Kay hijacks pal's stage show

Peter Kay hijacked a performance of a play to wish happy birthday to its star.

The comic interrupted Thursday night’s performance of Mrs Brown's Last Wedding at Manchester’s Opera House with his unexpected cameo.

He walked on stage dressed as a plumber, one of the minor roles in the piece, to surprise Irish comedianBrendan O'Carroll, who plays Agnes Brown.

O'Carroll was said to be ‘gobsmacked’ to realise it was his friend.

Kay, smirking away in boiler suit and flat cap, halfheartedly tried to perform in an Irish accent to fit the play’s setting, but quickly lapsed into his native Bolton burr.

O'Carroll didn't seem to mind being upstaged, and joked: ‘I knew I recognised him. It was Tom Jones.’

Kay returned for the curtain call at the end of the show and told the audience: ‘I've been four or five times to this show and I just love it, this man is really, really funny.’

O’Carroll recently guest starred on Kay’s sitcom Max And Paddy's Road To Nowhere.

It’s not the first time Kay has commandeered someone else’s Manchester show.

In May he hijacked a Queen comeback concert to sing Is This The Way To Amarillo – leading to an official booking with the band at a Hyde Park gig in London – and he made a surprise appearance at Eric Clapton's MEN Arena concert last year, with a guitar slung around his neck.

Published: 8 Oct 2005