Peter Kay features
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:06 am    Post subject: Peter Kay features Reply with quote

I was enjoying this interview (kind of) 'til Kay got to the bit about Billy Connolly - he says Connolly's book was all "oh woe is me.." yet it was written by his wife Pamela Stephenson!
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I quite enjoyed it, especially the bit about the nuns.

The part where he mentions Billy Connolly might actually encourage more people to read it. He didn't get too positive a reaction from the crowd either which was nice to see.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote


EXCLUSIVE: PETER KAY ON FAME & FAMILY
"It has been a slow burn to get where I am... but all I've ever been is myself"
By Sue Carroll
AS INVITATIONS go it was an unusual one. Would I, Peter Kay wondered, like to help him stuff a cushion up his front? The comedian, I should explain, is wearing a nun's habit. His surprise outfit for an appearance on the Paul O' Grady Show.

"What do you reckon then?" he says leaving the dressing room, "a pregnant nun, eh?" He storms it, of course, bouncing like an overblown Maria Von Trapp into the studio where the audience learn that he has indeed given birth... to another career as an author. His autobiography, The Sound Of Laughter, is a hilarious homage to his Bolton childhood and the many nuns who taught him at Catholic school Mount St Joseph which, according to Peter, "the nuns sometimes did."

In his book these Brides of Christ are re-named Sister Sledge, Sister Matic, Sister Act II and the Scissor Sisters - you get the drift. Peter says: "It was only when I started doing the book that I realised what a huge influence these women had on my life."

It is never easy to get Britain's best-loved comedian talking about himself. He admits he's happiest living in a "bubble" of anonymity. He gives interviews only rarely, indeed this is his first press interview for four years. The trait was shared by his friend and hero, the late comedian Ronnie Barker - the pair wrote to one another in character, Barker as Fletch from Porridge and Kay as Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights.

But despite Peter's reticence to talk about his family, there is something he wants to put right. It concerns the death of his father, Michael, who died just before Peter's career soared into the stratosphere. "Certain reports," he says, "have pointed the finger and called him an alcoholic which angers me. The truth is my dad was a lovely man who had to retire early from his job as an engineer because he had osteoporosis. It meant he was forced to wear a harness and could hardly breathe. He was bent double, he knew he'd never get beyond 60 so he just made the decision to live the rest of his days the way he wanted to, which meant he liked to have a drink. I don't blame him for that, it was his choice. Do I miss him? Of course I do. Every day. His death was devastating, he was just 51. But you know, in my stand-up my Dad will always be alive. He's so much part of my act."

This isn't altogether surprising. Life with Kay senior, in the family's two-up, two-down terrace seemed to be about eternal laughter and wind-ups. As Peter recalls: "When I was a kid and I'd fall over and cut myself, I'd come staggering in from the backyard sobbing, snot dripping. SURE enough my dad would look at the blood on my knee or elbow and shout to my mum: 'Deirdre, go and get the saw out the shed, I'll have to cut it off,' and I'd start wailing like a banshee."

A father himself now at 33, Peter and wife Susan named their two-anda- half year old son, Charlie Michael after his Grandad. "Being a dad," says Peter beaming, "is just brilliant and fantastic. You can't put it into words what it's like. Two years ago I made a decision that I wanted to be with Charlie a lot and not miss out on anything. I've met so many older actors and comedians who've told me they wished they'd spent as much time with their kids as they did chasing the money. You've got to draw a line but it's a gamble. I've tried to balance it by writing my book. I've been able to be at home and work a bit, put Charlie to bed then work some more.

"Sometimes I wish I could clone myself, you know, be in two places at once. Right now I've got most of another series of Phoenix Nights written and would love to do it, but it will have to go on hold for the time being."



Not least because there is to be another addition to the Kay household. Susan is expecting their second child and there is no way Peter will be absent from first steps, picnics in the park, sticking plasters on grazes or breakfast with his kids. "For me," he says, "whatever happens there's nothing better than family.''

