Paul O’Grady has returned to Instagram for the first time this year to share exciting news about an upcoming project.
In an image posted on January 29, the 67-year-old can be seen with Pun the elephant. Inside the caption is exciting news about his upcoming project. The star announced he will be starting rehearsals for the musical Annie on Monday.
The Blind Date presenter will be playing the iconic Miss Hannigan in the musical.
Paul’s exciting news was his first Instagram post in four weeks. His last post was on Boxing Day, when he updated his 732,000 followers on a gingerbread man called Malcolm.
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Paul O’Grady on Instagram
Paul’s exciting news will delight fans who have seen him in the on-stage role before.
The BAFTA Award-winning television, radio and stage star first played the role of Miss Hannigan at the Victoria Palace Theatre in 1998.
His other theatre credits include playing the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium. He also has years of experience in pantomimes which includes Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Paul will be touring with the iconic musical from March. The talk show host has been confirmed to appear in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Southampton, Liverpool, Dublin and Bristol.
He will be sharing the role with Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood who will appear on the other dates.
Why did Paul’O Grady take on the exciting new role again?
Paul has been living a quieter life recently, shedding his wild persona of Lily Savage. He now dedicates his life to animal rescue.
The TV and radio icon left Radio 2 in August after 14 years at the station, saying he “wasn’t really happy” there. His exciting news has shocked some. So why did he choose to go back on stage?
Paul revealed to the Liverpool Echo that the producers of Annie used a rather unusual tactic to persuade him to take on the role.
Read more: Paul O’Grady shocks Instagram followers with family news: ‘I can’t believe it’
He said: “The producer got me drunk – we’d been rehearsing and we went the pub and we were just talking about musicals and I said – like a fool – that the only musical I’d ever do was Annie.”
“So then I was roped in and because of work [commitments], I can only do seven weeks,” he added: “I’m old, I’ll be 68 next year.”
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