Paul O'Grady died a year ago.
It's 1987. The Metropolitan Police are waging an intimidation campaign against London's LBTQ+ community.
Wearing rubber gloves to "protect from AIDS" they raid the Royal Vauxhall Tavern
"Well well," says Lily Savage (Paul O'Grady) from the stage as the police pile into the venue. "It looks like we’ve got help with the washing up"
The raid was one of a number carried out by the police, using obscure laws as justification for their intimidation.
In this instance, the excuse was "reports of drunkenness on premises"
With Lily continuing to mock the police, she was handcuffed and arrested with others.
Paul refused to drop his alter ego for the entire duration events.
When she was booked in, and ordered to give her name the answer was "Lily Savage".
When a REAL name was demanded, the reply was:
"Lily Veronica Mae Savage"
On release, Lily was back on stage the next night.