Monday, 20 October 2008

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Paul O'Grady: I was a burglar and ate cannabis with my mum

Comedian was a tearaway as a teen

Paul O'Grady has left his criminal ways behind now

Paul O’Grady has revealed he has a secret criminal past.

The comedian shamed his family by stealing with his pals when he was a teenager growing up in Birkenhead.

'In one heist we chose not to take anything except an oil painting of a ship and an old pirate's pistol,' he recalls.

‘It was an indefensible crime and I make no attempt to absolve myself. I had done it out of boredom and an unquenchable thirst for excitement.

'I swear we did it just so we could have a good nose around the homes of the “posh”. If Location, Location, Location had been on the telly at the time none of it would have happened.’

Paul, 53, has also dabbled in drugs and one time even ate marijuana with his mum.

‘She never ceased to amaze me,’ he writes in his new autobiography. ‘My 67-year-old mother, a pillar of the Union Catholic Mothers, was considering eating hashish. I cut a few slivers. She took the biggest and, pulling an exaggerated face, she swallowed it down with a big swig of tea.

‘She sat for a moment. “It hasn’t worked,” she said. Mine had kicked in. She must have the constitution of a horse, I thought, keeping a careful eye on her as she stared into the hearth, smiling to herself. The penny dropped. She was off her face.’

Paul O’Grady: At My Mother’s Knee…And Other Low Joints is out now.