Comedy

Short of having a surgical procedure, we couldn’t have our fingers crossed any more tightly for Peter Kay’s new reality TV-spoofing comedy being as good as the impeccably hilarious ‘Phoenix Nights’. ‘Max And Paddy’s Road To Nowhere’ was patchy, but had enough flashes of homely comic brilliance for the comedian to have not entirely blotted his copybook, but with a title that’s almost wilfully unusable (‘Peter Kay’s Britain’s Got The Pop Factor And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice’, anyone?), there is the niggling suspicion that this might be a vanity project.

That said, with Cat Deeley and every ‘Pop Idol’ judge bar Cowell participating, the cast list is spotless and the format’s even authentically split into two shows: the performances, followed by the results announcement (with tour documentary ‘One Hundred And Eighty’ sandwiched in between). We join the last three contestants in the final of the show, with Kay playing a female entrant. On form, he’s the nation’s foremost proponent of true-to-life, bantery dialogue and affectionately three-dimensional satire. Let’s hope our first-night nerves are unjustified.

Peter Kay Night, Sunday October 12, 8-11pm, Channel 4.
Feature continues