The Christmas Pantomime colour lithograph bookcover, 1890, showing the harlequinade characters

Pantomime (informally, panto)— not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally performed in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar, and Malta, mostly during the Christmas and New Year season.^[1] The word derives from the Greek "παντόμιμος" (pantomimos), "pantomimic actor"^[2] and from "παντός" (pantos), genitive of "πᾶς" (pas), "every, all"^[3] + "μῖμος" (mimos), "imitator, actor".^[4]

History[link]

A 'pantomime' in Ancient Greece was originally a group who 'imitates all' accompanied by sung narrative and instrumental music, often played on the flute. The word later came to be applied to the performance itself.^[5] The pantomime was a popular form of entertainment in ancient Greece and later, Rome. Like theatre, it encompassed the genres of comedy, tragedy, and sex. No ancient pantomime libretto has survived, partly because the genre was looked down upon by the literary elite. Nonetheless, notable ancient poets such as Lucan wrote for the pantomime, no doubt in part because the work was well paid.^[6] In a speech of the late 1st century AD now lost, the orator Aelius Aristides condemned the pantomime for its erotic content and the 'effeminacy' of its dancing.^[7]

In the Middle Ages, the Mummers Play was a traditional British folk play performed during the festive gatherings of both urban and rural communities and contain many of the archetypal elements of the contemporary 'pantomime' such as stage fights, coarse humour and fantastic creatures. It is often claimed that many of these elements are the cultural remnants of pre Christian beliefs. The gender role reversal resembles the old festival of Twelfth Night, a combination of Epiphany and midwinter feast, when it was customary for the natural order of things to be reversed. This tradition is sometimes traced back to pre-Christian European festivals such as Samhain and Saturnalia. The pantomime horse may also be related to the Grey Mare of the British cult of the goddess Epona as it frequently surfaces in traditional British culture from Wales, Devon, Cornwall (see Obby Oss), Brittany and other parts of England.

Pantomime that looked similar to how it is known today began in the early 1700s. In fact, "the year 1702 marks the first appearance of the first pantomime introduced to the English stage, written by John Weaver . . . and entitled Tavern Bilkers".^[8] Produced at the exceedingly popular Drury Lane theatre in London, England, this pantomime consisted of only dancing and motions. Pantomimes at this time were solely 'dumb-shows' for a few reasons.^[9] One of these reasons involves a law against the production of spoken drama in London without special permission, which was not changed until Parliament passed an act in 1843 "stipulat[ing] that any theatre could now produce a play containing spoken dialogue".^[10] After this act is passed, writers begin undertaking the new challenges posed by this fresh form of drama. As mentioned previously, the majority of the following pantomime stories are ripped-off from well-known bedtime stories. Similar to how classic Disney movies were written, the authors would give their own take on the story and alter it to fit the new style, but it was essentially the same plot every English child had heard their parents tell them plenty of times. The second reason pantomimes began as a wordless form of entertainment is due to the lack of education received by a man named John Rich. Rich grew up in the theatre but was said to have had a speech impediment; regardless, he was a smart enough performer to keep an audience interested in his movements and actions long enough to tell an appealing story. With his 1724 production of The Necromancer or History of Dr. Faustus, Rich began popularizing the newfound show style: pantomime.^[11] The majority of pantomimes at this time were simply re-tellings (without words, of course) of traditional Latin stories with a break in between the two acts during which a short bit of zany fun would be performed. This intermission entertainment transformed into the popular nineteenth century Harlequinade.

The style and content of modern pantomime also has very clear and strong links with the continental Commedia dell'arte,^{[citation needed]} a form of popular theatre that arose in Italy in the Early Modern Period, and reached England by the 16th century. A 'comedy of professional artists' travelling from province to province in Italy and then France improvised and told stories which told lessons to the crowd, changing the main character depending on where they were performing. The great clown Grimaldi transformed the format. Each story had the same fixed characters: the lovers, father, servants (one being crafty and the other stupid), etc. These roles/characters can be found in today's pantomimes.

Development as a distinctly English entertainment[link]

See also Harlequinade

Playbill of an English circus and pantomime performance, 1803

The pantomime first arrived in England as entr'actes between opera pieces, eventually evolving into separate shows.

In Restoration England, a pantomime was considered a low form of opera, rather like the Commedia dell'arte but without Harlequin (rather like the French Vaudeville). In 1717, actor and manager John Rich introduced Harlequin to the British stage under the name of 'Lun' (for 'lunatic') and began performing wildly popular pantomimes. These pantomimes gradually became more topical and comic, often involving as many special theatrical effects as possible. Colley Cibber and his colleagues competed with Rich and produced their own pantomimes, and pantomime was a substantial (if decried) subgenre in Augustan drama. According to some sources, the Lincoln's Inn Field Theatre and the Drury Lane Theatre were the first to stage something like real pantomimes (in the later sense that has become codified with its fairly rigid set of conventions), creating high competition between them to put on the more elaborate performance. As manager of Drury Lane in the 1870s, Augustus Harris is now considered the father of modern pantomime. These pantomimes were followed by, or incorporated, a Harlequinade.

