Paul O'Grady used £5 note as poo bag - and spent it in a shop

5 October 2021

Paul O'Grady once used a £5 note as a poo bag and then spent it in a shop.

Paul O'Grady

The 66-year-old star - who was out walking his beloved dog Buster at the time - was caught short without a poo bag when his pet needed to do "his business", and so needed to improvise.

Speaking to Claudia Winkleman on BBC Radio 2, he said: "When Buster was a puppy, I was out with him on the green.

"He did his business and I'm very conscientious. I always clean up after. And of course no poo bag - all I had was a fiver.

"So over I went, picked it up with the fiver, and put it in the pin."

The 'Paul O'Grady: For The Love of Dogs' host explained how he then went home to find a poo bag to dispose of the mess, then cleaned the note and used it for his shopping.

He added: "Took Buster home, found a poo bag, went straight back, opened the bin, shook the fiver out into the poo bag.

"Went home, wiped the fiver down, and then went to the shop and bought a milk and a paper with it."

Paul - whose beloved Shih tzu-bichon frise-cross sadly died of cancer 12 years ago - admitted the awkward incident taught him to always carry a bag when he went out.

However, even that caused an awkward moment as he found one in his pocket while he was up on stage accepting a prize at the National Television Awards.

He said: "I was up there getting the awkward and I had my hand in my pocket and there was a dog biscuit and a poo bag in my pocket."

The star recently made the jump to late night television with his new ITV show 'Paul O'Grady: Saturday Night Line-Up', and he'd promised something "dirty" for viewers when he was filmed an un-aired pilot in 2019.

At the time, he took a swipe at other ITV presenters and laughed: “This will never get to a series. It’s the dirtiest show that is possible on telly. It is too rude. But they want a bit of rudeness now.

“I mean who the f*** wants to watch Alan Titchmarsh? You know what they are like at ITV, they are a bit leg-crossed aren’t they? Phil and Holly – the pair who p*** themselves if somebody says ‘bum.' "