for in recent years was as the presenter of ITV1's Paul O'Grady: For The Love Of Dogs, where he visited Battersea Cats & Dogs Home to meet the staff and its canine residents.
Paul's final series of For The Love Of Dogs — recorded in 2022 — returns to ITV1 on Thursday, April 13, and we had the honour of speaking to Paul about the show just a few weeks before his sudden and unexpected passing.
"I really like going in there — I'm always thinking 'what have I got on the menu this series, what dogs are in?'" Paul told us.
"I've got this thing about big dogs, and yet funnily enough I've only got little ones — I always fall for the big ones and Peggy [the Newfoundland, pictured above] was so sweet. She had terrible problems with her back legs, or her hips, and she had to have a huge operation, and then go on kennel rest for quite a long time, which is hard for a dog, and she was so patient and stoic. She was just lovely — I'd have taken her in a heartbeat!"
The first episode also shows Paul helping Katie, a Bichon Frisé who was found wandering a forest and has serious anxiety, to come out of her shell.
"It just required a lot of patience," said Paul. "You can't go tearing in and go 'wahey, come on and go for a walk!' — you have to sit there and talk quietly, and eventually she might let you stroke her. But she's in the corner, shaking with fear — it's dreadful, and eventually you see them slowly start to gain confidence. And then they might go for a little walk, and then next thing they're sitting on your knee. It's lovely, it's heartwarming when that happens. But it's so sad when you see an animal in that condition. It shouldn't happen."
Paul famously adopted several dogs from the shelter himself and admitted it took all of his willpower not to take more of them home — but there was one pooch in particular that he wished he'd brought into his family.
"I remember the first series, there was a boxer called Carmine," Paul recalled. "Why didn't I take him? To this day, I regret not taking Carmine — the pair of us just hit it off. He was a remarkable dog, he'd high-five you and do all sorts of things."
As an ambassador for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Paul did a lot to raise awareness for the charity and helped countless animals find their forever homes, and he was incredibly proud to be associated with Battersea.
"When a dog comes in that you look at and you think, 'my God, are you going to survive?' because it's so emaciated, it's covered in scabs, it's got mange and 100 things wrong with them, then you see them six weeks later maybe, a completely healthy and happy dog, going off to a nice home, that's always really nice," he said. "That happens a lot — there was a spaniel brought in who was in a terrible state and just terrified of everything. That took a lot of patience, and that's what it requires really — a lot of patience, to get them to become a dog again."
Paul O'Grady: For The Love Of Dogs returns to ITV1 on Thursday, April 13 at 8.30pm
