Paul O’Grady has spilled the beans about his criminal past in his new autobiography.

The comedian – who was given an MBE at Buckingham Palace last week – admitted in the book that he’d carried out burglaries in his youth and that he’d experimented with drugs.

In his book, Paul O’Grady: At My Mother’s Knee… And Other Low Joints, Paul wrote, “In one heist we chose not to take anything except an oil painting of a ship and an old pirate’s pistol.

“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 also described how he once ate cannabis with his mother.