In the autumn of 2020, I took a call from ITV. They wanted to know if I was free to produce the new series of Paul O’Grady, For The Love of Dogs, the sadly final series of which launches this week. It was the cold, hard autumn after lockdown and with no work on the horizon, hanging out with unwanted and unloved dogs at Battersea Dogs Home, with Paul O’Grady – formerly the Lily Savage – seemed like a great tonic for the end of a miserable year.
My job was to find stories for each of the dogs sitting in the kennels at Battersea. Terrible, back-breaking work, as you can imagine: it involved lots of petting and snuggling adorable dogs, taking selfies with them and failing to persuade my partner that we should adopt.
