Exclusive interview with Paddy McGuinness

Who’s The Daddy?
It’s Our Paddy!

Star of popular game show Take Me Out, Paddy McGuinness has certainly proved his worth and is set to accept a bumper new deal from ITV to keep him away from the clutches of their rivals at the BBC. This lad has done good since I last interviewed him seven years ago.

He’s still got the smouldering good looks, the cheeky northern accent and a bucketful of jokes, but now he’s happily married to Christine, former Miss Liverpool, and the proud dad of two-year-old twins Leo and Penelope, so it looks like he won’t be ‘taking me out’ anytime soon, but then again I am married too!

His last solo tour was in 2011 and Paddy’s keen to get back on the road with his upcoming tour ‘Daddy McGuinness’ which sees him travelling the UK with a rather gruelling 50-date stand-up tour starting in September. This lad is going to be tired. “Funny you should say that,” laughs Paddy, “but it’s probably the least amount of dates I’ve ever done. It’s quite an easy one, and I’ve had to extend it into 2016. Normally with a theatre tour you end up doing over 100 nights, so I’m ‘slacking’ a bit on this one!”

In his latest tour, he tackles his new life as a parent and the impact it has had on his life. “I’ve never been on tour as a dad, and as a dad there’s so many things you go through, and what’s amazing is, these things happen to you, and when you’re talking to your friends about the experiences you’ve had with your kids, they just look at you as if to say ‘Yeah… and… did you not know about
that?’ and I’m left thinking ‘Why did no-one tell me that?’

“What I perceive as one-offs and a spectacular event, are actually quite normal. A lot of the things I’ll be talking about, if you’re a parent, you’ll be able to relate to it. If not, then I’ll probably scare you off! I’ll be sharing several stories about becoming a first time dad and parenthood.”

Unfortunately, his twosome won’t be attending his tours and crying from the wings. “It’ll just be me and a microphone,” says Paddy. “Having kids has been the most amazing thing to ever happen to me, but equally it’s the most lifechanging bonkers thing to happen as well. Everything changes, even the simplest little thing, like having the telly on. From the minute we get up to the minute the kids go to bed it’s just Baby TV, so it’s pointless when people ask me if I’ve seen something on the news, because I haven’t a clue! There could be a nuclear holocaust going on and I’d have no idea.”

As many parents know children’s TV can be a welcome relief. Personally, I’m a big Mr Tumble fan, and on many occasions good old Tumble has saved the day and my mental state too. However, Paddy’s latest additions, Leo and Penelope, tend to favour Tipa Tupa, “I get the urge to put my foot through the TV, but the kids love them!

“Penelope is very independent and ‘divarish’, where Leo is quiet and has a gentle soul. They get on well, until one of them picks up another’s toy then it’s like WW3.”

I was curious to discover who Paddy decides to pick up first when they’re both crying. “Believe it or not, we very rarely have it where both are crying at the same time. It’s usually one of them ‘kicking off ’ for no apparent reason, and the other’s all right. But, if they‘re both at it, I just try and susso ut which one is the most distressed and once you remove one of them from the situation the other calms down.” He laughs when I ask him which is his favourite, “Obviously, I don’t have a favourite, however I tend to ‘lean towards’ the one who is the best behaved that day!”