There seems to be some disagreement among scholars as to exactly when the true pantomime genre got started. According to one eminent authority, Russell A. Peck, the John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester,^[12] 'The first Cinderella Pantomime in England was the 1804 production at Drury Lane, Dir. Mr. Byrne,'^[13] with music by Michael Kelly (1762–1826). This date would seem too early for panto in its mature form, with its extensive adherence to a set of conventions, including the pantomime dame role, the principal boy played by a young woman, the animal-costume roles, audience participation, etc.^{[original research?]} But, if Peck means that this was the first pantomime in England in the older sense of 'low opera', then his date seems too late, for he seems to disregard the fact that pantomime as 'low opera' had already arisen in Restoration-era England, considerably prior to 1804. Even limiting this claim to Cinderella, one finds that other sources give 1870 as the date of the first Cinderella pantomime in England (see below).^{[original research?]}

Pantomime traditions and conventions[link]

Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences, British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, topical references, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo.

Traditional Structure[link]

In the 1800s, children went to the theatre (primarily around Christmas and New Years) to witness the craziness of the Harlequinade, or 'the comic business' as it is also called. It was the most exciting part of the 'panto' because it was fast paced and consisted of scenic magic as well as slapstick comedy. The presence of slapstick in this part of the show is not at all surprising considering the characters are all based on those found in Italian Commedia dell'arte, a somewhat improvised, comedic form of travelling theatre consisting of various stock characters including Arlecchino, Colombina, Pantalone, and Pulcinella. The plot of the Harlequinade was relatively simple; the star-crossed lovers, Harlequin and Columbine, run away from Columbine's father, Pantaloon, who is being slowed down in his pursuit of them by his servant The Clown. The Clown character is pulled from Commedia dell'arte's Pulcinella. Originally, Harlequin possessed magical powers that he used to help himself and his love interest escape. He would tap his wooden sword (a derivative of the Commedia dell'arte slapstick) on the floor to make a grand transition of the world around him take place. The scene would switch from being inside some house or castle to, generally speaking, the streets of the town with storefronts as the backdrop. Through reading many transition sequences from different pantomimes, however, it becomes clear that this narration and the creation new scene in later pantomimes typically instigated by the Fairy Godmother character from the Fairy Story. The Opening, or Fairy Story, follows the familiar plotline of a fairy tale or nursery rhyme. The stories still popular today include Aladdin, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Puss in Boots. Most of these stories' pantomime titles would have included the words "Harlequin and," or something of that sort, at the beginning as he was the most important character of the 'panto' for quite a long time. Eventually, the Opening became the more popular part of the production and by the 1870s, the Harlequinade had mostly died out of fashion, although most authors of books on the subject seem to agree that 'pantos' were better when the Harlequinade still held a large place in the night's festivities. Possibly more interesting than 'the comic business' itself was the transition into it.^[14] The Fairy Godmother character would come out after the resolution and magically transform the leads into their new identities as the Harlequinade characters. Following is an example of how this complex transition may take place: Lovers stand forth. With you we shall begin. You will be fair Columbine - you Harlequin. King Jamie there, the bonnie Scottish loon, Will be a famous cheild for Pantaloon. Though Guy Fawkes now is saved from rocks and axe, I think he should pay the powder-tax. His guyish plots blown up - nay, do not frown; You've always been a guy - now be a Clown.^[14] In this passage, Guy Fawkes' Fairy Queen creates the characters of the Harlequinade in the most common fashion of simply telling the characters to change. The principle male and female characters, also called 'the lovers' and typically both played by young women,^[15] from the beginning plotline become Columbine and Harlequin, the mother or father of Columbine becomes Pantaloon and the servant character, the Clown. They would transition into the new characters as the scenery around them changed and would proceed in the 'zany fun' section of the performance. This structure of performance was popular in the nineteenth century and has since fallen out of style.

Traditional stories[link]

Pantomime story lines and scripts usually make no direct reference to Christmas, and are almost always based on traditional children's stories, including the fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Joseph Jacobs, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Grimm Brothers - not to mention tales from the Arabian Nights. While the familiarity of the audience with the original story is generally assumed, plot lines are almost always 'adapted' for comic or satirical effect, it being common for characters and situations from other stories to be interpolated into the plot. Certain familiar scenes tend to recur, regardless of plot relevance, and highly unlikely resolution of the plot is common. Straight re-tellings of the original stories are rare in the extreme.

Popular titles include:

• Aladdin (sometimes combined with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and/or other Arabian Nights tales. It is traditionally set in China - following the original tale - rather than the Middle East, as in Disney)
• Alice in Wonderland
• Babes in the Wood (often combined with Robin Hood)
• Beauty and the Beast
• Cinderella, the most popular of all pantomimes and first shown in 1870 in Covent Garden, London
• Dick Whittington and His Cat, first staged as a pantomime in 1814, based on a 17th century play.
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears
• Jack and the Beanstalk (Sometimes including references to nursery rhymes and other children's stories involving characters called Jack, such as Jack and Jill)
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Peter Pan
• Puss in Boots
• Robinson Crusoe
• Sleeping Beauty
• Treasure Island
• Snow White
• The Snow Queen
• The Wizard of Oz

Performance conventions[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2012)

The form has a number of conventions, some of which have changed or weakened a little over the years, and by no means all of which are obligatory. Some of these conventions were once common to other genres of popular theatre such as melodrama.

