Phoenix Nights


Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, sometimes shortened to Phoenix Nights, is a British sitcom about The Phoenix Club, a working men's club in the northern English town of Bolton, Greater Manchester. The show is a spin-off from the "In the Club" episode of the spoof documentary series That Peter Kay Thing, and in turn was followed by the spin-off Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere. It was produced by Goodnight Vienna Productions and Ovation Entertainments, and broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK.
The show was written by Peter Kay, Neil Fitzmaurice and Dave Spikey. All three writers star in the show, with Kay also directing in the second series. All the music was written by Toni Baker and Peter Kay. Additional material was provided by Paddy McGuinness.
Two series have been produced, which were first broadcast in 2001 and 2002 respectively. The first series transmission dates were brought ahead to January 2001 due to the success of Kay's first home video stand-up release Live at the Top of the Tower, released in November 2000, and That Peter Kay Thing winning Best New TV Comedy at the British Comedy Awards, which meant the series began broadcasting before editing had even been completed on all episodes.
Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights won the People's Choice Award at the British Comedy Awards 2002, and was nominated for several others.

Characters

The owner of The Phoenix Club is wheelchair user Brian Potter, who has presided over two clubs in the past: the first flooded, the second burned down. His ambition, with the help of Jerry St Clair, is to see The Phoenix Club become the most popular in Bolton and thus outdo his nemesis, Den Perry, owner of rival club The Banana Grove.

The Phoenix Club

The Phoenix Club is a fictional working men's club in Farnworth near Bolton. The Phoenix Club is home to entertainment of all types, including bingo, singing, cabaret and a wide range of themed nights. The club was opened by Brian Potter and is run by him and his staff.

Employees

The club has a number of workers:
  • Brian Potter: Owner of the club, who goes to any extremes to keep it open.
  • Jerry St. Clair: Compere, Cabaret singer and fall guy of the show. He later becomes licensee of the club.
  • The Captain: The club's doorman. He dies in series 1, episode 2.
  • Ray Von: A former fairground worker and electrician, who is the club's DJ and sound engineer.
  • Maxwell "Max" Bygraves and Patrick "Paddy" O'Shea: The club's two bouncers.
  • Les and Alan: The two backing players, with drums and keyboard, known as "Les Alanos".
  • Kenny Senior: A Jack of all trades at the club and compulsive liar. Claims to have stayed in a tent next to Robert De Niro in Pwllheli and beaten him at Swingball.
  • Young Kenny: A young, dim-witted handyman.
  • Mary : Bar worker and strict Catholic.
  • Spencer: Ignorant but hard-working barman.
  • Ant and Dec: Two illegal Chinese immigrants whom the club accidentally brought into the country. Employed by Brian Potter as chefs.
  • Marion: Bar worker, cleaner and chef. She is good friends with Mary and also works as Brian's PA.
  • Joyce: Bar worker who replaces Marion in series 2.
  • Mary: Holy Mary's daughter and member of the bar staff.

    Layout

The club follows the layout of a typical working men's club, with a large cabaret room along with a lounge area. In an attempt to diversify and attract more customers, the lounge is later converted into a successful Chinese restaurant named "The Golden Phoenix". There is also a games room in the club, which was named the "Jocky Wilson Suite" in the first series, and the "Tony Knowles Suite" in the second. In the first series, the room was shown as a home to the games supplied by "Dodgy Eric", such as the wonky snooker table, the bucking bronco and the child's aeroplane ride. In the second series, the games room is used more as lounge and general social area with dining tables, although there is a dartboard and a new snooker table. The solarium is also adjacent, through a door from this room. The Pennine Suite served as a general large lounge and social area in the first series, but was seldom seen in the second series; it contains a small stage used for Wednesday "free and easy" nights. Eventually it was replaced by a Chinese restaurant. The other room in the club is a larger cabaret style room, which plays host to larger features such as Talent Trek and Stars in their Eyes.

Filming location

As well as being set in Bolton, Phoenix Nights is also filmed in the area. The location for the club itself is St Gregory's Social Club on Church Street in Farnworth, a few miles from Bolton.
When Max and Paddy return from France in Series 2, the location used is Fleetwood Docks.

Plot

Throughout the two series of Phoenix Nights, a theme of the show is the rivalry between The Phoenix Club and local rival club 'The Banana Grove', run by the flamboyant Den Perry. Brian Potter devises ideas for the club to attract more customers, usually to the disapproval of Jerry "The Saint" St. Clair. As more people come to the club, its popularity exceeds that of its rivals. Despite this, Brian Potter's thrifty ways means he continues to try to cut corners in the running of the club.
The second series follows on from the first. Following the staging of the highly regarded local talent contest 'Talent Trek' a vengeful Den Perry burns the club down. With the authorities taking a dim view of Potter's poor attitude towards fire safety and suspending his licence, he then rebuilds the club on the cheap with Jerry as the licensee. The club bounces back and regains its popularity, with schemes such as placing a fake speed camera outside the club to slow motorists down, and a re-enactment of the club's arson on TV show Crimetime in order to gain free advertising.
Following Potter's hiring of two Chinese immigrants, Jerry decides to open a Chinese restaurant inside the club, which, despite Potter's concerns, becomes an instant hit, driving the Phoenix to success whilst leaving other clubs behind. Infuriated at this, Den Perry decides to burn the club again but unwittingly reveals to the clientele that he burned down the Phoenix Club the first time and he is arrested for arson and the club is victorious.

