‘It's the most raucous show ever!'

Paul O’Grady chats to TV Times about his new Saturday-night spectacular, life in lockdown, and writing a children’s book

- TESS LAMACRAFT

Which celebrity was the naughtiest at school? Who in showbiz copes best in a crisis? And which famous face would the public most like to go on a date with?

These are just some of the fun questions Paul O’Grady is hoping to answer as he embarks on a mischievous mission to show celebs in a whole new light in a new series that mixes the chat-show format with game-show elements.

Starting this week, Paul O’Grady’s Saturday Night Line-Up sees the popular presenter asking stars to rank themselves in response to various questions and scenarios in a bid to find out what the public really think of them.

Here, in an exclusive interview, Paul, 66, who is always a joy to chat to, tells TV Times more…

How does the format work, Paul?

Each week we have four celebrity guests and they’re asked questions like, ‘Who’s most likely to make a fool of themselves at a showbiz party?’ or ‘Who’s the cleverest?’ They then have to line up in the order they think the public will have put them in, and they score points if they get it right.

For our first show, we’ve got Rob Rinder, Mica Paris, Joanna Page and Jack Dee, and there were questions like, ‘Who’s the richest?’ The taxman could be watching, so they’re not going to put themselves in the number-one position for that one!

And there’s a chatshow element, too, because the celebs share anecdotes for each question, don’t they?

Yes. The difference on this show, though, is that the celebrities are not there to plug anything. So I’m not saying, ‘Tell us about your new film, album, book or slimming DVD.’ There’s none of that, which makes a pleasant change.