It can’t be easy to become the nation’s favourite comedian. Harder still to remain so. Consider the achievement, then, of Peter Kay, who got there, broke every popularity record going, then gave public life a decade-long swerve – before returning, after years of only intermittent visibility, to find himself more popular than ever. As I write, the 02 Arena’s website has crashed under the weight of thousands of fans jostling to book for the Bolton man’s new tour, announced last week and his first since 2010. That last standup tour is still ranked by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest-selling of all time. Who would bet against its 2022 follow-up raising the bar even higher?
