Paul O’Grady

RIP…such an iconic performer…a drag pioneer…a great MT Miss Hannigan and loved his programmes on dogs…met him once in the 90’s and what a gentleman he was…gone too soon x

R.i.p Paul O'Grady. Your funny sense of humour. Your absolute iconness will never be forgotten.
Very sad news. X

I loved Paul O'Grady. One of those people who just made you feel better when you heard or watched him. Really very sorry to hear of his passing.

Saw him a couple of times in Sheffield bars when he did the northern circuit, even before he got TV famous people knew his reputation at the RVT and would make a special effort to go out to see him. Then in the early 90’s when he started to make it big he did a tour of bigger venues and I saw him at Sheffield City Hall.
I’ve never seen a comic control an audience like he did that night. Literally waves of laughter building and building until he got everyone up to a complete crescendo, then he’d pull back a bit to let us recover then do it all over again, and again. People were literally helpless with laughter and I was exhausted by the end of it. Genius.

What a shock to wake up to the news today. So sad.
FYI - This Morning are currently doing a lovely tribute to him with some interviews with his friends and clips of his varied career.

I first saw him as Lily Savage sometime in the 90s. He did a show at the Purcell Room on the Southbank.
On the stage was a huge box of Persil detergent which is what he thought the venue was called. I remember thinking that this was the funniest person I have ever seen.
I was also lucky enough to be at the recording of 2 episodes of Blankety Blank. The funniest bits were between takes and 90% of what he said was unbroadcastable. He also kept lighting a fag between takes and constantly getting told off as smoking wasnt allowed in the studio but, of course, he completely ignored the instruction.
The last time I saw him was as Paul O'Grady at the Cambridge Theatre being interviewed about his latest book. I remember literally crying with laughter and what he was saying was pure filth. A large portion of the audience were elderly women and I was a bit worried as to what they would think of his humour. I didnt need to worry as they absolutely lapped it up.
Only got to meet him once when he came to see a show at the Menier (cant remember what it was) and he was sat with Elaine Paige. Paul is very tall and Elaine is very short so they made an interesting couple.
All the work he did for Battersea and animal welfare was amazing and he will certainly be missed by them and also all of us.

I once went to his live teatime chatshow and, as mentioned above, he would tell naughty stories in the ad breaks then seamlessly return to the script as the show came back on. Then just make a little reference like "I was just telling the audience" so you'd wonder what he was going to say! Must have terrified the gallery.

Five decades of entertaining is some achievement. As a performer or presenter, Paul O'Grady could command an audience, an amazing star talent.

One thing that always struck me was that Paul counted amongst his close friends all kinds of people regardless of their public reputation. He never seemed to judge people other than on what he saw for himself, and he always seemed to understand people when others didn't.

He'll be greatly missed by so many, myself included.

Seems odd that they haven't covered it at all...  I can't really add much to what has been said already, other than to say how sad I am to hear of his passing.  Paul O'Grady flew in the face of a media narrative that tried to box in and shame LGBT people.  As a painfully dull straight teenager in years gone by, entertainers on TV like O'Grady (and Julian Clary) gave me an insight through their alter egos into a more exciting, flamboyant, funnier world, that I related to even if I didn't belong.  He felt like somebody I knew, even though I didn't. Such was his warmth.  RIP.

Isn't fame and celebrity a funny thing? It can cut deeper than we realise.

I have found myself really choked up reading about Paul and all the tributes to him today, a sense of grief almost like losing a friend, even though I had never met him, feelings I probably am not really entitled to have.

The same feelings I didn't naturally seem to have, albeit I was very sorry, when I head the news the other week that a really nice man I knew through work, not terribly well, but had spoken to several times over the years, had died far too young. Whilst I was sad to hear the news about that man, I didn't have the same sense of grief and sadness that I did when I heard about Paul O'Grady.

Some of you may be way too young for this but does anyone remember Lily Savage in Prisoner Cell Block H: The Musical?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_Cell_Block_H:_The_Musical

Lily was falsely imprisoned in Wentworth for stealing a fondue set. It was all completely nuts, but great fun, with a cast including Liz Smith, Terry Neason, Alison Jiear and Maggie Kirkpatrick as The Freak.