Peter Kay unveils his ‘Phoenix Nights’ movie concept
Although it only ran for two seasons and aired its last episode over 20 years ago, Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights remains one of the most iconic works of British comedy. While there were talks of a third series towards the end of the 2000s, the series by comedian Peter Kay was not revived.
However, in Kay’s new book TV: Big Adventures on the Small Screen, the actor and writer revealed his idea for a big-screen adaptation of the cult comedy franchise. The series, itself a spin-off of the ‘In the Club’ episode of That Peter Kay Thing, followed Kay as Brian Potter, the wheelchair-bound owner of The Phoenix Club. Along with hilariously bad auditions, the show boasted a version of Tony Christie’s ‘Amarillo’, which helped get the tune to number one.
While acknowledging that a revival of the show would have to be “very special”, Kay confirmed that a film version of Phoenix Nights was something he had seriously considered. Despite himself “becoming more like Brian,” the comedian stated: “If Phoenix Nights rose again, it’d have to be for something very special, maybe a film? Perhaps Brian could get visited by three ghosts. Now, wouldn’t that be an idea?”
On his movie adaptation idea, Kay said: “I had an idea only today of Brian getting Young Kenny to paint an enormous letter ‘H’ on the roof of the club so he can advertise they’ve got a helicopter pad. The chance of a helicopter ever landing is, of course, zero.”
Co-star Paddy McGuiness, who also featured alongside Kay in the Phoenix Nights spin-off series, Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere in 2004, had previously confirmed that “everyone is up” for a revival of the show.
Kay touched upon his working relationship with McGuiness in the same book: “All I can remember is a lot of laughter, especially from Paddy and me. That’s when he managed to turn up for filming. He was a bugger for being late in the morning.”
He added: “Paddy slept in all the time. We’d get a message from his driver picking him up: ‘He’s not answering the door. Eventually, he’d get to us, and we’d all be sat waiting because we couldn’t film anything without him. We were in every scene together. A right pain in the arse.”
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