Paul O’Grady’s Saturday Night Line Up

Before Paul O’Grady was a much-loved daytime TV presenter, Radio 2 DJ, and animal welfare crusader, he was one of the nation’s favourite light-entertainment hosts.

But recently, other than his stint hosting the Blind Date reboot on Channel 5, the Birkenhead-born comic has steered clear of primetime weekend television.

However, after making a number of award-winning documentaries for ITV, including For The Love of Dogs/Animals, Animal Orphans and Great British Escape, the network has finally convinced Paul to return to what he did so brilliantly, back in the day.

At the end of 2019, he made a pilot for a new show called Saturday Night Line Up – featuring guests Emma Bunton and Martin Kemp. However, before it could progress further, the pandemic hit and TV production ground to a halt.

Paul explains: “I thought it had gone away but then they wanted to film more and because I like Elstree Studios I said, ‘Oh go on then, I’ll do it.’

“The pilot was very raucous because people let their hair down because they know it’s not going out, and I thought it would never get commissioned unless they showed it at three in the morning! But it was commissioned with us toning it down a bit!

“It was a real change because everything I do is on location, and I’m often with animals and not humans, so I wanted to see if I can still communicate with human beings! See if I’ve still got any social skills left.”

The new six-part series sees much-loved celebrities find out what the great British public really thinks of them.

Each week, Paul will be joined by four guests from the worlds of TV, film, sport and music and presents them a series of interesting questions, scenarios and dilemmas.

Then, the stars are asked to rank themselves, in order of best to worst or most to least, in response.

Among the questions will be: who is the richest? Who is the most embarrassing parent? Who is the most likely to get fired?

To win a point, the celebrities have to try to match their position in the line-up with the order that the surveyed 1,000 members of the British public have put them in.

At the end of each show, the celebrity guest with the most points is the winner and will receive a Mystery Prize from the host.

Trying to second guess the public’s opinion this week are comedian Jack Dee, Gavin & Stacey star Joanna Page, TV barrister Rob Rinder and singer and actress Mica Paris.

They answer questions such as who would have been the naughtiest at school, who would you most want alongside you in a crisis, who would be the best person to be married to, and who is the most down-to-earth?

Plus, special guest Sharon Osbourne dials in to ask them: who is the most rock ’n’ roll?

Of course, Paul will play ringmaster and will be giving his guests a run for their money with his hilarious anecdotes.

Despite an absence from light-entertainment shows, the man behind Lily Savage is still one of the country’s most bankable stars.

And ITV bosses are so confident Saturday Night Line Up will be a hit, a Christmas special is already in the pipeline.

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