Bolton-born comedian Peter Kay has extended his record-breaking tour by nine extra days with profits from the 2026 arena show going to 12 different cancer charities

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Peter Kay issued a ‘demand’ to BBC bosses(Image: BBC)

Comedian Peter Kay said “that’s enough now” as he issued a demand to BBC bosses after appearing on Radio 2. The 52-year-old recently revealed he had added another nine dates to his record-breaking Better Late Than Never tour, meaning it will run until the end of August next year.

The Bolton-born comedian will now end the tour at Manchester’s AO Arena on August 8. The profits from the tour will go to 12 different cancer charities, with Peter saying “everybody knows someone who’s been affected” by the disease. “You don’t even have to like me to come, it goes beyond that, this is about supporting these charities,” he told The One Show.

Shortly after announcing his tour would be extended Peter visited BBC Radio 2 for a candid chat with presenter Scott Mills. Speaking to fellow Phoenix Nights and Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere star Paddy McGuinness, Peter described the veteran radio presenter as “alright” admitting that he had “never met him” before the appearance.

Peter however admits that one thing BBC bosses did prompted him to issue a firm demand. He told Paddy: “I did Scott Mills a few weeks back and they kept getting in touch going, ‘Can we put this bit on social media? Can we put that bit on social media?’ I went, ‘No, that’s enough now thanks, leave it’. Everything is…I can’t even say the word.”

Peter went on to ask Paddy if his own Radio 2 show is filmed for social media. Paddy replied: “What they do sometimes is because obviously we’re in Salford, it’s like, ‘Send them an old camera up there, they’ll be alright with that’. So sometimes we’ll have a camera in the corner, that’s all.

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Peter and Paddy starred in Max and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere(Image: Channel 4)

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“But at the minute, because you’re on, and you’re one of the most successful comedians ever, they’ve actually brought up a camera phone. Someone’s filming me, as we speak, with an iPhone. It’s not even got a mic plugged in, it’s just one of the lads out of the office has come in and stuck it on a stand in the corner of the room.”

While Peter is continuing his stand-up comeback next year, he recently revealed that his hit sitcom Phoenix Nights won’t be returning on streaming platforms. He says Netflix had approached him for the rights to air the programme, but admits he turned them down because they wanted to attach a trigger warning to the series.

He says the show, which sees alter-ego Brian Potter attempting to make The Phoenix Club the best working men’s club in Greater Manchester, “is not very politically correct now”. Speaking on Capital Breakfast last month, Peter said: “They got in touch with me last year because they wanted to put Phoenix Nights on Netflix.

“They rang me up and said, ‘Can we license some of your shows to put on Netflix?’ Anyway, they sent me a load of paperwork. Basically, it’s not very politically correct now. This was made in a time, do you know what I mean?”

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Peter will be touring arenas next year(Image: Getty Images)

Capital presenter Sian Welby chimed in: “When things were different!” Before Peter continued: “I just said, ‘I’m not keen on that, I don’t really want a warning before it.’ So, I just said, ‘No, I’ll leave it.’ Anyway, they sent me an air fryer. I think that was trying to sweeten me.”

The comic, who is also the brains behind Peter Kay’s Car Share, also revealed he has begun script writing once more, planning a Phoenix Nights film. He said: “It’s written and it’s done. But I’m waiting for the de-aging process to come into fruition. Because the storyline involves a lot of flashbacks to the past, and I don’t want to be using really bad makeup to make people look young.”

He then quipped: “Seriously, when the tour is finished, I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been looking at the capabilities of de-aging technology.”

Proceeds from Peter’s last shows of his stand-up tour – with arena shows in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Birmingham, Belfast, Sheffield, Leeds and London – in 2026 will be donated to 12 cancer charities. These are Children With Cancer UK, Teenage Cancer Trust, Kidney Cancer UK, Blood Cancer UK, Bowel Cancer UK, Prostate Cancer UK, DKMS UK, Ovarian Cancer Action, Pancreatic Cancer UK, Anthony Nolan, The Brain Tumour Charity and Breast Cancer UK.