• The leading male juvenile character (the principal boy) - is traditionally played by a young woman, usually in tight-fitting male garments (such as breeches) that make her female charms evident.
• An older woman (the pantomime dame - often the hero's mother) is usually played by a man in drag.
• Risqué double entendre, often wringing innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases. This is, in theory, over the heads of the children in the audience.
• Audience participation, including calls of "He's behind you!" (or "Look behind you!"), and "Oh, yes it is!" and "Oh, no it isn't!" The audience is always encouraged to boo the villain and "awwwww" the poor victims, such as the rejected dame, who usually fancies the prince.
• Music may be original but is more likely to combine well-known tunes with re-written lyrics. At least one "audience participation" song is traditional: one half of the audience may be challenged to sing 'their' chorus louder than the other half.
• The animal, played by an actor in 'animal skin' or animal costume. It is often a pantomime horse or cow, played by two actors in a single costume, one as the head and front legs, the other as the body and back legs.
• The good fairy enters from stage right (from the audience's point of view this is on the left) and the villain enters from stage left (right from the point of view of the audience). This convention goes back to the medieval mystery plays, where the right side of the stage symbolised Heaven and the left side symbolised Hell.
• Sometimes the story villain will squirt members of the audience with water guns or pretend to throw a bucket of 'water' at the audience that is actually full of streamers.^{[citation needed]}
• A slapstick comedy routine may be performed, often a decorating or baking scene, with humour based on throwing messy substances. Until the 20th century, British pantomimes often concluded with a harlequinade, a free-standing entertainment of slapstick. Nowadays the slapstick is more or less incorporated into the main body of the show.
• In the 19th century, until the 1880s, pantomimes typically included a transformation scene in which a Fairy Queen magically transformed the pantomime characters into the characters of the harlequinade, who then performed the harlequinade.^[16]
• The Chorus, who can be considered extras on-stage, and often appear in multiple scenes (but as different characters) and who perform a variety of songs and dances throughout the show. Due to their multiple roles they may have as much stage-time as the lead characters themselves.

Guest celebrity[link]

Another contemporary pantomime tradition is the celebrity guest star, a practice that dates back to the late 19th century, when Augustus Harris, proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, hired well-known variety artists for his pantomimes.

Until the decline of the British music hall tradition by the late 1950s, many popular artists played in pantomimes across the country. Many modern pantomimes use popular artists to promote the pantomime, and the play is often adapted to allow the star to showcase their well-known act, even when such a spot has little relation to the plot, for example, Rolf Harris might perform Jake the Peg in a pantomime about Aladdin.

Pantomime roles[link]

Major roles[link]

The main roles within pantomime are often gender-swapped, and can be played by either sex:

Minor roles[link]

In the United Kingdom and Ireland today[link]

Many theatres in cities and provincial towns throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland continue to have an annual professional pantomime. Pantomime is also very popular with amateur dramatics societies throughout the UK and Ireland, and the pantomime season (roughly speaking, December to February) will see pantomime productions in many village halls and similar venues across the country.

Outside the United Kingdom[link]

In Australia[link]

Pantomimes in Australia at Christmas were once very popular, although the familiarity of young Australians with the genre has declined greatly since the middle of the last century, for all manner of reasons, and it is no longer the force it once was. In the hey-day of Australian Pantomime, professional productions often featured celebrities. During the 1950s, a Christmas Cinderella pantomime in Sydney featured Danny Kaye as Buttons. Radio Christmas pantomimes have been featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.^{[dead link][17]}

There is an emerging trend of works contributed on an unrestrictive license, containing music on a similar basis.^[18]

In Canada[link]

Christmas pantomimes have been performed in Canada for as many years as they have in the UK.

In the United States[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Pantomime, as described in this article, is seldom performed in the United States. As a consequence, Americans commonly understand the word "pantomime" to refer to the art of mime, as was practised, for example, by Marcel Marceau and Nola Rae, and assume it to be a solo performance such as is as common on street corners as on stage. However, certain shows that came from the pantomime traditions, especially Peter Pan, are performed quite often, and a few American theatre companies produce traditional British-style pantomime as well as American adaptations of the form. Other descriptive terms like 'family musical' may be used in marketing, to avoid the issue of mime/pantomime confusion. Lythgoe Family Productions based in California, have successfully produced two American pantos, Snow White and Cinderella in 2011. They are producing four in 2012. Pantomonium Productions has produced yearly pantos in New York City since 1994.

Earliest US productions[link]

According to Professor Russell A. Peck^[19] of the University of Rochester, the earliest pantomime productions in the US, were Cinderella pantomime productions in New York in March 1808, New York again in August 1808, Philadelphia in 1824, and Baltimore in 1839.^[13] However, it is not clear to what extent these early productions resembled pantomime by its current definition in England, which dates from about the last third of the 19th century.

See also[link]

• ITV Panto
• Mime artist
• Mummers Play
• Victorian burlesque
• Weihnachtsmärchen (Christmas fairy tale)

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Wilson, A. E., "The Story of Pantomime" (London: Home & Van Thal, 1949).
• Eigner, Edwin M., "The Dickens Pantomime" (Berkeley: University of California, 1989).
• Broadbent, R.J., A History of Pantomime (London, 1901).
• M.-H. Garelli, Danser le mythe. La pantomime et sa réception dans la culture antique (Louvain 2007).
• E. Hall, R. Wyles, edd., New Directions in Ancient Pantomime (Oxford 2008).

