THE PAUL O'GRADY SHOWMr O'Grady is back on our box weekdays at 5 pm with his extremely popular and award-winning chat show. It's a mix of light chat (usually chummy natter with O'Grady's showbiz mates), light comedy, animals, kids, games and quizes.
It all sounds quite good fun, which I suppose it can be at times. O'Grady is a talented performer, although I miss the acerbic wit of his alter-ego Lilly Savage, which has been replaced in recent years by his "true" self -- a scatalogical camp scouser with a self-deprecating tone.
We Brits have always been suckers for three things on TV: animals, kids and camp humour. O'Grady's show has all three. In abundance. O'Grady can fling a camp quip with the best of them and the show is overloaded with sweet-faced kids and pets.
That's not to say it's a great show. It's certainly popular, but when the competition is The (awful) Sharon Osbourne Show, it's no wonder. It was more interesting when O'Grady was on ITV and battling Channel 4's Richard & Judy for ratings. Healthy competition is always great for viewers, and we also had a choice: fun and games with Paul or a light-hearted magazine mix with Richard and Judy. Since O'Grady jumped ship to Channel 4 (pushing R&J into a 3-month shift rotation), the choice is now reduced two shows of similar formats but different presenters.
I'm not actually a fan of The Paul O'Grady Show anyway. I find the comedy interludes with Paul to be over-scripted and false (particularly when reading viewers' letters), and O'Grady's interview style is perhaps even more fawning and sycophantic than Michael Parkinson's.
All chat shows live or die by the calibre of their guests. Only Friday Night With Jonathan Ross can spin gold out of awful guests. It's a trick Paul O'Grady can't pull off, and I'm actually at a loss to remember a truly good guest on his show (well, Peter Kay at Christmas, perhaps...)
Beyond the guests, the banality of the rest of the show is frustrating. The way cute kids are wheeled in to act out scripted chats with O'Grady irritates me immensely, and the appeal of Buster the dog (beyond cuteness himself) is perplexing -- he just sits and does nothing beyond exist. Oh, and don't get me started on The Organ Game (a quiz that only exists for a double-entendre that has been overused to a criminal degree now...)
However, it's undeniable that The Paul O'Grady Show is successful and well loved by people (although I'm sure the target demographic is people over-50). But there is a good alternative to O'Grady on TV... it's called Blue Peter; a show that continues to be quite informative and entertaining despite being aimed at children...
