It has just been announced that the Britsh Award-Winning Talk Show host Paul O’Grady has died unexpectedly at the age of 67. Since 2004 O’Grady has been a major presence in mainstream TV with his different shows getting record ratings.  However despite all his wonderful success, to Queerguru, and most of the British LGBTQ community, he will always be treasured as our Lily Savage.

Grady’s alter ego Lily Savage was a loud-mouthed working-class chain-soaking drink-guzzling lapsed Catholic  Liverpudlian ‘housewife’ who preferred shop-lifting to shopping.  She was fiercely political and she emerged as our champion during the authoritarian Thatcher period when gay rights were seriously under threat.  Lily never held back.  She not  only used her  act to speak out on issues affecting the gay community but started regularly doing charity fundraisers for HIV/AIDS research, as many of his friends died from AIDS-related complications   AS Lily,   O’Grady   later related that “People my age will never get over the horrors”

From 1989 to 1992 Lily performed annually at the Edinburgh Fringe, gaining increasing recognition, and was nominated for the 1991 Perrier Award^] He later related that “The Edinburgh Festival changed my life. “The experience opened doors for me that would otherwise have been firmly closed, exposing me to a much wider audience than I’d previously been used to.”

It was inevitable that the mainstream world would recognize his talent and reward him with a successful career which he so deserved.  However, like so many other queer folks today the vision of Lily in my head will always be her being totally outrageous and hysterically funny  at shabby bars like the Union Tavern and (not quite so shabby) Royal Vauxhall Tavern. There she was one of us and stole our hearts every single time.

Thank you Lily so much: you will be so missed