External links[link]

• MusicalTalk Podcast discussing British pantomime; its origins and traditions.
• Pantomonium Productions
• Geneva Amateur Operatic Society
• Pantomime Shows in UK
• The Secret Pantomime Society
• Theatre Britain
• Madrid Players
• Panto in Wales seen through American eyes
• PANTOMIME by Catherine Haill, V & A
• The Rise and Fall of the Pantomime Harlequinade
• The origin of popular pantomime stories

Paul O'Grady MBE
O'Grady in 2009
Birth name	Paul James Michael O'Grady
Born	(1955-06-14) 14 June 1955 (age 57) Birkenhead, Cheshire, England
Medium	Broadcaster, actor, entrepreneur, comedian, author, television personality
Nationality	British
Years active	1988–present
Spouse	Teresa Fernandes (m. 1977–2005) «start: (1977-04)–end+1: (2006)»"Marriage: Teresa Fernandes to Paul O'Grady" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Paul_O%27Grady) (divorced)[1]
Domestic partner(s)	Brendan Murphy (1980–2005) (his death) Andre Portasio (2006–present)[2]
Notable works and roles	Blankety Blank (1997–2002) Eyes Down (2003–04) The Paul O'Grady Show (2004–09) Paul O'Grady Live (2010–11)
BAFTA Awards
Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance 2004 The Paul O'Grady Show (2008)

Paul James Michael O'Grady MBE (born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio DJ. He is best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live, as well as his drag queen comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as whom he performed in various television series including Blankety Blank (1997–1999) and Lily Live! (2000–2001). He also appeared in the comedy sitcom Eyes Down (2003–2004) and presented several travel documentaries. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 2 with his own Sunday evening show, Paul O'Grady on the Wireless produced by Malcolm Prince.

Born to a working class Irish migrant family in Birkenhead, O'Grady went through various jobs in his youth, including working in various bars, for the civil service and for social services, moving around the country to do so. It was whilst living in London in 1978 that he first turned his hand to drag, developing the character of Lily Savage based upon various female relatives of his.

In 2003, O'Grady was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2006 he was listed by The Independent at number 32 in their 101 most influential gay men and women in Britain. In October 2008, he was appointed MBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours list for services to entertainment. On 23 July 2010, O'Grady received an Honorary Doctor of Arts from De Montfort University, Leicester, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television, radio and the stage.^[3]

Life and career[link]

Early life: 1955–71[link]

Paul O'Grady's father, Patrick "Paddy" Grady (died 1973),^[4] had grown up on a farm in Ballincurry, County Roscommon, Ireland, but moved to England in 1936 in search for work, and settled down in the working class area of Birkenhead. His name was accidentally changed from Grady to O'Grady in a paperwork mistake when he joined the Royal Air Force and he subsequently decided to keep this altered name.^[5][6] Patrick married Mary Savage (1916–1988),^[7] who was born in England but whose parents had also been Irish immigrants, from County Louth. Patrick and Mary were devout Catholics and brought up their children in the faith. Paul was their third child, born at 7:30am on 14 June 1955 at St. Catherine's Hospital, Tranmere.^[8][9] His birth, over a decade after that of his siblings Brendan and Sheila,^[4] was not planned; his mother was 39 and she only discovered the pregnancy when she visited the doctor complaining of indigestion. Paul O'Grady spent his early life at the family's rented home of 23 Holly Grove, Higher Tranmere, Birkenhead,^[10] a house that had been built in a former quarry during the early 1930s, and O'Grady would later remark that the house was always damp and cold and that it also suffered from "ominous cracks" which "would appear in the walls and ceilings overnight".^[11]

He initially attended St. Joseph's, a Catholic primary school, where he excelled in all subjects but mathematics, and so his parents, hoping that he had a good future ahead of him, budgeted so that they could afford to send him to a private school, Redcourt, which was the Roman Catholic primary school attached to St Anselm's College. He subsequently failed the Eleven Plus exam, meaning that he was unable to gain entry to a grammar school, much to his mother's dismay, and went instead to the Blessed Edward Campion R.C. Secondary Modern and the Corpus Christi High School.^[12] It was here that he had his first homosexual experience, having a brief romance aged twelve with another boy, although in keeping with societal attitudes at the time he still assumed that he was heterosexual.^[13]

At the time he was also a huge fan of the popular television series The Avengers and Batman,^[15] and was enrolled in the cub scouts by his mother, which he hated and left after a month. He later became an altar boy at a local Catholic church, though was dismissed from this position after laughing during a funeral service.^[16] Following on from this he joined the Marine cadets, later commenting that he was following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, the cartoon Popeye.^[17] He enjoyed the cadets, and at the advice of his captain joined the Boys' Amateur Boxing Club, where he gained his lifelong love of the sport.^[18][19] Meanwhile, he began playing truant from school, getting him into trouble with his parents, and then got into trouble with the police after he led three other boys into breaking and entering a house to commit burglary.^[20] O'Grady's first job was a paper round that he managed to keep for a week, being employed by a woman, Mrs Henshaw, whom his mother despised,^[21] and through this and other jobs he saved up to afford Mod clothes, for a time becoming a suedehead.^[22]

Early adulthood: 1972–76[link]

After leaving school aged sixteen, O'Grady's mother got him a job in the civil service, working as a clerical assistant for the DHSS, who had offices in Liverpool that he could commute to from his parents' home every morning. To supplement this income, he also got a job working part-time at the bar of the Royal Air Forces Association club in Oxton.^[23][24] He was later called for a disciplinary hearing at the DHSS, who accused him of being incompetent and often late, and at which he decided to resign.^[25] Hoping for a better and more exciting life, he got a job at the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Virginia Water, Surrey, and aged seventeen moved away from his parents' home in Birkenhead and travelled south. He subsequently found the work and accommodation to be appalling, although he noted that it was here that he lost his virginity to a woman whom he had met smoking cannabis at a party. He did not remain in Surrey long however, as soon after he was arrested, accused of stealing from the hotel and was subsequently fired despite protesting his innocence.^[26]