IT'S clear that while his mum, nan and sister (RJulie as he calls her) are hugely proud of Peter, none are swept away by his fame. "I dunno", he says, "we just all get on with it. It's not as if it's happened overnight, it's been a slow burn from Mount St Joseph to where I am now.'' His er, diverse background of part-time jobs is testimony to that. Peter never really got past the novice stage at a factory packing toilet rolls or a Top Rank bingo hall where he washed dishes. He can also add cinema usher, garage attendant and mobile disc jockey to his CV.

Not that any of it was lost: sooner or later the non-sequiturs he picked up from the most mundane Bolton conversations would became the foundation of his repertoire. But back then, for the son of a factory worker, showbusiness he admits, "felt a million miles away from Bolton".

As he explains in The Sound of Laughter: "I'd no connections. In fact I'd never even met anybody in showbiz, not unless you count Fred Dibnah and he'd only waved at me from his steamroller as he drove past us at the Bolton Show. "None of my family had been entertainers. My Grandad liked to play The Ballad of Davy Crockett on the comb and tissue paper every now and again but we never had Hughie Green knocking on the front door." Nothing worth having comes easy, and for Peter the old maxim "the harder you work the luckier you get" seems apt.

From 1996 to 2000, having decided to tread the precarious path of stand-up comedy, he worked 500 clubs in four years. Mind you, he'd been making people laugh all his life. When he was five a teacher wrote: "Peter seems unable to resist trying to amuse the children around him."

He proved her right by doing an impromptu re-write of the nativity play when he won the coveted role of Innkeeper. "With the packed hall in front of me,'' he writes in his book, "I decided that instead of telling Mary and Joseph there was 'no room at the inn' I would offer them an en suite with full English." Sister Matic and the rest of the nuns were not amused but the audience loved it.

"What a wonderful feeling it was to stand on stage and listen to the sound of laughter. I felt happy, I felt safe. Is that what you're going to be when you grow up," one of the outraged nuns asked him, "a comedian?"



Three decades on, Peter's staggering list of awards and plaudits for hugely successful sitcoms like Phoenix Nights and Max & Paddy's Road To Nowhere, his tours, and the unforgettable version of (Is This The Way To) Amarillo? answer the question. "I'm a grafter," he admits, "but all I've ever been is myself. WHEN I started I tried to be a stylised comedian but I didn't know anything about drugs, drink or sex so I started talking about jobs I'd done. It caught on like a breath of fresh air. I was worried, I felt a bit inferior to be honest, but then I realised it was okay to just be yourself. My advice would be don't try to be anything but your own voice, it's the only authentic thing you've got.

"There's no great secret or plan, I just think I'm funny and I want to make people laugh. It's fantastic that people will come and talk to me like I'm the bloke from the pub. But I just feel I've got to have time to be the other things I am in life: I'm a father and a husband. I enjoy the fact I can be on Paul O'Grady in the afternoon and sitting down watching the television with Susan of an evening. Money's nice because it brings you security. But I promise, if it had meant being away from the people I love I wouldn't have bothered." As it stands, Peter's security is assured. His DVDs sell in their squillions and there are already 250,000 orders on his book, making it the fastest-selling autobiography ever before publication.

"I only wrote it," he says, "because some other bloke was writing an unauthorised one. I couldn't stand that. Now I think I should buy that fella a drink, I've enjoyed writing it. Anyway, I've got nothing to moan about. The way I see it, it's my job to help take somebody who might have troubles out of themselves, for a while at least."

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PostPosted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


Kay to join cast of The Producers

Comedian Peter Kay is joining the cast of hit musical The Producers for three months when the show's UK tour reaches Manchester in February. The 33-year-old, who will play the role of camp director Roger DeBris, admits to being a huge fan of the 1968 film.

"My big ambition all my life was to turn it into a musical," Kay will reveal on Saturday's Michael Parkinson chat show on ITV1. "It's just a dream come true," added the creator of Phoenix Nights.

