We all know that Paul O’Grady is a dab hand at spitting a barbed one liner or two and loves nothing more than an innuendo, so it will come as no surprise to hear that he had a ball when he was joined on Blind Date by its first ever gay contestants.
As you can expect, the fellas looking for love were witty and quippy and dropped a few saucy comments that had Paul chuckling away like a drain.
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But, it turns out, the gags failed to amuse telly producers who demanded the scenes be reshot for the pre watershed show.
According to audience members, some of the comments made by the gay hopefuls were a little bit on the saucy side and very near the knuckle.
One said that the gay line up were making jokes about sucking and blowing, while a Scottish hopeful made a saucy gag about his bagpipes.
When producers stepped in to tell Paul that they would have to re-film the answers section, Paul was furious.
He’d thought the humour was just on the right side of decency and told the producers they were being overly sensitive.
Another audience member, ex-nurse Adrian Rutter, told The Sun that Paul lashed out at production to tell them off for being so sensitive about the comedy answers
“He shouted at the crew, saying, ‘You’re a load of nuns — worse than the Salvation Army with their rules and preaching’.”
Adrian, of Colindale, North London, said of the contestants’ quips: “There was a lot of innuendo about blowing and sucking.
“Pensioners in the audience were shocked. The show had to be reshot.”
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Blind Date has proved to be a massive success for Channel 5, attracting just under 2 million viewers on its launch night, which is actually a good figure for the channel.
Paul agreed to replace his friend Cilla Black when it was rumoured that a reality start may have been in line to take on the listing duties.
However, it’s also believed that Channel 5 were very generous when it came to offering him a fee that he simply couldn’t refuse.