Promptly returning home to Birkenhead, he soon got his old job at the RAFA club back, and also began to increasingly socialise within the Liverpudlian gay scene, attending local meetings of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and getting a job at a gay bar, the Bear's Paw, all of which he kept a secret from his parents, to whom he was still not "out of the closet".^[27] Nonetheless, at the time he considered himself to be bisexual, and began having casual sex with a friend and colleague of his named Diane Jansen.^[28][29] Meanwhile, he had befriended a man named Tony on the gay scene, and they had "hit it off after a prolonged bitching session one night, though we were like chalk and cheese." Becoming best friends, the duo would regularly travel down to London to socialise with Tony's friend, the classical music conductor John Pritchard (1921–1989), whom O'Grady became very fond of.^[30]

When O'Grady was eighteen, his mother suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital, the stress of which caused his father to suffer the same fate within a matter of hours; whilst his mother recovered, his father soon died. Only a few days later, O'Grady's life was further complicated when he learned that Diane was pregnant with his child, a daughter named Sharon Lee Jansen.^[31][32] Following her birth on 16 May 1974, O'Grady agreed to pay £3 every week towards the upkeep of his daughter, but refused to marry Diane as he had begun to recognise that he was homosexual and did not want to enter a marriage that he would hate.^[33][34]

Briefly working as an assistant clerk at Liverpool Magistrates' Court, O'Grady subsequently got a job working as a barman at Yates's Wine Lodge, whilst also working the occasional night at the Bear's Paw.^[36][37] Realising that the wage from these jobs was not enough to support both himself and his daughter, he decided to travel to London in search for work. Moving in as a lodger of a gay couple in Westbourne Green, he once again only found poorly-paid work as a barman. Meanwhile, it was in London that he first began to associate with drag queens, particularly a man named Alistair and his stage partner Phil, who went under the stage name of The Harlequeens. Although he made friends in the city, O'Grady was homesick for Birkenhead and Liverpool, and feeling that he had few prospects in London, returned home.^[38]

Employed as an accountant in a Merseyside abattoir belonging to FMC Meats, he eventually became disgusted by the place and gained employment at Conny Home in West Kirby, a home for disabled and abused children, something he would continue for three years.^[39][40] Subsequently entering into a relationship with an older man named Norman, O'Grady moved into his house in Littlehampton, although their relationship was strained, with both cheating on one another, and ultimately it broke apart.^[41] Moving once more to London, where he rented a flat in Crouch End, O'Grady initially started busking with a friend in Camden Town before getting a job as a physiotherapist's assistant at the Royal Northern Hospital.^[42] Being made redundant from the hospital due to public sector cuts, O'Grady took up a job at a gay club called the Showplace, where he befriended a Portuguese lesbian named Theresa Fernandes, and in May 1977 they legally married in order to prevent her deportation back to Portugal, although eventually lost contact and only gained a divorce in 2005.^[43][44] He subsequently took up a job as a cleaner and a waiter at private functions, working for a series of wealthy clients in London, including an elite escort service.^[45] Following this, he began working for Camden Council as a peripatetic care officer who would live in with elderly people or dyfunctional families, a job that exposed him to the extreme poverty, poor living conditions and domestic violence faced by many Londoners, and would have a lasting effect on him for many years to come.^[46][47]

Lily Savage and Manila: 1978–80[link]

It was whilst working for Camden social services that O'Grady made his first attempt at putting together a drag act, creating the character of Lily Savage in the process. Commenting on this, he would later relate that "I wanted to get up there but be larger than life, a creature that was more cartoon than human. I wasn't sure yet."^[48] His debut was on the afternoon of Saturday 7 October 1978, at a pub called the Black Cap, where he mimed the words to the Barbra Streisand song "Nobody Makes a Pass at Me" from the show Pins and Needles. Coming offstage to a round of applause, another, more experienced drag act in the changing room remarked to him that "Well done, dahling [sic], You weren't bad, no, not bad at all… You've got something you know, de-ah, raw of course but with a little polish… who knows? A word of advice though. If you're considering getting an act together I'd drop the name. Lily Savage is all right for a bit of camp but no one is going to take an act that sounds like an old scrubber seriously, dahling."^[49] Nonetheless, the name, which was based upon his mother's maiden name, was one thing that he would maintain, and he would later recollect that:

I've frequently been asked over the years who Lily Savage was based on and I've always answered that it was no one in particular and she was just a figment of my imagination. The truth, I realize now, is that Lily owes a lot to the women I encountered in my childhood. Characteristics and attitudes were observed and absorbed, Aunty Chris's in particular, and they provided the roots and compost for the Lily that would germinate and grow later on.^[50]

Following a holiday to Poland,^[51] and discovering that he was owed several more weeks off of work, he agreed to go and visit an ex-boyfriend who was living in Manila, The Philippines. Managing to afford the fare due to a "sizeable tax rebate" from the Inland Revenue, O'Grady found Manila to be a "culture shock", having difficulty with the climate, the food and the child sex industry, something which deeply disgusted him. He nonetheless learned to like many things about the city, briefly getting a job as a barman and waiter at a brothel known as Gussie's Bar.^[52][53]

