Paul O’Grady on the success of For The Love Of Dogs: I’m not sure what the secret is

Returning to our screens this week for a fourth series, For The Love Of Dogs introduces a host of new canine residents looking for love – including scruffy Yorkshire terrier Titch, whose dreadlocks are so long he struggles to move, and Oliver, a streetwise Doberman-cross in dire need of house training. 

In his quest to find new homes for the pooches Paul, as always, finds his biggest challenge is leaving empty-handed.

“I don’t go home at 5pm and forget about them. I worry and then I start thinking, ‘Have I got room?’ But I’ve already got five dogs, four of them rescue dogs, and I can’t have any more,” he says.“

Instead, I try to get friends to takethem, so people avoid me now!”

This series, Paul invites his friend, Legend actor Tom Hardy, along for a visit to convince him to adopt a pup – and he also rolls out the red carpet for the Queen, who shows an interest in one of the shelter’s newest residents during her tour.

“Funnily enough, I think it was the first time they’d had a corgi at Battersea and it was handed in a few days before Her Majesty arrived,” says Paul. “She saw the corgi and we had a chat about them. Then I saw her again later and she asked me what happened to the corgi. She was genuinely interested; she’s a real dog lover.”

In episode one, Paul meets elderly Labrador-cross Hope. She arrives at Battersea when her elderly owner is no longer able to look after her – but is so distressed by her new surroundings, she cowers in the kennels and is, at first, too scared to be filmed. Will she be able to overcome her shyness to find a new home?

Elsewhere this series, Paul has the pleasure of helping to deliver a litter of puppies – but when tragedy strikes during the birth, emotions run high.

“The mum, a Yorkie called Flower, came in pregnant and had three pups. But she rolled on one of them and accidentally crushed it quite badly. There’s this tiny puppy in a blanket and we were all willing it to live,” says Paul. 

The comedian and lifelong dog lover says it’s not an isolated story – there have been some extremely sad moments this series. 

“I was going in every day and there was yet another dog who was seriously ill or had been abused or was just terrified of being in kennels and it’s sad, it really is. There are some hard stories and sometimes nothing can be done and the dogs have to be put down.”

Paul, who first rose to fame as sharp-witted drag queen Lily Savage in the 70s and has since hosted various chat shows and documentaries, admits he finds the series rewarding to film, but has expressed concerns over its future.

“I was on Kate Thornton’s radio show and we were talking about For The Love Of Dogs and I said I didn’t know whether I was going to do another series,” explained Paul, recently.

“I didn’t know whether it had run its course and maybe people were sick of it.

“I’ve done it for years now. But lo and behold, my show on Radio 2 was inundated with emails from people saying ‘you can’t quit’. And I’ve had taxi drivers and people in supermarkets saying to me ‘You’re not giving it up are you?’ So I decided to return.”

Undoubtedly, there are many memorable moments that he would have missed – not least, seeing a down-on-its-luck dog find a new family. 

“The highlight for me is always when an animal gets a home. When I go in and find out that one of them got a home, I’m over the moon.

“Secretly, I’m always thinking, 

‘No one is going to take this little fella, look at the state of him’,and thankfully, someone always does.”

Paul O’Grady: For the Love of Dogs, Thursday, 8.30pm, ITV