Old jokes add up to give Peter Kay a mega payday

Comedian Peter Kay is laughing all the way to the bank. Who else could haul in £ 1 million while taking a year off? That seemingly improbable feat has, i can disclose, just been pulled off by the Bolton-born comic of whom little has been seen since he abruptly cancelled a sell- out tour almost three years ago, citing ‘unforeseen family circumstances’.

aside from a solitary BBC appearance in april, 47-year- old Kay has taken an extended break both from touring and media commitments.

But, far from having a negative effect on his bank balance, his absence from the public eye has seen the money continue to roll into Good night Vienna Productions, the company he established in 1999.

described as a ‘writing, performing and TV production’ business, its shareholder funds amounted to £24.8 million by the end of march this year – £1 million up on the previous year.

His agent declines to comment but it is believed the money has been accrued through residual income derived from repeats of his many TV comedy shows.

There is no sign that Kay is burning through the cash. Quite the reverse, in fact, as befits someone who achieved showbiz success only after taking a succession of low- paid jobs in such unglamorous arenas as a filling station and a factory manufacturing lavatory paper. no less than £23.3 million of the company’s funds are held in ‘cash in bank and in hand’, while its only reported spending was limited to just £1,495 — on what is described in its accounts as ‘motor vehicles’. Fans hoping that his most recent series, Peter Kay’s Car Share, will rise Phoenix-like from merely being a repeat, seem likely to be disappointed. Kay, whose 201011 tour made it into the Guinness World Records after he performed to more than 1.2 million people, has always been adamant that his family comes first. He and his wife, Susan, with whom he co- owns Good night Vienna Productions, continue to live in Bolton with their three children. He remains teetotal — he lost his father, John, to alcoholism, before making the big time.