Success of Lily Savage: 1980s[link]

He returned to London in the early 1980s and subsequently achieved fame with his creation of Lily, initially playing to gay clubs and pubs up and down the country. He performed many times at the Goldsmith's Tavern, New Cross where he'd often precede Vic Reeves' three-hour show Vic Reeves Big Night Out before promptly leaving to do a show elsewhere. O'Grady's Lily was best known at the time for an eight-year residency at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in south London. As Lily Savage, O'Grady was also in several acts which toured Europe. After appearing at The Edinburgh Festival and gaining a Perrier Award nomination, O'Grady's Lily Savage act became more mainstream and the character became popular on television, making appearances on the ITV daytime programme This Morning and as the 'On the Bed Presenter' on The Big Breakfast. For a few years O'Grady hosted the game show Blankety Blank as Lily Savage, for the BBC and later for ITV. There was also a comedy show built around the character, Lily Live!, appearing on ITV in 2000. Performing as Lily, O'Grady also co-hosted the 1996 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party with Ant & Dec. O'Grady also appeared along side Cilla Black and Barbara Windsor (as Savage) in the 2001 Royal Variety Performance where the trio performed a rendition of "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" from the musical Gypsy.

It was during the 1980s that O'Grady would meet Brendan Murphy, known as "Murph" or "Murphy" to his friends, who would become his partner.^[54]

O'Grady retired the Lily Savage character around 2004. He claimed she had "seen the light, taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France" but on his TV show, he said, "she's escaped the convent and she's heading towards these shores!". On 23 May 2008 on the 500th edition of The Paul O'Grady Show, guest star Julie Goodyear told O'Grady that Bet Lynch, the character she played in television soap opera Coronation Street, had joined Savage in the French convent. On the 7 October 2009 episode of The Paul O'Grady Show, after being prompted by actor Martin Clunes to "bring Lily back", O'Grady said he could not because she had been "bricked up in a chimney" by the Mother Superior of the convent.

Return of Lily Savage: 2010–11[link]

However, in March 2010 it was announced that Lily Savage would be resurrected for one last time in the Christmas pantomime Aladdin – A Wish Come True at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, from December 2010 till January 2011.^[55]

Television career: 1988–present[link]

Following the success of Lily Savage, O'Grady played a prostitute informant, Roxanne, in several episodes of The Bill between 1988 and 1990; in 1990 he appeared in the ITV miniseries Chimera as Tony Donaldson, a social worker skilled in signing for the deaf.

Abandoning drag, to portray himself, in 2000 he appeared in a six-part travelogue series entitled Paul O'Grady's Orient, filmed in Shanghai, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Bangkok, Bali and Singapore. This was followed in 2001 by Paul O'Grady's America.

From 2002 onwards, he appeared less as Savage and more often as himself. In 2002 he presented Outtake TV, a bloopers show, and in 2003 starred as the lead character in the BBC sitcom Eyes Down for two series, as the manager of a northern Bingo hall. He also appeared in Celebrity Driving School for the BBC.

Richard and Judy are close friends of O'Grady, and gave him one of his first TV breaks on This Morning on ITV in the early 90s.

In July 2010 The Sun tipped that Paul O'Grady may judge acts in next year's series of Britain's Got Talent at the audition stages.^[56]

In December 2010, O'Grady hosted Coronation Street: The Big 50, to mark the end of Coronation Street's 50th anniversary week. The show featured 9 Corrie stars and 3 "superfans" in the bid to be crowned champions. The "Rovers Regulars" team which consisted of Michael Le Vell (Kevin Webster), Barbara Knox (Rita Sullivan) and William Roache (Ken Barlow) won overall. The show also featured popular ITV show The X Factor as Kirk Sutherland went on it, singing Sex on Fire and judges such as Simon Cowell praised him. It also featured boy band Boyzone (Keith Duffy starred on Corrie), singer Kym Marsh (who played Michelle Connor), Rachel Leskovac (who played Natasha Blakeman) as well as Norris Cole and Mary Taylor who went head to head on Countdown.

[edit] The Paul O'Grady Show: 2004–09

O'Grady stood in for Des O'Connor on an episode of the lunchtime celebrity chat show Today with Des and Mel, something that impressed ITV enough that they asked him to stand in for O'Connor on other occasions as well. Eventually they decided that O'Grady would be a success if he presented his own daytime television show, and so commissioned a series, The Paul O'Grady Show, which first aired on October 2004 in the 5 to 6pm slot. The show, which involved O'Grady interviewing celebrity guests, aired at the same time at Channel 4's similar series Richard and Judy, creating a friendly rivalry between the two programs for ratings. Despite the competition, O'Grady's was a success, and won a number of awards in 2005, including a BAFTA and the award for Best TV Comedy Entertainment Personality at the British Comedy Awards. The show ran on ITV for three series, before O'Grady fell out with the broadcasting company and decided to switch to Channel 4.