Episode guide

Series 1

;Episode 1
It is the opening day of Brian Potter's new club, the Phoenix. With "TV's own Roy Walker" opening the club, Brian wants everything to be perfect. But he has to contend with a power cut that leaves the club in the dark, the theft of the bingo machine, a German-speaking "Das Boot" arcade machine, Max the doorman injuring himself and a racist folk band called "Half A Shilling". The band are ostensibly singing about Holy Communion Shoes, although journalist Deborah Quinn detects the racist metaphor in the song entitled "Send The Buggers Back". These factors soon ruin everything. The auditioning act at the end of the episode is a pair of spacemen, one on a spinning disc, miming to "Space Oddity" by David Bowie.
;Episode 2
The club's doorman, the Captain, dies, possibly as a result of inhaling smoke from new DJ Ray Von's home-made smoke machine. There is further misfortune when two men in overalls walk in off the street and steal the television set, with the staff doing nothing about it, except for Kenny Senior who kindly hands them the remote control. A warped snooker table is replaced by a bucking bronco, which leads to a Wild West Night being held. It's a huge success, until Jerry's blatantly biased shoot-out between teams from Lancashire and Yorkshire gets violent and a drunken horse tries to have sex with the bucking bronco. The auditioning act at the end of the episode is an escape artist, trapped in a bag.
;Episode 3
Jerry St. Clair has booked psychic medium Clinton Baptiste for the club, following a recommendation by Den Perry. Jerry seems oblivious to the fact that Den Perry wants the Phoenix Club to fail. Brian and Jerry then have to attend a fire safety seminar at the Banana Grove Club presented by Keith Lard, who was arrested for "interfering" with dogs, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. After the meeting, Lard tells Brian he will be inspecting the club immediately to ensure it meets safety standards. Jerry and Brian rush back to the club before Keith inspects it, but a run-in with the police delays them and Keith shuts the club down for being unsafe. Never a quitter, Brian blackmails Lard with a faked photo of Lard's head on the body of a semi-nude man so that he re-opens the club. However, the event they re-open for, the psychic night, forces Brian to refund all his guests after Clinton Baptiste tells a bit more about the future than the guests would like. The auditioning act at the end of the episode is a bad juggler, breaking his props.
;Episode 4
It's 'Singles Night' at the Phoenix club and house band Les Alanos and bouncers Max and Paddy are all looking. Brian is the most successful, though, when he accidentally runs over a woman's foot before buying her a drink and talking the night away. Throughout the episode, their relationship progresses, until Beverley reveals to Brian that she works for the DSS and was sent to investigate him for fraudulent disability claims. Despite Beverley's assertions that her feelings for him are genuine, Brian ends the relationship. Elsewhere, Paddy strikes up a relationship with Holy Mary's daughter Mary. The audition at the end of the episode is a man jumping around to Nellie the Elephant wearing little more than a mackintosh and an elephant soft toy's trunk over his genitals.
;Episode 5
Jerry is in hospital. Before Brian argues with Jerry's decision to host an alternative comedy night, the comedy night turns out to be a disaster, with none of the entrants being any good. As one of the acts, Steve Davies plays a placid metalwork teacher introduced as 'Darius' by Jerry. Darius comes on wearing only a pair of C&A underpants with 'Darius' written in ink on his body. He proceeds to have a psychotic episode, with unintelligible language delivered menacingly towards the audience and the house band onstage whilst striking the drummer's cymbal with his hand. He is crying out to the universe to complete his breakdown. At the end of it all, Jerry has a heated confrontation with a student who had been heckling him, until the student threatens to hit Jerry and all the staff stick up for him. Elsewhere, Ray Von hosts a Robot Wars tournament, which is won by Max and Paddy, who are using a robot built by Ray, who has a penchant for electronics. At the end of the episode, a man called Dougie Hayes offers Jerry a job on a cruise ship. The auditioning act at the end of the episode are a pair of elderly Spanish dancers.
;Episode 6
Jerry gets an all-clear from hospital. However, Brian tells him to keep pretending to be ill because the club got the rights to host Talent Trek because he told the organisers that Jerry is dying. Tensions boil when Brian has to hire a Right Said Fred tribute band called 'Right Said Frank' for the grand finale due to Les Alanos performing a Karate Kid musical with the local youth club on the same night. Right Said Frank end up stealing stereos from all the cars parked outside. Ray Von tries to stop them but he is overpowered. Luckily, they slam into Max's car, setting off his personal alarm. Max and Paddy rush outside and tackle the two men to the ground. Brian then 'reveals' to the audience that Jerry has got an all-clear for his illness. Despite everything, Jerry can't bring himself to leave the club and turns down the cruise ship job offer. The series concludes with Den Perry, outraged at the success of the Phoenix Club, setting it on fire.