‘It's still a Cinderella story'

Paul O’Grady on how Battersea has coped with lockdown – and the puppy that stole his heart…

- Caren Clark

Whenever Paul O’Grady visits Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for ITV’s For the Love of Dogs, he always insists that he’s not going to take home another canine companion.

But faced with a super-cute puppy and a very worthwhile cause in this week’s spin-off special, Paul O’Grady’s For the Love of Dogs: Back in Business, it’s no surprise that he quickly succumbs to temptation!

The episode sees Paul head to Battersea just before lockdown began in March as the staff race to find new families or foster homes for the animals before the coronavirus pandemic causes them to temporarily close its three sites for the first time in 160 years.

Keen to help, Paul is introduced to a litter of Jack Russell cross puppies, and one, Dinky, who is renamed Nancy, joins the menagerie at Paul’s Kent farmhouse.

Here, Paul, 65, reveals how his beloved Battersea has risen to this unprecedented challenge and why little Nancy captured his heart…

What can you tell us about this special episode?

I promise that it’s not lockdown doom and gloom. It’s still a Cinderella story. Battersea is like the Fairy Godmother and the dogs go off to a lovely home with a happy ending. But this is on a whole new level finding loads of homes at record speed before the place shuts down. It’s heart-warming. It will cheer you up and make you cry.

It must have been a tough time for Battersea…