In producing the show, O'Grady worked with many of his old friends, including Andy Collins, his warm-up man, whose job it was to "make sure the [studio] audience is relaxed, happy and ready for the main event".^[58]

The show gained a devout following, with an "extraordinary hardcore of fans [who] try to be at as many recordings as possible", in many cases arriving at the studio gates two hours before the advertised starting time in order to get the best seats.^[59] O'Grady's biographer Neil Simpson commented on the crowds coming to see the show being recorded when he related that "Groups of middle aged women dominate - but they are joined by beautiful twenty-something women with flawless make-up, flash City boys with Louis Vuitton briefcases, hip-looking students out for a good time and pensioners just wanting a laugh in the afternoon."^[60] In many cases, fans queuing to see the show had to be turned away because too many had turned up, and for live shows as many as a hundred often had to be turned away.^[59]

The fourth series of the show appeared on Channel 4 under the title of The New Paul O'Grady Show and began broadcasting in March 2006. On 24 August 2007 the Daily Mirror revealed that O'Grady had rejected a £5 million deal to return to ITV as the "New Parkinson."^{[citation needed]} Instead he signed a £4 million deal to remain with Channel 4 until the end of 2009.^{[citation needed]}

On 28 June 2008, O'Grady appeared in the Doctor Who episode The Stolen Earth.^[62] On 6 June 2009, the Daily Mirror confirmed that O'Grady will sign a new two year contract with Channel 4 in autumn 2009 to keep his show on air until the end of 2011. However Channel 4 have told O'Grady that his show will face huge budget cuts, and his salary will most likely be halved.^[63] On Monday 21 September 2009, O'Grady returned to present the 11th (including ITV series) and final series of The Paul O'Grady Show.^[64] On 14 October 2009, O'Grady agreed to an £8 million deal with ITV to host a Friday prime-time chat-show, to rival that of BBC One's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross from 2010, after budget talks broke-down with Channel 4.^[64]

On 30 November 2009, O'Grady was a guest presenter on ITV's GMTV with Lorraine, in celebration of Lorraine Kelly's 50th birthday. He has guest starred on Living's paranormal show, Most Haunted Live!, after presenter Yvette Fielding was a guest on his show and invited him on. Also in November 2009, O'Grady reunited with Yvette Fielding to take part in a 2 part paranormal investigation series called Death In Venice where he and Fielding investigated haunted locations in Venice. The episodes were called "Vampire Island" and "Demonic Doctor".

On 18 December 2009, Channel 4 broadcast the final ever episode of The Paul O'Grady Show, after 11 series which started in 2004. Guests included in the final line up were, JLS, Beverley Callard, Catherine Tate, William Roache, Linda Thorson, Honor Blackman, Joe McFadden, Natalie Cassidy, Scott Maslen, Kate Thornton and Melanie Sykes.

[edit] Paul O'Grady Live: 2010–11

Following the end of his daytime television show, O'Grady made a deal with ITV to present a new, Friday night show, entitled Paul O'Grady Live. O'Grady spoke to The People in March 2010 about this show, saying "I have no idea what format it will take yet because we have not sat down with the producers ... The show will still have dogs and children but I want it to be a bit more adult too."^[65] The programme began airing on ITV on Friday 10 September 2010 and the first series ran for 10 episodes, ending on Friday 12 November 2010.^[66]

In October 2010, O'Grady attracted media attention when, on an episode of Paul O'Grady Live, he openly criticised the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government for their implementation of mass cuts to government spending on social services, calling them "bastards" and proclaiming "Do you know what got my back up? Those Tories hooping and hollering when they heard about the cuts. Gonna scrap the pensions – yeah! – no more wheelchairs – yeah!… I bet when they were children they laughed in Bambi when his mother got shot."^[67] His Bambi quote was soon after quoted by Peter Taffe at the Socialism 2010 conference.^[68] O'Grady also used the show to voice his support for those student protesters who had occupied and vandalised the headquarters of the Conservative Party at Millbank Tower on Wednesday 10 November 2010.^[69][70]

The show was picked up for a second series and a Lady Gaga special.

It was revealed on 6 October 2011, that ITV had axed his show after 2 series.^[72][73] Speaking to the Daily Mail, O'Grady stated that ITV had originally asked him to return for a third series but that he had refused, claiming that he had had enough of the chat show format.^[71] He remarked that he had become fed up with the "interference" from the show's producers, and the fact that certain guests had appeared on air while under the influence of the illicit drug cocaine.^[71]

[edit] Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs: 2012

Paul is currently filming a new 6-episode series for airing on ITV in Q3 2012, covering life at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

Radio work[link]

O'Grady made his radio debut on 12 April 2003, when he stood in for Jonathan Ross to present the Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2. Then, later in December 2003, O'Grady presented a two-part documentary about Cilla Black's illustrious career, with contributions from Black's other celebrity friends. O'Grady then presented his own radio show for the first time on Christmas Day afternoon of that year.

On 28 December 2003, O'Grady chose the tracks on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.

Throughout 2004 and 2005, O'Grady voiced many adverts for other local radio stations.

O'Grady returned to Radio 2 on Easter Saturday 2006, with his very own live 3-hour special radio show. The show featured special guests and celebrity chat, the best music and a whole host of games and competitions. O'Grady also taste-tested a selection of the finest Easter Eggs in a search for Britain's Best.

O'Grady then stood in for Elaine Paige on her Sunday radio show Elaine Paige on Sunday for two weeks, on 28 January and 4 February 2007. John Barrowman then took over from O'Grady for the following two weeks, before Paige returned.

O'Grady returned with his own show on Easter Monday 2007. The show featured special guests and celebrity chat, the best music and a whole host of games and competitions.

In January 2008, O'Grady once again presented Elaine Paige on Sunday, on 13, 20 and 27 January. He sat in for her once again on 31 August, and again on 9 November.

