Dating is all on apps now, no one goes to a boozer... but our daters have had no luck so it’s back to courting!
PAUL O’GRADY ON BEING BLIND DATE’S NEW CILLA
The mystery gent who sent a bottle of champagne over to singing star and TV favourite Cilla Black must have thought his luck was in. But all he got for his troubles was a badly bruised leg.
For Cilla’s chaperone that night was her best friend Paul O’Grady, who always believed it was his job to look after her.
“I was very protective because of who she was, so I never set her up on dates, quite the opposite” says Paul, recalling one of many nights in London clubland.
“If we were out and a guy came onto Cilla, I was like a pitbull. I would kick off at them and say, ‘Sling your hook’.
“I remember a fella bought her a bottle of champagne, and the next minute he was pouring it for her. I gave him a hoof with my foot and told him, ‘You have bought her a drink, you haven’t bought her time, clear off ’. Haha. Cilla said it was like going out with a gangster.” It’s almost two years since Cilla died in Spain after a fall, but right now Paul feels as close as ever to his pal.
For he is stepping into the matchmaking shoes of his fellow Scouser as Blind Date returns to our screens for the first time since 2003.
Paul, who gave a memorable speech at the funeral, says he still misses Cilla every day and admits he needs a lorra, lorra luck trying to follow her when the revamped show returns on Saturday.
But just her name was enough to give the new programme a great start.
He says: “At the top of the show I explain, ‘This was a show hosted by Cilla Black, give the old girl a round of applause’ and of course they all cheer.
“I have never seen anything like it. That was the thing about Blind Date. It was funny. She was wonderful the way she steered the ship, I just hope I can do as good a job. I wish she could just appear for 10 minutes so I could ask her, ‘How did you get on in your first series?’
People have got such fond memories of it. She is impossible to follow.” Asked if he felt Cilla on set, Paul looks slightly sad and shakes his head. “I wish I did feel Cilla’s presence, it would be a lot more reassuring. But she is off having a ball somewhere. She’d roar laughing if she heard it was coming back. I used to speak to her every day and we used to go on holiday three times a year. And you just think, ‘God life’s dull’ cos Cilla was bloody good fun.”
Blind Date was a huge hit for ITV running from 1985 until 2003 with a peak of more than 18 million viewers.
At Channel 5, its new home, bosses will be happy with a fraction of that.
The format is the same, one person questioning three people behind a screen. But the new version reflects modern society with LGBT rounds.
Paul, who himself dated men and women in the 1970s, is certain the show still has a place. “Of course dating has changed, it is all on bloody apps now. No one goes to a boozer because they can’t find a boozer and if they can they can’t afford to go in.
“I say we are going back to the days before Tinder. Our contestants have been on all these. I think, ‘They are all stunning and have good jobs, why can’t they find a partner?’ They have had no luck on dating apps. It’s too instant, like ordering a pizza. Grindr? I’d die of fright.
“What they are doing now on Blind Date is picking someone on their personality and not looks because they are hidden behind the wall and can’t see. It is what they say.”
Paul also reckons it is harder to find love in 2017.
He says: “You used to just say, ‘Do you want to go down the pub?’ You never hear that now. Going to the pub is expensive and it is all online. I think it will be quite a shock going back to the old ways..of courting.”
When we first met up to speak about the show in May, Paul was worried about Trump and the world in general. But this week, his spirits have been lifted. “I feel like the mood has changed since the election,” he says. “I was never a fan of Jeremy Corbyn at the beginning, But I have
I am not going to the weddings.. they are so boring and now they’re 3-day affairs
completely turned around on that. I am sorry Labour didn’t get in, but we are getting closer. Young people have come out and voted this time.
“I am not amused with Theresa May at all. She has got to go, that one.
“But Tories will turn on her, she’ll be out. I suppose we have to have another general election soon. If it means getting Labour in I am all for it. I’ll canvass for Corbyn if it helps!”
Paul is putting the finishing touches to scripts for the final episodes of Blind Date now, and he hopes at least one couple may have longevity.
But even if the show is successful with pairing people up, Paul admits he will not be like Cilla when it comes to buying a hat. He insists: “I am not going to the weddings. I don’t mind a good funeral but I hate weddings.
“They are so bloody boring and now they are a three-day affair.”
The new Blind Date starts on Channel 5 on Saturday at 7pm.