Sadly, no photos, but our man in Newcastle, Peter Whitfield, bumped into Paddy yesterday and reports in the following terms:
“This is just ‘cos there might be people out there who are still tickled to hear about Paddy sightings. Well, I almost fell over him when I turned the corner of an aisle in M&S in Newcastle yesterday and found him sitting on his haunches with a pile of fresh ravioli packages, sifting through them all to find one that suited him. I managed to negotiate myself around him but didn’t bother engaging in any chit-chat as he looked a bit harassed. For the record, he’s back with long-ish hair (not quite touching the shoulder, but give him another six weeks) and the beard is now about six inches in length. And he’s gone from the anonymous garb in which he was clad last summer to a substantial full-on red and black tartan jacket twinned with luminous orange chino-style trousers.
“You never know, he might be preparing to unleash some new product, and is merely getting himself into character. Or he just might prefer looking eccentric.”
I should add that the closing paragraph is not the universally accepted view. In particular, Helen, who sees Paddy around quite a bit says: