Every time you shout they rotate.’ You know, because he were a DJ, like.”I did raffle and all. It were for my fiancée Susan’s Auntie Anne, to raise money for motor-neurone. You can’t say no to family, can you, especially your fiancée’s family.” Kay is marrying Susan, a demure red-head who works at Boots, in September. It will feel like familiar territory, because weddings have always loomed large in his stand-up act. And he has very precise ideas about how his own wedding should unfold.”I had it planned before I even met Susan I’m very anal about it In fact, I want to do disco but Susan won’t let me.

We’ll have a bit of Eighties, a bit of Nineties, some Seventies dance music, a bit of Motown I know I should relax, but it’s important, disco. There’s nothing worse than some gobshite asking for something like ‘Eloise’, The Damned, and they mither you until you put it on, then everyone sits down and they don’t even dance themselves They just sit there and sing it. I did a disco once in Clitheroe, and I got everybody up for two hours solid I were thrilled to bits. It’s just the same as doing stand-up and keeping ‘em laughing.”I ask Kay what will be the first song at his wedding dance “Oh, ‘Dancing Queen’, Abba. It’s got to be, hasn’t it? It’s one song that everyone gets up and dances to It were first song I danced to You’ve got to. You can’t be suicidal and play ‘Dancing Queen’ without feeling a lot better.

You just think, ‘Ohhhhh, never mind war, never mind death…’ “Not that Kay spends much time pondering war and death even without “Dancing Queen” to distract him “I feel really content,” he says “I’ve got everything I want. I’ve got Susan, my family and friends, and I don’t feel like there’s something missing. I sometimes feel guilty for saying that at 27, but that’s how I feel And I’m so lucky to be up here and not in London. I’m not knocking London, I’m just happier being near things I love.”When they are married, the Kays will live, of course, in Bolton.

Success will not entail a move to a large detached house in Chiswick or Totteridge, even though that is the sort of success Kay seems destined for. Because with Phoenix Nights he is adding a new string to his bow, controlling his own material from script to performance to editing suite He credits this development to his manager, Phil McIntyre “He’s keen on his people doing whole thing. He’s got Caroline [Aherne] and Craig [Cash] and Victoria Wood, too I’ve never done it before, but it’s good. Because if you’re an artist you don’t just do outlines, do you, you colour it in as well.” Indeed. And Kay has a bigger and brighter palette than most.’Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights’ continues on Channel 4 at 9.30pm on Sundays It is repeated every Thursday at 11.30pm.