Peter Kay has said returning to the stage was like “getting in a hot bath” after receiving a standing ovation at a special charity gig.
The Bolton comedian, who has been all but absent from the public eye over the last few years, appeared on stage at Manchester’s O2 Apollo for the first of two live Q&As.
Kay, 48, said: “I’ve never in my life had a standing ovation when I came on. I’m going to go away for four more years.”
The shows were in aid of 20-year-old Laura Nuttall, who has a severe form of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.
Ms Nuttall, who was in the audience, was diagnosed with her condition in October 2018, when she suffered a series of headaches while studying during her first term at King’s College London. She was 18 at the time and a brain scan showed six tumours.
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But thanks to fundraising, she has received immunotherapy treatment in Germany.
Her sister Gracie introduced the comic to the stage and told the audience that the family was “eternally grateful” to them for “potentially saving my sister’s life”.
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Upon starting his matinee performance, Kay said: “I was a bit nervous this morning, when I got here.
“I was looking at all this and thinking ‘oh my God’ but it’s really nice to be doing this. It’s like getting in a hot bath.”
Fans were not put off by the showery weather on Saturday as hundreds queued outside in the rain ahead of Kay’s first gig in years.
Attendees were required to provide proof they had been double vaccinated or had negative COVID-19 tests before being let in.
Kay joked on stage about lateral flow tests, telling the audience: “People have been bringing them to the gate in bags.”
He received another standing ovation as the show finished.
“It’s been lovely. Thank you for coming to support Laura and her family and thank you for coming to see me,” he said.
Kay has spent the last few years largely away from public view, after cancelling his last arena tour in December 2017 due to “unforeseen family circumstances”.
He made a surprise appearance at a charity screening of his series Car Share in 2018, as well as a brief return in January 2021 when he appeared on BBC Radio 2 to chat to Cat Deeley about his love of music, mix tapes and the musical Mamma Mia.
The comedian shot to fame in his 2001 comedy Phoenix Nights, which followed the lives of people working at The Phoenix Club – a fictional working men’s club in Bolton.
But Kay is perhaps best known for his stand-up comedy, selling out tours up and down the UK from the early noughties.
Richard Gadd has urged fans of his hit show Baby Reindeer to stop speculating about who the characters in his show are based on in real life.
The Netflix series is based on the real-life story of its writer Gadd, who also plays the lead character, and his warped relationship with a female stalker.
Fans have been speculating online about the identity of the stalker played by Jessica Gunning in real life (spoiler warning), as well as who another character, seen sexually assaulting Gadd in the series, is based on.
The character, played by Tom Goodman-Hill, is a TV writer who repeatedly sexually assaults Gadd’s character and supplies him with drugs.
Gadd addressed his fans on his Instagram story on Tuesday, saying: “People I love, have worked with, and admire… are unfairly getting caught up in speculation.
“Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of our show. Lots of love, Richard.”
The show is based on the hit Edinburgh Fringe one-man stage play Gadd performed in 2019.
Gadd, who plays Donny Dunn, a character based on himself, said he didn’t expect the show to “blow up” in the way it has since its release on 11 April.
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“I’m super proud of it. I really believed in this show, but the fact it’s gone so stratospheric so quickly, for such a cult, quite niche story… it’s kind of amazing. It’s clearly struck a chord,” he said on This Morning.
The writer, actor and comedian is also an ambassador for We Are Survivors, a charity which supports male survivors of sexual abuse.
Police in Australia have launched a manhunt for former soap opera star Orpheus Pledger after he failed to appear in court to face charges of assault.
Pledger, 30, was due to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday accused of assaulting a woman, Sky News Australia said.
The actor had been granted bail on Tuesday for a court-ordered hospital assessment and had been ordered to return to court the following day, but didn’t show up.
On Wednesday Victoria Police issued a warrant for his arrest and asked the public to help find him.
The force said in a statement he was wanted over an “assault-related matter” and hoped “someone may be able to provide information on his current whereabouts”.
Described as “approximately 170cm [5ft, 6in] tall with brown hair and tanned complexion”, police said he was known to frequent the north Melbourne suburb of Northcote and surrounding areas.
Pledger’s manager, Craig McMahon told the Sydney Morning Herald he had not been in contact with his client this week but that he had been shocked by the assault allegations.
Mr McMahon told the paper his client had suffered from mental health issues for a long time.
Pledger starred in Neighbours, another Australian soap, in 2011 before joining the cast of Home and Away in 2016 where he played Mason Morgan for three years.
Earlier in his career, he appeared in other TV shows, Silversun and CrashBurn.
A guitar used by John Lennon in the recording of The Beatles album and film Help! is going up for auction after being found in a loft.
Believed to have been lost, the 12-string acoustic guitar had not been seen or played for more than 50 years before it was rediscovered in the home of a British couple.
It is now going up for auction where it is estimated to fetch between £485,000 to £647,000.
Auctioneers believe it could set a “new world record for the highest-selling Beatles guitar”.
The Hootenanny model, made by German firm Framus, was used by the Liverpool band in the 1965 Help! film, specifically in the scene when the group perform You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.
It was also used during the recording sessions for It’s Only Love and I’ve Just Seen A Face and Girl along with the rhythm track for Norwegian Wood played by George Harrison.
“Finding this remarkable instrument is like finding a lost Rembrandt or Picasso, and it still looks and plays like a dream after having been preserved in an attic for more than 50 years,” said Darren Julien, co-founder and executive director at auction house Julien’s Auctions.
“To awaken this sleeping beauty is a sacred honour and is a great moment for music, Julien’s, Beatles and auction history.”
It is believed the guitar came to be in the possession of Scottish guitarist Gordon Waller, known for being one half of the pop duo Peter & Gordon, who later gave it to his band’s road managers in the 1970s.
Julien’s Auctions has previously sold another Lennon acoustic guitar for $2.4m (£1.93m), Ringo Starr’s Ludwig drum kit was purchased for $2.2m (£1.77m) and a Ludwig drumhead bass used on The Ed Sullivan Show was auctioned at $2.1m (£1.64m).
The Hootenanny guitar will go up for auction along with the guitar’s Maton Australian-made case as part of Julien’s Music Icons two-day auction on 29 and 30 May.
Also being sold at the auction is an Adam Clayton stage-played and owned rose sparkle Fender bass guitar, used at the U2 Las Vegas Sphere shows, which has an estimate of $50,000 to 70,000 (£40,199 to £56,279).
Tina Turner’s Versace dress, worn during her 1996 to 1997 Wildest Dreams Tour, and Amy Winehouse’s Black Fendi gown made for the opening of the clothes shop during Paris Fashion Week, are also up for auction.