We're Bolton, We're Barmy, We're on the p*ss tonight (That Peter Kay Thing)

Member Name: phoebe1

Product:	That Peter Kay Thing
Date:	12/06/03 (3214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully crafted, Cult comedy, Better than 'The Office'

Disadvantages: I can't believe they don't have a category for this, er...., that's it

Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights: Series 1 DVD

Welcome to the Phoenix Club.


Phoenix Nights, created by and starring Bolton comic Peter Kay (the one in the John Smith beer adverts) is surely one of the finest television comedy series of recent years. Often mentioned in the same breath as The Office, I think this is a far superior work which, if aired on the BBC instead of Channel 4, would have made Ricky Gervais look like an also-ran. I came to Phoenix Nights late, only watching series two on television last summer. After laughing so much that I couldn't breathe, I wanted to know more about the lovingly portrayed characters. I bought the DVD of the first series in October.

THE PLOT

'Clubland Will Never Die'
Brian Potter (Kay) is determined to make a success of his third northern nightclub, The Phoenix Club (the first flooded and the second had dodgy fairy lights). Throughout the six episodes of series one, we get to know more about him and his loyal staff as they compete for punters with arch rival, Den Perry, who runs The Banana Grove.

THE CHARACTERS

Brian Potter is the wheelchair-bound owner of The Phoenix Club. An entrepreneur who will try out any idea if it means his club will succeed, Potter's endeavours rarely end up as planned, whether it is Robot Wars in his precious Pennine Suite or an Alternative Comedy Night. Malapropisms abound 'Let's get this place sh*t-shaped ...

Paddy and Max are the likeable but hapless bouncers who guard the doors for a living. Max is also played by Kay, although you would swear it was another actor because the character is so distinctly different. Max and Paddy are somewhat intellectually challenged.
student at door: 'Do you take NUS?'
Max:'I don't take none of that s**t love, and neither will you if you know what's good for you. My body's a temple!'
Patrick McGuiness, who plays Paddy, is Kay's

best friend from school in real life, whose brooding good looks allow him a covert love interest in the daughter of one of the club barmaids .

Jerry (The Saint) St Clair is the club compere and singer who has a repertoire of cheesy songs and the jackets to match. Dave Spikey gives a wonderfully sympathetic performance as this character who is a practising hypochondriac. Is his irritable bowel really something more serious?
Brian Potter:'You're a bloody hyperdermic Jerry'.
The actor lost out to that irritating elder son from My Family in a recent awards ceremony - go figure.

Ray Von is the club DJ who has a background as an electrician (he used to work in a fairground). Always ready to turn his hand to emergency lighting, he uses anything he can find off the street, literally. Look out for traffic lights as part of his disco rig.

Although these are the main characters, the rest of the staff at the club, including the backing band and the supporting players, create a truly ensemble piece of work.

THE WRITING

Phoenix nights is written by Peter Kay, Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice (Ray Von).

A great strength of the writing is how beautifully observed the characters are. Kay's roots are in stand up comedy, where his routines tell of childhood visits to northern clubs with his parents. Parodying these characters seems second nature to him.

There is a gentle side to the writing, that's not to say it falls in to the trap of safe, middle class sitcoms like the appalling Vicar of Dibley. Indeed, there are times when the writers are decidedly dangerous; 'Is it me, or do all pensioners stink of p*ss?' from a club comedian to an audience of pensioners, or 'How far away are they?'to a group of dwarves tipping out from a Bolton supporters coach. A racist folk group who sing 'Send the b*ggers back' rears its ugly head, and a rather vocal car alarm that warns 
9;Get

back you b*stard, I'll break your legs!'

Whilst the humour is achingly funny in places, thankfully there is no laughter backing track. It would spoil your enjoyment of the storylines if I analysed each of the six episodes. My favourite, though, is episode three which includes a hopeless psychic turn, Clinton Baptiste: 'Is there a John in the audience?' Running through this episode is the threat of the club being closed down because of fire regulations. Keith Lard, the fire safety officer with an alleged unhealthy interest in dogs, is played by Kay, who again shows his amazing versatility in creating and playing different characters.

One of the many good things about this DVD is that all six episodes can be watched back to back to get the full benefit of the subtlety of the writing. For example, the baldy bouncer jibe Max continually makes to Paddy, or Paddy's long running denial of his relationship with Mary. This linking of episodes is a very strong feature and continues with other great ideas, such as Armchair Super Store (ASS), a cringeworthy send up of those awful home shopping programmes, which we catch on the club TV most episodes. Max eventually sends off for a diver's watch he has seen advertised a few weeks back, and on duty one night exclaims 'S**t! I've run out of oxygen'.

