Peter Kay has revealed that he blocked Phoenix Nights from streaming on Netflix because it’s ‘not very politically correct’.

And he’s also revealed that he has a script for a movie version, but is waiting for ‘de-aging’ screen technology to be good enough for flashback scenes.

Phoenix Nights originally ran for two seasons on Channel 4 in 2001 and 2002 but is not available on the broadcaster’s streaming service.

And appearing on Capital Breakfast this morning, the comic – who has just announced the final gigs in his long-running tour will benefit cancer charities – revealed he was approached by Netflix to take the show.

However, he declined the streamer’s offer because he feared it might not hold up well today – and he  didn’t want the show to go out with a trigger warning.

And he revealed the £350billion company’s sweetener to try to tempt him to sign – an air fryer.

‘I got one free from Netflix,’ he told the Capital team.

‘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?

‘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.

‘Anyway, the Netflix air fryer arrived. It was a Phillips air fryer, it weren’t even a Ninja one. But I was grateful. Anyway, it had stickers all over it saying Netflix. It broke.’

 

 

 

 

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In the same interview Kay said: ‘I have written a film of Phoenix Nights. 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. Seriously, when the tour is finished, I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve been looking at the capabilities of de-aging technology.’

De-aging has been successfully used in films such as F1, Gladiator II and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – while earlier this month Red Dwarf writer Doug Naylor told how computer technology had created a younger version of the character Lister on a budget.

While Phoenix Nights has never been particularly held up as offensive, journalists have sometimes written about how some of the gags haven’t aged well, even if they were never malicious.

A 2019 article in The i newspaper pointed out that many jokes mocked the fact Kay’s character – nightclub owner Brian Potter – wasn’t able to walk, and suggested there would be an outrage should able-bodied Kay attempt to play a wheelchair user now – a phenomenon campaigners call ‘cripping up’.

In other instances that might require trigger warnings, a folk song in the first episode titled Send The Buggers Back contained overtly racist lyrics –  although the joke was that Potter had hailed the band as inoffensive family entertainment with ‘nothing blue’.

And the lyrics to the classic Black Bin Bags, as sung by Dave Spikey’s character Jerry St Clair, recommended the garbage collection products to anyone,  ‘whether bi or straight or bender’.

• Capital Breakfast with Jordan North, Chris Stark and Sian Welby is on weekdays from 6am to 10am across the UK and on Global Player.