Paul O'Grady: Why did I give up the chat show? I couldn't stand the guests!

It’s a good job Paul O’Grady’s landed his dream job on the new Coronation Street musical, because wild horses wouldn’t drag him back to the sofa... Career change: It's a good job Paul O'Grady's landed his dream job on the new Coronation Street musical, because wild horses wouldn't drag him back to the sofa... Paul O’Grady has got the bit between his teeth. He’s talking about chat shows. Or, rather, why he decided to chuck in ITV1’s Paul O’Grady Live. And, boy, does Paul talk. ‘I felt I was part of the PR machine. There was so much interference. They’d want this guest or that guest. Every question had to go through the lawyers. I was just another plug for someone’s book or film. ‘And I can tell you I saw some dross and read some rubbish, but I was too polite to say, “This is shameful. How you’ve got the nerve to publish this is beyond me.” So I’d say, “Oh, I really enjoyed your book,” but I was thinking, “I can’t do this any more.” ‘Guests would be on the couch coked off their minds. They’d start conversations, forget what they were saying, go onto something else. 'When I was doing my daytime show (The Paul O’Grady Show) I’d feel like self-mutilating under the desk thinking, “They’re going to swear. It’s 5pm. There are kids watching.” As soon as the ad break came I’d fly off and say, “They’re off their face on coke. I can’t handle this. It’s live telly.”’ But hang on a minute Paul, hang on. Hadn’t the audiences plummeted? Weren’t we led to believe it was ITV that dumped you? ‘No, not at all. In fact they asked me to come back this year with Paul O’Grady Live but it was time to go.’ Either way, Paul’s blown apart the cosy image of the TV chat show in less than a minute. And he’s off again. ‘I’d be sitting there and, if they were in a soap, they’d be talking about the long hours they worked or their Jimmy Choos,’ he says. ‘I wasn’t interested in b***** shoes. It would flash across my mind, “You’re sitting here talking about shoes and there’s a man dying in my bed.”’   More... Twiggy: Of course I've got a muffin top! The model talks to LIZ JONES about facelifts, dodgy ankles and her 'lumps and bumps' After losing eight stone, Dawn French admits feeling uneasy in her new body... so can you truly miss being FAT? He’s talking about his partner of 25 years and former manager Brendan Murphy, who died of brain cancer seven years ago, which goes to the nub of what Paul, 56, is trying to explain. Although he’s always lived alone, he nursed Murphy through the last six weeks of his life. The dreadful rollercoaster of those weeks, as he watched the man he loved slip away, continues to trouble him.