Peter Kay

Britain's top comics are earning up to £20m for a tour

Peter Kay raked in £20m from last tour - more than the Beckhams earnings in last year, and Ricky Gervais, Britain's richest comedian, is now worth £32m.

Being modern: Arena comedy

Lee Evans, Steve Coogan, Dylan Moran, Eddie Izzard, Peter Kay, Russell Brand, Tim Vine, Michael McIntyre... the very best of our home-grown talent has since filled the O2 Arena, the very biggest of our coliseums - and McIntyre has made playing to these rooms an expected practice rather than a remarkable event thanks to his televised "roadshows". Fewer than 100,000 arena-comedy tickets were sold in 2004; within five years, that figure had breached a million.

Paddy McGuinness: "I was scared to leave my old job"

Paddy McGuinness has revealed that childhood friend Peter Kay "nagged" him to quit his job for a full-time career in comedy.

Now in their 21st year, the British Comedy Awards have long served as a bellwether for the state of British comedy, from the quirky satire of the early 1990s, through the energetic sketch shows of the mid- to late-90s, to the recent success of family-friendly stand-up comics like Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre and John Bishop. Thanks to a sharp host, a ready supply of funny clips and a suitably witty audience, they've also been one of the few live awards ceremonies actually worth watching.

Tonight's event is hosted live by Jonathan Ross. Leading the nominees is Miranda Hart, who is up for four awards, while Harry Hill gets three nods. Hart, last year's Queen of Comedy winner, is up for the award again, with David Mitchell, Telegraph agony uncle Graham Norton, Jack Whitehall, Jo Brand and Sarah Millican also in the running. Tamsin Greig and Tom Rosenthal are nominated for best TV comedy actress and best comedy breakthrough artist respectively for their roles in Friday Night Dinner, while Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner have been singled out for their contribution to Outnumbered. Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville receives a nomination for his role in the Olympic comedy Twenty Twelve.

Peter Kay sells more than 10million DVDs

Stand-up comedian Peter Kay breaks the record for sales of comedy DVDs.

Why I hate Peter Kay

Behind the cheeky smile of the mammoth mummy's boy, there's a man who'll steal your jokes and have escorted from your seat.

Peter Kay forced to ad-lib at Royal Variety Performance

The Royal Variety Performance descended into farce as embarrassing technical hiccups ended in the audience slow-clapping. There were so many blunders that host Peter Kay joked the event, attended by Princess Anne, had been "20 minutes of entertainment dragged out over two-and-a-half hours".

Peter Kay amuses 2.5m on Channel 4

Back-to-back Peter Kay shows meant Channel 4 more than doubled the primetime audience share it achieved last week, according to the latest overnight data.

I know I know - these kind of shows should have nice rounded numbers in their title, 40 and 100 being the faves.

But this is presented by Peter Kay, the man who once insisted on doing an interview with a former colleague of mine outside a branch of Woolies.

So adding three more "moments" to the norm isn't the most bonkers thing he's done.

Peter has created a brand new character to host the show, and he (or she) will be introducing some classic clips, unseen bloopers and another chance to see Ronnie Corbett coming a cropper in Peter's (Is This The Way to) Amarillo.