This two-part documentary/clip show/talking heads love-in should have really been titled What has Happened to Peter Kay?, chronicling how a once funny writer and stand-up descended into exploitative money grabber obsessed with churning out the same tired material and DVD releases of endlessly rehashed footage. He hasn’t done an original stand-up show for years and his recent TV input has fallen way short of Phoenix Nights yet he is consistently labelled Britain’s top comic.
Raider of the Pop Charts was again another excuse to dig into the Kay vaults and broadcast his ventures into the world of music. Lord knows why this needs to be a couple of hours long given that he’s only done a handful of singles and one X Factor type spoof. Either way it has Peter Kay’s name on it so this is bound to gain some positive ratings.
Peter Kay and Tony Christie, ‘Is This the Way to Amarillo’
Part one focuses on the story of the ‘Is This the Way to Amarillo’ video, the song that became the Comic Relief track for 2005 despite a cover by McFly being the official song. The video, directed by David Mallet, is essentially Kay lip-synching Tony Christie’s hit while walking towards the camera accompanied by various celebs. On paper sounds hideously boring but it’s a nice bit of fun that looks obviously cheap and knowingly tacky.
Of course Phoenix Nights was most responsible for gaining the song new attention as the characters Max and Paddy sang it during a sequence in series 2, and being one to recycle ideas he subsequently used it for his stand-up entrance. Although it very nearly could have been 'Green Door' by Shakin’ Stevens if Paddy McGuinness known the words to it (Stevens did himself appear in the Amarillo video).
The Making of the Amarillo Video
Being an upbeat retrospective everyone is too nice and some of the contributions were a little sycophantic and others bordered on bizarre, most notably where Pete Waterman pretends that he actually knows anything about music. Perhaps the biggest injustice caused by the re-release was that it helped proliferate Tony Christie’s career.
The positive to all this? That ‘Is This the Way to Amarillo’ made a great deal of money for charity by being the best selling single in the UK charts for 2005. Also admittedly some of this was funny such as McGuinness’s Jonathan King joke as the list of big stars turning down an appearance steadily increases, Happy Mondays members Shaun Ryder and Bez being unintentionally hilarious, Kay mocking his “poor” lookalike and Ronnie Corbett’s tumble on the treadmills.
Great too was the almost “will this do?” production when time was running out and it was pieced together using a host of old faces (Geoffrey Hayes, Jim Bowen, Keith Harris) recorded in front of green screens which in turn added to the charm. In conclusion Raider of the Pop Charts was reasonably okay and though the video might be good the song is still rubbish.
Part two of Peter Kay: Raider of the Pop Charts is on Channel 4 at 9pm on Friday, November 13, 2009.
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