weeks and in total there have been 27 different celebrity guest hosts. In April 2008, there were two unscheduled guest-hosted weeks. O'Grady hosted the Monday show during these two weeks, but was taken ill after contracting a flu virus for the remainder of the weeks. Melanie Sykes guest-hosted five of the eight remaining shows, having previously hosted the show three times. In total she has been guest host 11 times. On 15 October 2009, O'Grady had to go to the dentist for some dental work, with Joe Pasquale substituting for him as host. On 18 November 2013, O'Grady was taken ill with a suspected angina attack meaning he was unable to present the live show from that day. He was replaced by singer and entertainer Michael Ball for that episode and presenter and magician Stephen Mulhern the following day. Emma Willis hosted on 20 November, followed by Vernon Kay the next day, and finally comedian Jo Brand guest hosted on 22 November. On 25 November 2013, O'Grady returned and thanked the five stand-ins for filling in for him over the previous week. He paid particular thanks to Michael Ball who found out he was to host with only 40 minutes' notice. 2006 2007 2008 Note: For the episode hosted by Jackie Collins, O'Grady himself was the guest along with Paris Hilton. 2009 2013 The Paul O'Grady Players annual pantomime Every year, the show had an annual Christmas pantomime. Roughly 15 guest stars appeared in the panto. There was always one narrator, who told the story throughout the panto. This had been Antony Cotton, Dawn French, Kate Thornton, Sandi Toksvig and Stephen Fry. The panto ran roughly for the whole show, with usually five minutes left at the end when O'Grady and the stars answered the questions that had been e-mailed in by the viewers. However, in the 2006 panto, Peter Pan, the panto only ran for roughly 40 minutes, ending around 5.40 pm. After this, O'Grady interviewed Dawn French, who was the narrator, as he would do on a normal show. There was then, as usual, the organ game and O'Grady and all the stars then answered e-mails sent in by the viewers. The panto was always on the last Wednesday before Christmas, meaning that it was always broadcast live. The pantos were: 2005: The Wizard of Oz 2006: Peter Pan 2007: Cinderella 2008: Pinocchio 2009: Sleeping Beauty (broadcast on