Phoenix Nights

This IS the best thing on tv (even though it's not on at the moment. inviguratingly funny, showing that Peter Kay is a comic gem. The auditions at the end of each episode make me cry with laughter...the jugula...need i say more? 10 out of 10

Just by fluke, I happened to catch an episode of this funny-as-all-hell show while vacationing in the UK. To the powers that be (being the TV station heads here in Canada): please pick up Phoenix Nights, and begin airing episodes here ASAP! This is too funny to miss! And as a plug to Canadian audiences: This could easily be a British companion piece to our "Trailer Park Boys" (except way better!)

Just started watching this again and it hasn't aged at all. It's still brilliant which I'm pleasantly surprised by because a lot of comedy hasn't. Just great!

'Phoenix nights' is destined to become a classic of British comedy, in the same league as 'Fawlty Towers' and 'I'm Alan Partidge'. It really is that good.

The humour is clever, observational, very politically incorrect and oh-so Northern England. As with all really excellent comedy it draws you in and makes you fond of the characters, despite their many flaws. You all know the type of people in this show because you see them everyday at home and work.

'Phoenix nights' follows Brian and his attempts to rebuild his nightclub for the third time... most recently after it burnt to the ground (hence the name phoenix). Peter Kay plays many of the parts himself (all brilliantly) including Brian, the club owner and memorable of all, Keith Lard the fire inspector with some odd personal habits. Quite apart from Kay, every single actor in the show does a superb job capturing the quirks and oddities that make human life so amusing... there's not one single bad performance.

The only possible problem is that it's hard to tell how well it will travel. Many of the jokes are, as I mentioned earlier, very British and even more specifically, very Northern.

This comedy, which ran for two series, was co-written by and starred (in several roles), Bolton comic Peter Kay, who has his finger perfectly on the breathing pulse of North West England (speaking as someone the same age as Kay who comes from a part of the NW not a million miles from Bolton). Phoenix Nights was set in a lousy Northern club with 'entertainment', bingo, and droll staff, just the kind of club that existed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Brian Potter, owner and sometime licensee, is wheelchair bound and sarcastic, with his wingeing voice and blustering manner. Played by Kay he is a great creation. The main target for Brian's verbal attacks is Jerry 'St Clair' (Dave Spikey) who acts as compère and - at times - terrible entertainer. Doormen Max (Kay again) and Paddy (Patrick McGuinness) went on to have their own spin-off series.

Alongside the long-running feud between Potter and Den Perry (Ted Robbins), the high points of Phoenix Nights includes the variety 'auditions' which ended each episode (who could forget the doves which flew into the air condition fans, or the ping pong lady?). The audience at the Phoenix were real-life Bolton residents, and their reactions are absolutely genuine.

I have two favourite episodes - the one with the outdoor entertainment ('Sammy the Snake' (!), and the Children's Activity Hut, formerly the Gents loo); and the Stars in Their Eyes episode (with the jam-jar glassed club worker as Gary Glitter, and Jerry and Brian as Elton John and George Michael).

It ended far too soon but the two series that were made are the stuff that makes classic comedy.