Indeed, the whole show seems to have been presented as a satire on the self-serving nature of celebrity aid junkets: “We’re on a mission to bring people in Africa something they’ve never had before – five-star adult cabaret,” Kay smooches. “Thank you for making their dreams come true.” Set in a northern social club, Peter Kay co-writes and stars as a range of characters in this unique comedy classic. Peter plays Brian Potter, the wheelchair-bound owner of the fire-blighted Phoenix Club in Bolton, who's determined to see it rise from the ashes. Aiding Brian at the Phoenix are his motley staff: the resident MC Jerry St Clair (Dave Spikey); the dangerously keen electrician/DJ Ray; the useless doormen Max and Paddy; the bar and cleaning staff Holy, Mary and Marion; the gormless handyman Kenny; and the musical twosome Alan and Les (Les Alanos). Kay – surely the only mainstream entertainer capable of getting away with the catchphrase “I don’t know whether you’ve noticed I’m disabled?” – scotches any suggestion that the show will be toned down by wheeling over to the British Sign Language interpreter and demanding that he demonstrate how to sign “buggered” and “shithole”. In the decade since Phoenix Nights aired it has become commonplace to appropriate a Roy “Chubby” Brown level of humour under the spurious guise of irony. As the arena-sized reunion has been mounted in support of Comic Relief, the off-colour imperatives of northern clubland have an inbuilt immunity to criticism.

Phoenix Nights Series 1 sees legendary social club owner Brian Potter and his hapless band of staff and regulars determined to make the Phoenix Club a success, no matter what. Not even a racist folk band, an unforeseeable psychic or a drunken horse will get in the way of their dream that "club land will never die". The show gets better – or worse, depending on your point of view – with a stage invasion of angry dwarves and a DJ set from mullet-haired Ray Von (played by co-writer Neil Fitzmaurice) that culminates in a musical mashup of Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter and the theme from Jim’ll Fix It.