Every programme also ends with Potter and the staff auditioning some truly dire club acts: an escapologist who can't escape, a juggler who can't juggle, a geriatric dancing couple. This last act had the staff cracking up for real - that couldn't have been acting.


USE OF MUSIC

The use of great songs on the soundtrack is another masterful stroke of Kay's which I love. He juxtaposes upbeat, up tempo hits with tragic scenes to great ironic effect. For example, the first episode opens with Potter on his way to the club in his electric chair through a Bolton street with a menac
ing grey s
ky above, to the tune of 'The Only Way Is Up' by Yaz.

In the Robot Wars episode, which attracts only two entries and an audience of not much more, Paddy and Max enter the arena with their creation, to Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Two Tribes'.

Keith Lard (fire safety officer) wonderfully misinterprets the lyrics of Disco Inferno.
Burn baby burn, burn that mother down - "Another child orphan".

At the start of the final episode, Jerry is seen bounding down the steps of the hospital to the big band swing number 'Opus One', having been given the 'all clear'. When he reaches the club we see that in fact the song is being played by a band rehearsing there. I wonder if this is Kay's homage to that great scene in Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles where Cleavon Little rides across the desert to a big band number only to stumble on the Count Basie Orchestra playing it.

There are plenty of musical nuances that you are in danger of missing, such as Jerry having his rectal examination with 'The Whole of the Moon' playing on a background radio. I could go on, but please, do yourself a favour and buy this DVD!

THE EXTRAS

You are spoilt for choice with the extras, and whilst you are deciding which to click on, there is a blissfully mellow northern soul arrangement of the theme tune playing in the background.

1) Commentary

The writers/actors provide a commentary to each episode which is both insightful and amusing. What comes across very strongly is the amount of care and pride they have taken with the detail in every scene.

Here are just a selection of facts you can glean from the commentary:

Punters in the club consist to a large degree of aunts, uncles, grandparents and various other relatives of the cast! Their reaction shots are for the most part genuine, never better used I think than when Ray Von puts on a
painfully loud
hard garage mix for this geriatric audience. The look of disgust on their faces is a joy to see, and several of them get up and leave the room in protest.

The theme tune is a simple melody played on a xylophone. This was very much a hastily composed afterthought, as they didn't have one the night before transmission.

One scene, where Max the bouncer has a slapstick moment running in to a door that is closed, turns out to have been an honest mistake by Kay, and he cracked some ribs in the process!

2) Out-takes
Episode by episode corpsing on view here. Plenty of foul mouths as well, but if you are easily offended there is a swearing on/off option. Be surprised at what a high pitched laugh Kay has, and the amount of times they had to shoot some scenes.


3) Deleted Scenes
Stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor.

4) 'One Man and his Horse' Documentary
Learn how the Wild West theme night had a drunken horse on the premises.


WEAKNESSES

In order to write a balanced review, I had to rack my brains to think of the faults in this quality programme. I suppose if you are ultra fussy, you could argue that there are not enough strong female roles. But Potter's love interest features prominently in a complete episode. The women who work in the club also have a strong presence collectively.

Just about the only other fault I could put my finger on is the way Potter's disability is handled. There were times when I was laughing at his wheelchair predicament, for example when he was playing paintball with his girlfriend and she was shooting at his chest. Of course, being in a wheelchair meant he was a sitting duck and took a complete pounding, which was so funny to watch. Some may feel a little uncomfortable about finding humour in this - for me it's part of the appeal of the writers' willingness to escape from the
safe, formulaic stuff
and explore the non
PC territories which too many other bland sitcoms avoid.

THE VERDICT

The DVD format is the perfect medium for this series because sometimes you need to re-run scenes several times just to make sure you catch all the jokes, both verbal and visual. Extras on the DVD enhance it beautifully and mean you are getting incredible value for your money. Cheapest online price at the time of writing is £12.99 with www.splashdvd.com

In my reverse journey of discovery on Peter Kay, I have since seen 'That Peter Kay Thing' on television. This was made before Phoenix Nights and is a dress rehearsal for many of the characters. It is a little ragged and lacks polish, although it does include Kay 'dragging up' for one of his roles. This does not work for me at all and, mercifully, he resists the temptation to play a woman in both series of Phoenix Nights.

I keep checking for a DVD release date on the second series, as I thought it was even funnier than the first. Jerry St Clair's haunting rendition in the supermarket of Black Bin Bags to the tune of 'Men in Black' is one of the many high points.

Peter Kay is indeed a lucky b******. As he admits in the commentary, he gets to make a living by working ten minutes down the road from where he lives, with his friends from school and surrounded by his relatives as extras.

I heartily recommend this DVD to anyone, as you may be able to tell from this review. It is one of those rare DVDs that you never tire of watching.

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