Peter Kay has announced his return to the stage – his first stand-up tour in 12 years (Picture: Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)
Peter Kay has announced that he will be heading out on his first stand-up tour in 12 years, delighting fans across the country.
The comedian, 49, has rarely been seen in public since a sudden cancellation of his then-upcoming Have Gags Will Travel tour in December 2017.
His appearances on TV have been sporadic ever since, but the Phoenix Nights creator did turn up during the BBC’s Big Night In special in April 2020.
Kay has been gradually returning to the stand-up scene since Covid-19 restrictions were eased, making brief appearances at charity events.
But his proper return was announced on Sunday night, with Kay letting the nation know that he’ll be back on the road from December 2022.
Here are some of his greatest moments from a stellar 20-year career.
Back where it all began
Peter Kay’s first-ever appearance on national TV came back in November 1997, when he made a brief cameo on Coronation Street.
Appearing opposite Fred Elliott (John Savident) and Ashley Peacock (Casey Carswell), he played the role of a shopfitter who helped rebuild the corner shop.
Years later, in 2004, he appeared in two episodes as a different character, Eric Gartside and he briefly dated Shelly Unwin (Sally Lindsay).
However, the couple ended their relationship when Eric’s mum became too involved in their relationship, causing Shelly to break it off.
The birth of Phoenix Nights
Don’t worry, we’ll get to Phoenix Nights proper very shortly. But before we do, we have to acknowledge where it all began.
Kay’s first original show on TV was That Peter Kay Thing, which was broadcast on Channel 4 and first hit our screens in the year 2000.
Its first proper episode – entitled In the Club – featured some familiar characters that we’d come to know very well years later.
The first full episode of That Peter Kay Thing introduced us to the likes of Brian Potter, Kenny Snr (Archie Kelly), and the backing band Les Alanos (Toby Foster, Steve Edge) who would eventually be regular features of Phoenix Nights.
Kay played both Brian and ‘Park Avenue’ singer Mark Park, displaying his musical chops by singing a major-key rendition of Robbie Williams’ 90s hit Let Me Entertain You. Kay’s love for pop music would only become clearer with time.
The Funeral, Bolton Albert Hall
One of Kay’s most beloved sketches from his stellar stand-up career comes from his Live at Bolton Albert Halls show, recorded and released in 2003.
Of course, the most memorable moment from that show is the iconic ‘garlic bread?!’ line, but the longer sequence that joke is part of is Kay at his absolute best.
The sequence moves on from discussing family weddings to follow the story of the day Kay attends the funeral for ‘Connie’, the woman who once lived above his grandma’s flat in Bolton.
What begins as something broad and familiar suddenly pivots and reveals Kay’s abilities not just as a comic, but as a hilarious storyteller.
It’s the sketch that reveals the magic behind Kay’s success – he speaks in a language that working-class people recognise and find great joy in.
In this famous routine, which features that Quavers moment, sees Kay develop figures from his life into fully-rounded characters that we recognise from our own.
‘Get back, you b******, I’ll break your legs!’
A single episode of Phoenix Nights would contain enough hilarious moments to fill this entire list by itself, so we thought we’d be fair and limit it to just one.
It’s the final episode of the first season that contains a moment that changed the future of mobile ringtones in the UK.
Do you remember that period between 2001 and 2003, when ‘Get back, you b******, I’ll break your legs!’ blasted out of seemingly every phone in the country?
The introduction of Max’s hilarious car alarm also has a terrific pay-off in the episode, when the Right Said Fred tribute act turn out to be criminals.
A fight breaks out that results in Max’s car being damaged, and its loud car alarm alerts everyone in the club to the melee occurring outside.
Amarillo, and his first UK #1 single
Anybody who’s familiar with Kay’s comedy over the years will know how much pop music means to both him and his work.
Barely a moment goes by without a reference to 80s and 90s pop or an 80s or 90s pop tune playing in the background: it’s pretty much everywhere in his material.
So what a proud moment it must have been for him when he secured his first of three number one singles in the UK charts.
Kay was involved with the re-release of Tony Christie’s 1971 hit ‘(Is This the Way To) Amarillo’ for Comic Relief in 2005, which was number one for seven weeks.
The 2005 version was most famous for its music video, which featured an array of famous faces who agreed to be part of the charity event.
Perhaps the most iconic incident in the original video was the sight of comedian Ronnie Corbett falling off the treadmill at the very end.
Britain’s Got the Pop Factor, and Geraldine McQueen
By 2008, the country wasn’t exactly sick of The X Factor (it posted its highest ratings ever in 2010, when Matt Cardle won the competition), but it had become predictable in the eyes of many viewers.
So predictable, in fact, that Kay saw an opportunity to poke fun at its formula with Britain’s Got the Pop Factor… and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice.
Perhaps most famous for Cat Deeley telling the chatty and boisterous audience to ‘F****** shut up!’, Pop Factor also introduced the world to winner Geraldine McQueen.
Geraldine went on to secure a top two hit for Kay with The Winner’s Song and a top five hit with Christmas song parody Once Upon a Christmas Song.
Car Share’s original ending
Do you remember where you were when John Redmond’s dream sequence suddenly ended, and we were forced to watch as his car share buddy Kayleigh Kiston (Sian Gibson) walked away from him down Manchester’s Pomona Strand?
In one of the most heartbreaking moments ever written by Kay, Kayleigh grew tired of waiting for John to reveal his feelings for her and got ‘out of his car, and out of his life’ forever, leaving John heartbroken.
The main source of drama in Car Share had been the two main characters’ inability to fully recognise and reveal their love for each other, and May 2017’s original ending was a sobering reminder that we can’t always get what we want.
However, a special episode was released a year later which saw John and Kayleigh reconcile the next day, reveal their love for each other after all, and hold hands on the bus home.
Announcing his big comeback
Whatever the reason for Kay’s sudden hiatus in 2017, he’s been very much missed by his millions of fans in that time. Any sign of his return was pounced upon for good reason.
He’s deservedly one of Britain’s best-loved comedians and the world always feels a little less funny when he’s not around, so it’s no surprise that his fans were in absolute raptures when his first tour in 12 years was confirmed during the launch episode of I’m A Celebrity on ITV on Sunday night.
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In a short advert, he can be seen laughing about his famous ‘garlic bread’ routine and confirming that he’s back on tour ‘next month’.
His work on TV has been magnificent over the years, but it’s his stand-up shows where he’s really in his element – it’ll be a delight to welcome him back to the big stage.
Tickets are available here from Saturday (November 12) at 10am.
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Phoenix Nights,
