Phoenix Nights fans have been waiting since 2002 for Peter Kay to reprise the role of caustic, wheelchair-using club owner Brian Potter. He certainly makes the most of a rapturously received entrance, which takes about 15 minutes to complete as the giant stairlift on which he appears stalls on its descent and requires emergency services to lift him down.
Phoenix Nights was never aimed at the easily offended. Even so, the image of its creator clutching his chest as a paramedic performs CPR is particularly close to the bone given that one of the show’s stars, Ted Robbins, collapsed onstage during the show’s opening night on 31 January (he is expected to make a full recovery).
Kay – surely the only mainstream entertainer capable of getting away with the catchphrase “I don’t know whether you’ve noticed I’m disabled?” – scotches any suggestion that the show will be toned down by wheeling over to the British Sign Language interpreter and demanding that he demonstrate how to sign “buggered” and “shithole”.
The show gets better – or worse, depending on your point of view – with a stage invasion of angry dwarves and a DJ set from mullet-haired Ray Von (played by co-writer Neil Fitzmaurice) that culminates in a musical mashup of Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter and the theme from Jim’ll Fix It.
In the decade since Phoenix Nights aired it has become commonplace to appropriate a Roy “Chubby” Brown level of humour under the spurious guise of irony. As the arena-sized reunion has been mounted in support of Comic Relief, the off-colour imperatives of northern clubland have an inbuilt immunity to criticism.
Indeed, the whole show seems to have been presented as a satire on the self-serving nature of celebrity aid junkets: “We’re on a mission to bring people in Africa something they’ve never had before – five-star adult cabaret,” Kay smooches. “Thank you for making their dreams come true.”
• Until 16 February. Box office: 0844-847 8000. Venue: Manchester Arena.
