Paul O’Grady’s best TV moments: from anti-austerity speech and For the Love of Dogs to Lily Savage appearances

Much loved TV personality and LGBT+ iconic Paul O'Grady, well known as the drag queen Lily Savage, passed away on Tuesday, aged 67. Many famous faces have paid tribute to the star, from the Royal Family to fellow entertainers.

Having gained a profile as Lily Savage in London's gay scene, O'Grady became a household name with his chat show, The Paul O'Grady Show, documentary series For the Love of Dogs, and quiz show revival Blankety Blank as well as through myriad appearances on other programmes over the decades.

Over a television career spanning three decades, O'Grady has left an incredible mark on UK popular culture - following his death we look back as his best TV moments.

The Paul O’Grady Show austerity speech

Paul O’Grady grew up in a working class family in Birkenhead, Merseyside, and despite finding fame and fortune in later life, he didn’t forget his roots. Back in 2010, O’Grady nailed his political colours to the mast in a two minute long speech attacking the Conservative’s austerity budget. He began the rant saying ‘I’d rather have Ozzy Osbourne as chancellor.’

He took aim at Conservative MPs for celebrating the cuts announced in the budget. He continued, “I bet when they were children they laughed in Bambi when the mother got shot.” He then called for his audience to “take to the streets, be vocal in our fight against oppression … fight for the rights of the elderly of the poor, of the sick, and of the little childrens.”

Lilly Savage on Parkinson

O’Grady found fame through his drag alter ego as Lily Savage, a foul-mouthed chain smoker. He performed in this role in London’s gay scene through the 1980s and was on stage at clubs that were raided by police during the AIDs crisis. As drag became more mainstream, O’Grady appeared as Savage on several shows, one of the best of these came on Parkinson.

Lily Savage joined fellow guests Joe Pasquale and Barbara Windsor on a Christmas Day episode of Parkinson and stole the show from the straight-laced presenter. She became a long tale about waking up in a skip with a Bay City Roller on her back to finding herself waking up next to Wayne Rooney - adding ‘the poor lad got a rash’. O’Grady had the everyone both on stage and in the audience in fits of laughter over her strange story. 

For the Love of Dogs

With Camilla on For the Love of Dogs - O’Grady was well-known as an animal lover and one of his most popular shows was For the Love of Dogs, where he followed the work of staff at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, a charity of which he is an ambassador, and met some of the cuddly canines that live there. In a special episode of the series to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the charity O’Grady was joined by none other than Camilla, the Queen Consort.

O’Grady and Camilla threw a garden party at Clarence House to celebrate the charity. The episode also featured, appropriately, a King Charles Spaniel who suffered from worms but was given medication by vets and later adopted, to the joy of many viewers. Camilla and Paul shared a bond on the show, and the Queen Consort paid tribute to the late presenter following the news of his death - The royal family’s official Twitter account posted: “Deeply saddened to hear of the death of Paul O’Grady, who worked closely with her majesty in support of Battersea, providing lots of laughter and many waggy-tailed memories.”

Lily Savage on This Morning

Back when Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan were the presenters on This Morning in the 1990s, Lily Savage made another iconic TV appearance in a segment that has been widely shared online in the wake of O’Grady’s death. Lily took part in a wine and beer tasting on Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock, attempting to bring some class to the proceedings.

It didn’t go totally according to plan - complaining about the cost of one bottle, Lily said ‘£5.99 for a bottle of wine, it wouldn’t last us the first half of Coronation Street. As Lily continued to throw back to wine, she got progressively more pissed and once again stole the spotlight before chucking her glass into the dock.