Peter Kay

Peter Kay's new look

The spoof reality show, shot both on location and in the studio, features more than 100 hours of music.

It will air as part of a Peter Kay night on the channel, which also includes Raider Of The Pop Charts, a documentary about his pop videos.

Tonightly is a three-week 11 O'Clock Show-style aberration that's part of Channel 4's Generation Next strand. So-called because that's where they'll all be working in six months time.

Particularly the hosts. Pub funny comedian Jason Manford, who so wants to be Peter Kay it hurts, and his hypnotically awful assistant Andi 'Err' Osho, who's no rabbit in the headlights... she's road kill in the highlights.

There's a team of 12 - TWELVE! - writers who've clearly watched The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart, but forgot to take any notes. The show hits the screens at five past 11. They start work on the script at about five to 11.

Admirable as it is to encourage young comics, they really should start using them again. Because the evidence suggests Britain hasn't got talent. It's just got a lot of deluded students who all think they're the next Sacha Baron Cohen.

Tonightly is bad. Really bad. It's 50% smug and 50% tundra. This has been picked up by the viewing public... or rather, the lack of. A paltry 500,000 viewers tuned in to watch Jason Manford (No Frills Peter Kay) desperately trying to kick water up hill. Still, there's a part of me that feels a bit sorry for him, thanks to the people that surround him.

The inessential comedy panel show returns for an astonishing sixth series, with Jimmy Carr again marshalling six comedians as they recite jokes based on surveys and statistics. Returning as team captains are Sean Lock, generally the best spontaneous contributor by far, and Peter Kay-ish Manchester comic Jason Manford.

It's all a bit stilted and choppily edited, but it can attract decent guests (Vic Reeves and Griff Rhys Jones were on last year - David Walliams appears tonight) and will do well in the ratings.

When the stand-out moment from a new comedy is a sequence involving funny dancing, things aren't going great. Particularly when said comedy has been perhaps the most eagerly anticipated of the year. But then, let's face it, when you pick over the bones the omens weren't great for Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere.

But at the same time it'd be churlish to deny that gnawing conclusion that, so far this series at any rate, there's a slight meandering, taken-for-granted tone evident on screen, and that isn't what you'd expect from Peter Kay. You have to keep watching, though, not only for those occasional killer throwaway lines ("Two words - 'Biko'") but the fact that Phoenix Nights is still, regardless of flaws, the best comedy on telly at the moment.

Throughout Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights (Channel 4), I noticed a helpless whimpering and, investigating, found it was me. It happened whenever Peter Kay looked shifty. Kay has been described as "a brilliant stand up" and "head and shoulders above the rest". Which is true, but, as he plays the wheelchair-using Brian Potter, tactless.

Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights has returned for a second series, so if like me you missed the first one, but heard lots of people banging on about how great it was, this is your chance to join in the fun. And here's the good news: they were right. It's fantastic.

Thus, Kay succeeds really through a combination of natural wit and personal charm. His pleasing rotundity and cheekiness ensure that That Peter Kay Thing is familiar in a nice way (like a favoured pair of socks) as opposed to a crap pop way (like Panda cola).