Kay, whose other TV credits include Coronation Street and a stint in Doctor Who said: "I'm doing it in Manchester and it's brilliant because I can see the theatre from the roof of my house, so I can be there in 20 minutes." Kay, who wrote and starred in spoof docusoap series That Peter Kay Thing, said he was offered the part after writing in this autobiography that he dreamed of appearing in the show.

The Bolton stand-up comedian has also revealed how he has no plans to take his act to the US despite being urged to do so by Scottish comic Billy Connolly. "I've never been keen on America. The only good thing I like about it is when I'm over there I feel practically bulimic," he said. "Honestly, you think I'm fat, it's like It's a Knockout over there," added Kay.

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I should be able to cap the interview on tonight's Parkinson...

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btaylo24
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doesn't peter's wife look like him...
Its true what they say about people marry people who look like themselves in some way!!!everytime
Barry!
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interview on Paul O'Grady yesterday

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alan1254
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PostPosted: Fri May 04, 2007 11:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

thanks for the great clips
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


Peter’s roaring success
By Staff Reporter
www.thisislancashire.co.uk


PETER Kay is excited. He has watched the first four episodes of Roary the Racing Car, his wonderful new pre-school animation series, with a group of small children and is very hopeful that the show will have genuine staying power. "I love the idea that it may have longevity. When those children were so clearly loving the show, I started getting all emotional, thinking that their children could be watching it in 30 years' time," he said.

Roary The Racing Car drove up at exactly the right time for the Bolton comedian, and star and writer of Phoenix Nights and Max and Paddy. "I''d always wanted to do a children's series. I''ve always been fascinated by television, and I love the idea that if something is a success, your voice is preserved for decades. Think of Michael Hordern doing Paddington Bear, Bernard Cribbins doing The Wombles or Ringo Starr doing Thomas the Tank Engine. Those performances are classics and have lasted for several decades. Children don't mind when something was made. I tape very early episodes of Rainbow and Trumpton for my son and watch them with him. He loves them. Trumpton was made in 1967, but he still watches it like it's new. Children love the innocence of those fables, and it's great to see the excitement and wonder in a child's eyes as he listens to Brian Cant's voice. I was exactly the same when I was his age in 1977. If something really works, it can last forever."

Peter Kay makes for compelling company. He can be summed up by all those adjectives beginning with E: effervescent, engaging and hugely entertaining. An hour in his presence just flies by; it's like being treated to a command performance - to an audience of one. It is no surprise that he is the most popular comedian at work in Britain today. The 33-year-old comic, who has recently starred in The Producers at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, voices the character of Big Chris in the series, while racing legend Sir Stirling Moss narrates. Peter says he has been bowled over by the standard of the series, which is produced by Chapman Entertainment, the producers of Fifi and the Flowertots, and animated by Cosgrove Hall Films, responsible for Danger Mouse and Chorlton and the Wheelies.

Roary the Racing Car, which will be launched on Nick Jr in June, was originated almost a decade ago by David Jenkins, who spent four years working in senior management at Brands Hatch and Goodwood race circuits. He had the idea of making the series while watching the Grand Prix on TV with his son, Tom, who at the time was 18-months-old. Set among the big personalities and highly-tuned egos at the Silver Hatch race track, the programme centres on Roary, a novice, bright-red, single-seater racing car whose enthusiasm and curiosity often lead him into trouble.

Peter almost whistles in admiration at the care with which Roary the Racing Car has been assembled. "Watching the series, I've been blown away. The attention to detail is extraordinary. For the last four years, people have been working on this round the clock, producing just a few seconds of footage a day. " Peter plays Big Chris, who is the chief mechanic and father figure to all the cars. "It's basically me," he chuckles. "I've done a lot of ad-libbing because that makes the character more three-dimensional. Ad-libbing is sometimes seen as forbidden in animation, but the producers are delighted because it brings a freshness to the series."

Peter is motivated by an almost childlike desire to bring pleasure. "If you can be involved with something like Roary the Racing Car, it's just bliss," he enthuses. "It may sound like a cliché, but you're bringing happiness to people when you do a project like that. That innocence of Trumpton from 1967 - maybe that's something I've taken from my own childhood into my work." That urge to spread fun has characterised Peter's entire career. His humour has always traded in warmth rather than cynicism. "No one gets slagged off in my comedy. It's not the comedy of hate. I hope it's a breath of fresh air for audiences."

