As the nation mourns TV legend Paul O'Grady's passing, many alumni and staff have recalled the day he was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).
The newly appointed Dr Paul was kind and charming to everyone he met that day and visibly thrilled to receive an honour which he later told viewers about on his Channel 4 Paul O'Grady Show.
So we thought it would be appropriate to share the citation read out in Paul's honour when he appeared on the De Montfort Hall stage in the summer of 2010, at a time when he was at the peak of his TV powers.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Graduands:
I am privileged to present to you
Mr Paul O’Grady MBE
On whom the Board of Governors, on the recommendation of the Conferments Board, has resolved to confer the award of Honorary Doctor of Arts of this University. This honour is conferred upon persons of intellectual, cultural and professional distinction, and for whom the award would be a proper form of recognition by the University.
When Paul O’Grady was told he was to be honoured with a doctorate from De Montfort University he said he was “absolutely chuffed to bits and truly flattered” then added modestly:
“But I’m baffled. What have I done to deserve this?”.
Hopefully over the next few minutes we will leave him with no doubt as to why he is a true inspiration to our graduates and stands here as an example of what you can achieve through hard work, drive and a passion for people – as well as pets!
At the age of 55, Paul is at the peak of his game.
Having recently left the multi-award winning Paul O’Grady Show on Channel Four, he is planning a new primetime weekend programme for ITV, due to hit our screens this autumn.
He has his own weekly show on BBC Radio 2 and is writing the sequel to his number one bestselling autobiography, ‘At My Mother’s Knee… and Other Low Joints’.
He has also announced he is to return to the stage as his acid-tongued “blonde bombsite” alter-ego, Lily Savage, ten years after she officially retired and was packed off to live in a French convent.
This success has not, however, been handed to Paul on a plate.
He was born and raised in Birkenhead, Merseyside, in a poor but close-knit Irish Catholic household.
English literature, art and biology were his loves at school but he had no interest in anything else.
A particular bind was woodwork, which he says he spent years attending - only to come out at the end of it with a chair with three legs!
He took various jobs from the age of 16 but he was not destined to stay in Liverpool.
After a brief affair during which he fathered a child, Sharyn, at the age of 17, Paul moved to London and it was there that his Lily Savage character made her debut.
Paul was a social worker during the day and a bartender at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern by night. He started to compere amateur drag nights.
Having eyed-up the competition, he felt he could do better.
Lily, he says, went on to rule the Tavern with a rod of iron. The crowds were rowdy and brought out the best – or worst - in Lily and the constant touring of bars and pubs helped fine tune her infamous putdowns.
In 1995 Paul got his big TV break in “Live from the Lilydrome” and “The Big Breakfast” as well as “This Morning” with Richard and Judy.
Lily was winning the hearts of a mainstream audience with an act he had admittedly “heavily diluted with Holy Water.”
“The Lily Savage Show” and hosting “Blankety Blank” saw Lily’s profile rocket.
Paul continued to work the theatres as Lily, but rather than clubs it was the West End that beckoned, playing leading roles in Annie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Prisoner Cell Block H.
But in 2000 Paul had grown increasingly tired of dressing up. He appeared on television simply as Paul O’Grady and proved to the public they didn’t need to see him in drag to find him entertaining.
He secured his own Paul O’Grady Show after successfully standing in for Des O’Connor on a lunchtime chat show and then switched from ITV to Channel Four.
The show went on to win numerous honours including a Bafta, a National Television Award, two Royal Television Society Awards and a British Comedy Award for ‘Best Entertainment Personality’.
In between the success, however, Paul has had to overcome some terrible personal tragedies.
In the space of six years he suffered - and recovered - from two heart attacks, his long-term partner, TV producer Brendan Murphy, died, and his beloved dog, Buster, who won the hearts of the nation while sat on the desk during the Paul O’Grady Show, was put down after being diagnosed with cancer.
Paul remembers: “Somebody quoted Nietzsche saying “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”. I could have killed them for saying it, I can tell you.
“It didn’t make me stronger. It made me confused. I was left asking ‘what was that all about?’. But when a lot of stuff hits, you wonder how you cope, but you just have to.”
With all of the fame and fortune offered to Paul he still manages to maintain a quiet private life on his farm in Kent, away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi, with his dogs Olga, Louis and Bullseye, and land full of chickens, sheep, goats and pigs.
While there, he relaxes by tending a huge allotment and enjoys his own company - although he says it can make him a bit tetchy towards visitors.
“I see someone coming up the path and snap “what do you want?”, all filthy from work and standing there looking feral.
“Then I go out in London and don’t know how to behave, have a couple of drinks and make an idiot of myself!”
Notoriety, as you may have figured, is not something that sits easily with him.
He proudly tells how he has nothing to do with Heat magazine or its ilk. “My God”, he says, “I have to use a pair of tongs to turn the pages. The things people are prepared to do for a few column inches!”
He also bemoans the celebrity culture, where everything nowadays is to do with fame and nothing to do with talent.
Of the hundreds of guests he has interviewed on his shows, it is the Hollywood icons that have always impressed. He tells how “these people are not hungry or washed up. They have nothing to prove and they are great raconteurs.” Robert Wagner and Lauren Bacall were particular favourites.
And in a culture where there is an obsession with ‘looks’ Paul is often asked if he has had plastic surgery!!
We can reveal here and now, that he has not.
Unless of course you count the time, earlier this year, when he was on holiday and slipped and broke his nose in Cilla Black’s Jacuzzi.
Cilla had to take him to the local A&E department. She was having her roots done and was in her flip flops. Paul was wearing a dirty pair of shorts and had toilet paper stuffed up his nose.
“We looked like something out of Shameless,” he says.
So Paul had to get his nose straightened – an operation he would not recommend to anyone.
Paul is also recognised for his outstanding work for charities, particularly Save the Children.
When recently asked to name his influences, he didn’t reel off pop idols, comedians or movie stars, but two women in Africa who work on a feeding station for hungry children, 52 weeks a year.
When he first met them, he vowed to return and do something to help.
Since then he has gone on to sponsor children’s uniforms and their education, to give them a better chance in life. He has also sponsored youngsters to help develop a career in dance.
As Paul puts it, “What’s five grand when you can help a child achieve their dream?”
Paul has also used his TV shows to highlight many good causes, particularly the Dogs Trust, and he was nominated for an award by mental health charity Mind after he dedicated a week of shows to highlight mental health issues.
Hopefully Paul can now appreciate, as much as we do, why he is such a worthy recipient of this honorary degree.
So Mr Paul O’Grady, MBE, in the light of your many achievements, I call upon the Chancellor to confer on you the award of Honorary Doctor of Letters.
Posted on Thursday 30 March 2023