On Christmas 2008, O'Grady returned to Radio 2 with his own show The Paul O'Grady Christmas Show, featuring a seasonal mix of Christmas music and some of the biggest hits of the year, including music from McFly and Girls Aloud.

O'Grady presented a two-part documentary on New Year's Eve and New Years Day 2008 on Radio 2, which was a tribute to Bill Cotton.

From 22 February 2009, O'Grady returned to Elaine Paige on Sunday to present the show for a month, whilst Paige was on tour.

After 6 years, O'Grady was given his own show on BBC Radio 2 entitled Paul O'Grady On The Wireless, each Sunday.^[74]

O'Grady once again presented a Christmas Day show in 2009, from 11am until 1pm. Like The Paul O'Grady Christmas Show that he presented last year, the show featured a round-up of the nation's favourite pantos. There was also a Christmas Motown Triple, a Carpenters Christmas Triple, and Christmas Thank Yous.

On 7 September 2010, O'Grady presented 'Come To The Cabaret', a documentary celebrating the boozy, glitzy and subversive delights of the cabaret.

For the third year running, O'Grady once again presented a special show on Christmas Day. This year, the show was three hours long, running on Christmas morning from 10.00am until 1.00pm. There were Christmas phone messages from celebrity callers, and Christmas triples from Bette Middler, Sir Cliff Richard and Dolly Parton.

Personal life[link]

O'Grady is openly gay. However, he has previously had relationships with women as well as men, and married a Portuguese lesbian, Teresa Fernandes, who was from a Catholic family, at Harrow Road register office, London,^[1] on 1 April 1977^[75] in a marriage of convenience. They separated in 1980, before eventually divorcing in 2005.^[1] He is very close to his daughter Sharyn, who married her childhood friend Philip Mousley at Liverpool Town Hall on 30 July 2005. O'Grady's long-term lover and business partner of 20 years was Irish television producer Brendan Frank Murphy (4 March 1956^[7] – 9 June 2005), who was HIV+ and died of brain cancer at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London,^[76] five days before O'Grady's fiftieth birthday. After the first show of series three of The Paul O'Grady Show, there was a tribute to him.

O'Grady owns a flat in London, and a farm in Aldington near Ashford, Kent where his neighbour is Julian Clary. The farm is stocked with 32 animals, including a flock of geese which O'Grady refers to as the "Geese-stapo" (a pun on the Gestapo).^[77] O'Grady had a grey Shih Tzu/Bichon Frise crossbreed dog named Buster Elvis Savage, who was euthanised on 19 November 2009,^[78] after he was diagnosed with cancer.^[79] A spokeswoman said "Buster had been suffering and in a lot of pain. Putting him down was the kind thing to do."^[80] O'Grady would later dedicate the second volume of his autobiography to his canine companion, describing him as "The greatest canine star since Lassie."^[81]

This came a few days after O'Grady announced on his show that Buster was 'in retirement' after viewers had asked if Buster had been given away, as Buster frequently appeared on his TV show with him, but has recently been replaced by one of O'Grady's other dogs, Olga, a Cairn Terrier after whom O'Grady named his recently formed production company, 'Olga TV'.^[79] He also has another dog called Louie, who only appeared a few times in the first ITV series (mainly due to his bad behaviour), before he adopted Olga live on air.^[77] On 29 September 2009, O'Grady adopted a puppy called Bullseye, who appeared on his show after much nagging from the crowd.

O'Grady became a grandfather on 26 December 2006, when his daughter Sharyn gave birth to a son, Abel. He revealed on his show on 2 December 2009 that he had become a grandfather again as Sharyn had given birth to a girl in the early hours of that morning.^[82]

O'Grady is publicly known for having had many high profile and celebrity friends, including the late politician Mo Mowlam, actresses Amanda Mealing and Barbara Windsor, comedienne Brenda Gilhoohy, and singer Cilla Black.^[83]

Health[link]

In April 2002, O'Grady suffered a heart attack after weeks of complaining that he felt unwell; after an emergency operation and weeks of rest, his health recovered and he gave up smoking for two years.^{[citation needed]} O'Grady went back to his 40-a-day habit after his lover and business partner Brendan Murphy died; he had continued to work on the show at the same time as nursing Murphy. He suffered a second heart attack on 30 June 2006;^[84] again he was taken to the William Harvey Hospital and into intensive care. He was given an angioplasty operation before being moved to a cardiac unit. He was released on 4 July and again promised to give up smoking.^[85] He therefore postponed the new series of his show from 4 September to the end of the month. The delayed second series started on 25 September 2006, and ran over three weeks into January (for the only time in the show's history), due to its 3 week delay start.

Books[link]

On 18 September 2008, O'Grady released his first autobiography entitled, At My Mother's Knee... And Other Low Joints,^[86] which was given a positive review by Private Eye who noted that the book did not fall into the most common celebrity biography traps of being ghost written, settling scores or not sounding like it had been written by its subject. His second book entitled The Devil Rides Out: The Second Coming was released on the 16 September 2010.^[87] He confirmed on 14 October 2010, during an interview on Loose Women, that he will write a third and final chapter.^[88] his third autobiography will be called savage due for released on 27th September 2012

Stand-up videos[link]

References[link]

Footnotes[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

• Paul O'Grady at BBC Programmes
• Paul O'Grady Live at itv.com

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Paul O'Grady

• Paul O'Grady at the Internet Movie Database

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