Peter Kay and Paddy McGuinness have been best friends since they were kids, but the Phoenix Nights star joked about staying away from Paddy’s professional life during a BBC Radio 2 appearance
Comedian Peter Kay has admitted that he “keeps his distance” from Paddy McGuinness ‘ professional ventures, despite their long-standing history of collaboration. The pair have been best pals since their nursery school days in the 1970s.
The childhood chums remained close throughout their school years, both attending Mount St Joseph High School in Farnworth. Their friendship eventually transitioned into a professional alliance when Peter enlisted Paddy for his TV series, That Peter Kay Thing, followed by Phoenix Nights and Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere.
After the series concluded, Paddy forged his own successful career as a television presenter, fronting popular shows including Take Me Out, Top Gear, and A Question of Sport. He’s also made a name for himself as a stand-up comedian, performing nationwide.
Concurrently, Peter has created and starred in programmes like Peter Kay’s Car Share while continuing his own comedy tours.
In 2017, Peter cancelled his UK tour and retreated from public life. He made his return in 2022 with his Better Late Than Never tour, which was succeeded by the 84-date Better Late Than Never Again tour earlier this year, according to the Manchester Evening News, reports the Mirror.
He’s recently announced an additional 21 shows, extending the tour through to August next year.
Following the announcement, Peter appeared on Paddy’s BBC Radio 2 show. Greeting his old friend, 52 year old Paddy, who joined the station in 2024, observed: “The maddest thing about this is when I have to introduce you as Peter Kay.”
Peter, who is also 52, replied with typical humour: “You know what the maddest thing about this is? I’m going to forget we’re on the radio and we’re just talking as normal. This is why I stay away from all of your professional work, because we’re going to get nothing but OFCOM complaints and this will be your last show.”
This prompted Paddy to joke “What a way to go out”, before he began humming the theme tune of sitcom Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere, which Peter quickly joined in with. The playful exchange continued with Paddy suggesting that their radio appearance would be “clipped up for socials”.
Peter revealed that he had previously appeared on Radio 2 with veteran presenter Scott Mills, whom he described as “alright” despite confessing he had “never met him” beforehand. However, the comedy legend admitted that one particular behaviour by BBC executives prompted him to issue a firm warning.
He told Paddy: “I did Scott Mills a few weeks back and they kept getting in touch going, ‘Can we put this bit on social media? Can we put that bit on social media?’ I went, ‘No, that’s enough now thanks, leave it’. Everything is…I can’t even say the word.”
Peter then enquired whether Paddy’s own Radio 2 programme gets recorded for social media purposes.
Paddy responded: “What they do sometimes is because obviously we’re in Salford, it’s like, ‘Send them an old camera up there, they’ll be alright with that’. So sometimes we’ll have a camera in the corner, that’s all.
“But at the minute, because you’re on, and you’re one of the most successful comedians ever, they’ve actually brought up a camera phone. Someone’s filming me, as we speak, with an iPhone. It’s not even got a mic plugged in, it’s just one of the lads out of the office has come in and stuck it on a stand in the corner of the room.”
While Peter is poised to resume his stand-up tour next year, he’s recently revealed that his cherished sitcom Phoenix Nights won’t be arriving on streaming platforms.
He disclosed that Netflix had approached him about acquiring the rights to stream the show, but he turned down their proposal after discovering they intended to attach a trigger warning to the series.
He clarified that the programme, which chronicles his character Brian Potter’s efforts to turn The Phoenix Club into Greater Manchester’s top working men’s club, “is not very politically correct now”.
During a visit to Capital Breakfast last month, Peter revealed: “They got in touch with me last year because they wanted to put Phoenix Nights on Netflix.
“They rang me up and said, ‘Can we license some of your shows to put on Netflix?’ Anyway, they sent me a load of paperwork. Basically, it’s not very politically correct now. This was made in a time, do you know what I mean?”.
Capital presenter Sian Welby chimed in: “When things were different!” Peter continued: “I just said, ‘I’m not keen on that, I don’t really want a warning before it.’ So, I just said, ‘No, I’ll leave it.’ Anyway, they sent me an air fryer. I think that was trying to sweeten me.”
However, Peter offered a ray of hope for devoted fans desperately hoping to see Phoenix Nights make its cinema debut. He disclosed: “It’s written and it’s done. But I’m waiting for the de-aging process to come into fruition. Because the storyline involves a lot of flashbacks to the past, and I don’t want to be using really bad makeup to make people look young.”
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