Peter thinks that his gentler comic style has come back into fashion. "Comedy has swung away from those panel games where the comedians are vicious about everybody," muses the comic, who has also recently appeared in Doctor Who, Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Catherine Tate Show and Coronation Street. "Audiences want comedy with no venom. They want to have a laugh without it becoming twee. There are not many things that people can watch these days with their children and grandchildren, but maybe that's what I offer."

Peter, whose last tour, "Mum Wants a Bungalow", broke all box-office records, adds that he always keeps it clean. "When I do stand-up, I never swear because if I did, my mum would batter me. That's how I ended up with this style. I've got to think about my nan, my mum and my sister. My act is about my life, and my life is my family. I have to treat them with respect."

Peter, who has followed up his massive hit, Is This The Way To Amarillo?, from two years ago with another number one single for Comic Relief, a hilarious reworking of The Proclaimers' track, 500 Miles, is not immediately planning to hit the road again. However, he says that he has not stopped collecting material. "I've continued writing down funny things that I hear from day to day - I must never lose them! You need to live life in order to build up a new act," says Peter, a teetotaller who, ironically, enjoyed huge success with his series of TV commercials for John Smith's beer. "All the best material comes from real life. Last week, for instance, I was trying to persuade my nan to get Sky Plus. I was telling her that if you want to go and make a cup of tea, you can pause the telly. She looked baffled: But what about everyone else?' You're not controlling TV throughout Britain,' I explained. You're not going to prevent someone in Devon from watching the end of Midsomer Murders just because you've paused your Sky Plus!'"

Peter added another, quite extraordinary string to his bow recently when his book, The Sound of Laughter, shifted one million copies to become the best-selling British autobiography of all time. Now Peter is considering an offer from his publishers to write another book. But in this, as in everything, he retains an appealing and quintessentially British sense of modesty. "When you're told something like you've written the best-selling autobiography ever in this country, how can you possibly comprehend it? The British way is not to gloat. You don't whoop or jump off lamp-posts. You just say, oh, OK. Right then, what shall we have for lunch?'"

l Roary the Racing Car airs every weekday on Channel Five's Milkshake! and on Nick Jr from Saturday, June 2, at 4pm, airing every weekend. Episodes will be available on www.nickjr.co.uk

-------------------
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

On Jonathan Ross - 2006-06-15
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Meet Peter Kay — as you have never seen him before
By Staff Reporter

AFTER the stage show, the television series, the musical and the book comes . . . Peter Kay the talking figure. The Bolton comedian is the voice of karaoke-loving mechanic Big Chris, in the animated children's television series Roary The Racing Car. The series is about an enthusiastic, novice, bright-red, single-seater racing car called Roary at the Silver Hatch race track. The programme, which is running on channel Five and Nick Jr, has aleady proved a success with pre-school viewers. Now the makers of the show have taken advantage of its popularity by launching a range of merchandise, including a talking Big Chris, with Kay's voice providing well-known phrases from the show.

The figure, which retails for between £15 and £20 at retailers across the UK, says a total of seven phrases including: "Well dunk my doughnut," "Where's me spanner, where's that gone?" and "If you bend it, you mend it." The product range also includes die-cast, friction powered and remote control models of Roary and the other cars in the show, as well as a model of Silverhatch Race Track, where the action takes place. The range has been produced in China for the UK's largest toy company, Vivid Imaginations, a Surrey-based distributor that also has the product licenses for Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Spiderman figures, as well as WWE characters. It also owns the Shrek, Pirates of the Cribbean and Crayola licensing brands.

