Meat pies to pink shirts

It's the Weekly Trivia File

Just a quick one this week. It is the season of goodwill, after all.

‘There are a lot of comics who get angry at things they don't really give a shitt about, and shout about how much they hate coffee, or something. I find contrived, edgy rage utterly pathetic.’ Russell Howard

Want the shirt off Michael McIntyre’s back? It’ll cost you at least £640. That’s how high bidding has reached on a charity eBay auction for a signed pink shirt he wore on his 2009 tour. The auction in aid of Shelter closes tomorrow.

For Peter Kay's return to stand-up you can thank - or blame - his Phoenix Nights pal Toby Foster. After reading in his book that Kay was planning a return to stand-up, Foster texted him saying, ‘course you should’. ‘Next thing you know, you’re selling a million tickets,’ Foster told Kay when he appeared on his Radio Sheffield show this week. For his part, Kay admits the text helped convince him to return: ‘Believe it or not - and you probably won't – it was probably your text that was a big catalyst into actually doing it again.’ Foster now reckons he’s owed at least a pint from arena managers up and down the country.

Meanwhile, Gervais has applied to build a terrace with a new doorway and metal railings at the side of his Hampstead home – which he modified in 2007 to install a subterranean swimming pool and a gym, to the dismay of neighbours.