Peter Kay

Car Share wins 4 gongs at RTS North West Awards

Peter Kay picked up four gongs at the RTS North West Awards for Car Share.

Phoenix Nights film not happening says Paddy McGuinness

It's looking unlikely that the Peter Kay-led cast will be coming together for a feature length outing.

The evocative 1970s-set sitcom based on Danny Baker's upbringing in south-east London concludes with a double-bill. With his wavy hair and luxuriant eyebrows, young Danny belatedly realises that his resemblance to heartthrob David Essex might be a good way to pick up girls, while his wheeler-dealer dad Spud (Peter Kay) struggles with the demands of a new job. The cockney incarnation of Kay has been a revelation, but Lucy Speed - playing Danny's mother Bet - is this series' secret weapon, and she gets to shine in an eventful finale.

TV review: Cradle To Grave, BBC2, Episode 7/8

I must admit I thought that Cradle to Grave might not have traded so much on being sentimental and a nostalgiafest, given Baker's obvious sophisticated wit and intelligence. But the former NME writer has gone for a populist touch here and it does work fantastically well. And Peter Kay, of course, certainly has the mainstream touch as amiable rogue Spud, which makes him pretty well cast.

Peter Kay in one handy infographic

Winner of the North West Comedian Of The Year, Peter Kay is now famous for garlic bread, Phoenix Nights and being from Bolton.

Danny Baker's cosy sitcom-memoir is starting to feel more like a TV show than a pile of anecdotes, with not quite so many gags you'd say were cliched or telegraphed if an unknown writer had invented them. Young Danny rashly agrees to buy a hot VCR - has he inherited the knack of quickly finding a few quid? Meanwhile, magic patriarch Fred tries to steal a shipment of sherry from under the noses of the docks' new jobsworth security guards. Peter Kay's south London accent is bedding in too, slowly.

Neil Fitzmaurice: I'd love to do another Phoenix Nights

If Peter Kay wanted to do another series of Phoenix Nights, his old co-star Neil Fitzmaurice wouldn't take much persuading.

Wide boys and wider collars: the excellent, atmospheric recreation of Danny Baker's teen years in south London continues. Danny is trying to blag his way into the pub for a sniff of Skol, while his mother Bet yearns for something more - to broaden her horizons, meet new people, maybe even try drinking wine. But dad Spud can't see the angle. If hearing a cockney accent emerge from Peter Kay was initially distracting, he's now settled comfortably into the roly-poly role of incorrigible wheeler-dealer Spud.