Speaking at the time of the series' launch, Peter Kay said: "I love the idea that if something is a success, your voice is preserved for decades. Think of Michael Hordern doing Paddington Bear, Bernard Cribbins doing The Wombles or Ringo Starr doing Thomas the Tank Engine. Those performances are classics and have lasted for several decades. If something really works, it can last forever. "


comedy-peterkay-doll.jpg
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

'Absolutely shameless'
Fans' backlash over Peter Kay DVD
www.chortle.co.uk


Peter Kay is risking another backlash from fans by issuing a compilation DVD of his stand-up act. The comic has previously angered some supporters by releasing the same live show under two different titles. Now, to cash in on the 2007 Christmas market, he is releasing a collection of repackaged clips of his previous releases for £21.99. Kay caused upset with his 2005 release Live At Manchester Arena, which contained the very same show as 2003’s Live At Bolton Albert Halls, but recorded on a different date of his mammoth Mum Wants A Bungalow tour.

The new release, Stand Up UKay, features extracts from both these performances and his 2000 bestseller Peter Kay Live At The Top Of The Tower. Fans have already accused him of ‘flogging a dead horse’, two weeks before the 77-minute DVD is released on the NBC Universal.

Writing on Amazon, one said: ‘I'm actually quite disgusted at Peter Kay for releasing this half-baked, lazy and cynical DVD. Peter, you REALLY need to start putting some new material together. The release of this DVD actually leaves quite a nasty taste in the mouth. Absolutely shameless.’

Another, said: ‘Being a big, big fan of Peter Kay, I have to say how disappointing it is to see him cashing in AGAIN on the Christmas period. We all found the dunking biscuit sketch and garlic bread funny the first, second and even third time round but come on Peter you are much better than this! Get out live with some new material and then release the DVD...’

While a third wrote: ‘To constantly re-package well-worn and overexposed routines is inexcusable, especially from someone like Kay whose loyal fan-base can be relied upon to buy whatever he releases, and re-releases.’

This is not the only title targetting Kay’s fans this Christmas. Liberation Entertainment is putting out Peter Kay: The Early Years – Unofficial. The documentary, filmed early in Kay’s career, has been aired on Paramount Comedy and runs for just 25 minutes. It is being released on November 26 for £4.99.

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I do like a lot of his stuff, but stunts like this does him no good at all. It sounds like he's just given up on ever writing anything new
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luke



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i can see where you're coming from, but i can also see it from a business sense. i used to work for one record label who had over a decades worth of back catalogue and they got really into releasing loads of compilations of it, that really annoyed all the dedicated fans, but they sold - theres ( if your products good ) always new audiences to reach, the existing fans don't have to buy the rehashes - as long as you keep up with new material to keep them happy

at least he's honest, the 'mum wants bungalow' tour Laughing

i hope he does some new stuff soon, phoenix nights was class, and i've always liked his stage shows Smile
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PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2008 3:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote



Here's the picture that Chortle used to highlight the story of Peter Kay and how he might be appearing in a stage version of Porridge. It struck me as a pretty poor photochop, so I did my own...


faceless-peterkay-porridge.jpg
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote




Peter's Got Talent: sending up reality shows in new spoof
23rd August 2008

Peter Kay is bringing his comic touch to the world of TV talent shows in his first new comedy outing for Channel 4 in four years. The star has written and directed Britain's Got The Pop Factor And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice. He also plays the role of TV talent show contestants in the spoof of hit shows like the X Factor and Dancing on Ice.

Former Popstars and Pop Idol judges Nicki Chapman and Pete Waterman, as well as Dr Fox, play judges in the comedy. Bolton-born Phoenix Knights star Kay, 35, plays two contestants - Geraldine and part of the foursome Two Up Two Down.

Julian Bellamy, head of programming for Channel 4, described the show as an "affectionate spoof". "It features TV auditions, bitchy judges, performance anxieties - they're all there", he said. The show is part of Channel 4's autumn season, announced at the Edinburgh International Television Festival today.

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I've a feeling this will be excellent - time will tell...
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2008/oct/13/realitytv-channel4


I'd say this review got it about right, though I thought there was too much focus on the singing - even though it's meant to be a spoof such singing talent shows. I was also delighted at Kat Deeley swearing like a docker - that was probably the biggest laugh for me as it had been building up all through the show.
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