Paul O'Grady
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Paul O’Grady compared to ‘Deirdre Barlow’ in amazing throwback photo

Red hair and outsized specs just like Corrie legend!

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Paul O’Grady, host of For The Love of Dogs, recently confirmed he’s been recovering after a nasty bout with coronavirus.

So as the national treasure self-isolates, he has had plenty of time to go through some old photos at home in lockdown.

Paul O'Grady coronavirus
Paul O’Grady has been sharing lots of snaps (Credit: ITV)

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But he probably didn’t expect to be compared to a legendary female soap character!

Last Thursday (11 June), Paul, now aged 64, posted a cracking old picture on Instagram.

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He is sitting on a wall in a London park.

He is sporting a pair of flares – well, they were all the rage during then. But what really caught our attention was his hair and glasses.

Paul’s hair, which has been grey or white during all of his years he’s been famous, is “redder than a London bus”in the snap.

Does he look like someone else? One fan summed it up when they simply said: “Deirdre Barlow.”

‘Dead ringer’

And it’s true. With his curls and outsized specs, Paul is a dead ringer for Deirdre. The late actress Anne Kirkbride played the legendary gravelly-voiced character for more than 40 years.

And as Paul is a Coronation Street fan, we’re sure that he’d take this as a compliment!

He’s not the first to be compared like this, though. A few weeks ago, Carol Vorderman was accused of copying the Corrie look.

And Lorraine Kelly was mocked for her similarly old-fashioned 1980s barnet and glasses last year.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by ITV/REX/Shutterstock (8841531le)
Coronation Street legends: the real Deirdre Barlow with Ken (Credit: ITV)

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Nostalgic mood

Paul has been looking back at his past all week. He also posted an old picture of himself when he was working on the classic cop series The Bill between 1988 and 1990.

The caption reads: “I was in the make-up room and they put the hat on me to see if I’d make a good copper. I don’t think so somehow.”

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