It's like living with some boozy old barmaid who's trashed the place

"You need two things in a riot - flat shoes and a pram."

"That's not cellulite - that's a bar stool mark!"

"Life's too short to clean an oven."

"I'm sick of fellas. Think I'll become a lesbian. At least you get to wear flat shoes."

"PVC's great. You can wipe off anything that comes at you."

As the "lady" herself might say - "Fuck me! Lil's sixty!"

Yes, it is indeed the 60th birthday today of Britain's favourite telly entertainer, chat show host and Radio 2 presenter (and former drag queen - he put his alter ego Lily Savage to rest a couple of years ago) Mr Paul O'Grady.



"I've frequently been asked over the years who Lily Savage was based on and I've always answered that it was no one in particular and she was just a figment of my imagination. The truth, I realise now, is that Lily owes a lot to the women I encountered in my childhood." [Like] "...me auntie Chrissie, who was a clippie on the buses. She had a hard life, but she used to suck her cheeks in and fancy herself as Marlene Dietrich."

[As he said in 1995] "Lily gets in the way. I play second fiddle to her all the time. I sometimes come in to my flat, and there's a leopardskin handbag on the floor, and a pair of her shoes and an old coat - and it's like living with some boozy old barmaid who's trashed the place. I think, 'Slag!' and start muttering about her under me breath."

We still love Lily, however! Here's "The Birkenhead Bombshell" in full flood:

Lily Savage Live

And let's not forget that classic Royal Variety Performance...

Many happy returns, Paul James Michael O'Grady, MBE (born 14th June 1955)