TV: Peter Kay’s Big Adventures on the Small Screen, Review: A superficial, outdated treatise that gives nothing away

If you’re one of the many who think Peter Kay’s shtick is to remember things from the 70s and 80s, then the beginning of the book TV won’t scare you away.

“Remember Metal Mickey?» he’s writing. “He was a robot who lived with his family and had his own sitcom on Saturday nights. This happened right after Mini Pops. And does anyone remember this? Mini dolls? What a hassle it was!” This is exactly what people who don’t like Peter Kay think Peter Kay does: just say the names of things that once existed and let nostalgia do the heavy lifting. Work.

Kay turned 50 this summer and is currently about to embark on a massive three-year career. Better late than never tour, his first since 2011. His first two autobiographies, The sound of laughter (2006) and Saturday evening, St. Petersburg (2009) chronicled his early life and adventures as a stand-up director and was sold individually. In this third memoir, we take a look behind the scenes of his television projects, from his early student projects to his Bafta-winning project. motor depot, But as fun as it is, it’s an unsatisfyingly shallow book that keeps you at arm’s length.

After this endless first chapter, TV jumps forward as Kay climbs the stairs on the small screen: early experiments, breakthrough This Peter Kay thing real glory with Phoenix Nights, and on the horizon of show business. It’s easy to forget that Kay was once considered an innovator; He knew about the mockumentary trend years ago. The Bureau – and those early chapters where he struggles to make a name for himself TVis the strongest. Kay opens up about how questionable and ambitious he was as a young man, as well as the research he did. Phoenix Nights Co-authors Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice joined the cause, including secretly recording northern club owners using a spy pen connected to a voice recorder.

Fun facts like this can be found all over the world: Kay tries to survive the scene where Josh Hartnett puts on a terrible Yorkshire accent in a deservedly forgotten comedy. dry; Prince Philip asks dance group Diversity if they are all related. But if TV Over time, it does get the feeling that Kay’s half-anecdotes don’t really mean anything other than that someone he worked with is very talented and good, or that something was an honor.

“Before I knew it, I found myself sandwiched between Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, posing for a selfie on Cliff’s iPhone,” is a typical musing. “What memories.” There are long treatises describing the events that occurred on his show and reproducing parts of the script. When Kay’s sketch of Catherine Tate’s Nan is experienced over two full pages, it feels like filler.

Comedy memoirs have changed since then. The sound of laughter. Older comics than Kay, such as Bob Mortimer and Ade Edmondson, have had her grief and health issues affect her work as well as her work, and this has endeared her to both the people who liked her the first time. so did younger comedy fans, who were more accustomed to seeing trauma in them. in gold. Kay has always been very private and doesn’t reveal anything here, so a straightforward look at his career may seem old-fashioned.

The parts that are revealed are unintentional. The money comes in fairly regularly, be it early pay for minor roles or appearances on Suggs’ Channel 5 karaoke show. Night heat (“I did it five times because it cost £900 each and you could get a buffet breakfast at the hotel the next morning”), but how he would spend the money has not yet been explored.

Kay also seems to now be aware that he can be demanding: he recalls writing “long, passionate emails” likely full of “amazing and amazing” comments. This Peter Kay thing Director Andrew Gillman complains about edits. The chapter about his pen pal’s relationship with the ailing Ronnie Barker is also very moving. 2023 Kay is more of a crowd pleaser than a stand-up comedian, but here you can see his excitement at having his work appreciated by a real hero – even if, like most of the heroes in Kay’s goofy story “Hardware”, that hero has reached his peak , when there were three channels and the oil crisis.

The closest we get to the parts of Kay that he keeps to himself is perhaps the moment of Noddy Holder’s revelation. They worked on it together Max and Paddy and singer Slade “gave me advice that literally changed my life forever”: he should use his money to spend time with his family, rather than chasing after it, as Holder did, and distancing himself from his children.

Holder’s advice seems to have stuck: Kay virtually disappeared from public life for several years and never said why, and his current tour is structured so that he can travel to London once a month for a gig at the O2 and then return home. again. A homebody by nature, Kay always notes that filming near Bolton is a very attractive place to work. “I have nothing against London, but my home is everything to me,” writes Kay. “I think if I had to work in London or be away from home, I would give up everything.”

There is also some darkness. The allegations against Russell Brand (which Brand denies) are the latest and greatest examples of sexism and abuse in the television comedy industry, and Kay has faced some of the worst of them. Jimmy Savile, who starred in the video for Comic Relief’s single “Is This the Way to Amarillo?”, is a “dirty old pervert”; On another occasion, after Savile’s crimes are exposed, Kay is forced to put “Children in Need” stickers on Savile’s face in old publicity photographs. Both stories have a violent and angry side, which indicates Kei’s resentment.

However, even more tension is caused by Bernard Manning, whom Kay recalls trying to convince to join them. Phoenix Nights despite acknowledging that it has a long history of producing racist material. He feels like David Walliams and Matt Lucas are being dragged over the coals. Little Britain, V. “Comedy is such a minefield that political correctness is constantly changing. Sometimes for the greater good, usually not.”

Admittedly, Peter Kay’s third memoir wouldn’t be the first place you’d look for a landmark speech on the current state of the industry. But it is the lack of intimacy and openness that is the reason TV feel old-fashioned. On stage, these frankly retarded numbers have made him the biggest live performer on the British comedy scene to date.

But on the other hand, no matter how entertaining his anecdotes were, TV’The lack of tactility begs the question he asks Metal Mickey: What was that about?