Phoenix Nights

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!

When I was a lad my father used to take me & my brothers to a Working Mens Club on Saturday nights. It was AWFUL! Old people sat at regimented benches miserably supping ale, useless ventriloquists, tone-deaf singers, crap magicians & an obese nut-case who used to wander around selling cockles and mussels.

But we LOVED the place!

Peter Kay is a genius. He's got such a wonderfully original and quintessentially English sense of humour. Yeah! We love being "little Englanders" and I've laughed my head off throughout every episode of Phoenix Nights. I doubt this show will ever be seen outside Britain & I'm sure that people from other countries who live/work here will be utterly mystified by it, however. Peter Kay is the patron saint of the northern working class, of which I'm a proud member. "Top bomber!"

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!)

Clubland will never die.

Well not if Peter Kay keeps treating us to this little lovely. Phoenix Nights is one of those rare comedies. Rare as in its actually funny (see ‘Ed Stone is dead'. Which is so unfunny its basically the ‘Anti-Phoenix').

Anyone who has grown up in the north will instantly recognise virtually everything that happens in the Phoenix. The theme nights, the cheesy compere, the ugly regulars who sit there all day on a pint of mild. Its all there. Which is one of peter kays strengths. Brilliant observation in all of his work.

The writing is incredibly strong and the performances are first rate. The comedy set pieces in each episode will have you in tears (‘The Stannah Stairlift Seduction' and the ‘Erotic Bouncy castle' are standouts).

Season 1 and 2 are, in my opinion, equally as good as each other. And, although it isn't really fair to judge the two together, I actually prefer the Phoenix to The Office. Judged purely on laugh out loud moments Peter Kays superb series just edges it for me.

I didn't think it could get any funnier. Then I watched the DVD with the directors commentary….

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.