DID YOU KNOW?

The comedian’s 20-year TV career is being celebrated in Peter Kay’s Comedy Shuffle (9pm, BBC1). Here are some things you might not know about the funnyman…

He left school with just one GCSE, in art.

Before becoming a comedian, he took several minor jobs, including working in a toilet roll factory, a supermarket and a bingo hall, but he claims being a cinema usher was his favourite job: ‘I got to see all the movies for free, got free sweets, and I told people the endings of films as they were going in.’

His first stand-up gig was his routine in the 1996 City Life Comedian Of The Year competition, which was held in Manchester. Peter was last on the bill and won the contest – he beat Johnny

Vegas, among others, to the title. In 1997, he made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance on Coronation Street – as a shopfitter. He returned in 2004 in a bigger role.

During his 2010-11 stand-up comedy tour, he played to more than 1.2 million people, making it the most successful of all time, and earning Peter an entry in the Guinness World Records.

He has also topped the UK charts with three singles for Children In Need: Is This The Way To Amarillo in 2005; I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) in 2007; and The Official BBC Children In Need Medley with his Animated All-Star Band in 2009.

In spite of becoming familiar as the face of John Smith’s bitter in a number of TV ads, he is actually teetotal.