October 2011
HIS career started playing a doorman on his buddy Peter Kay’s hit Channel 4 comedy Phoenix Nights. These days Patrick McGuinness is a prime-time TV show host, occasional This Morning presenter, adventurer, author and stand-up comedian.
“It keeps me out of trouble,” says the 37-year-old, who admits that it’s the ITV show Take Me Out that has been his biggest gig so far.
“It usually attracts between four and seven million people, which is mad,” he laughs.
Even though he’d been on our TV screens for around 15 years, he noticed a significant change in the amount of attention he was getting after the first series of Take Me out.
“I’ve been used to it around where I live in Bolton but when it started happening in London, that really hit me.”
Why has he never made the move to London?
“Yes, it’s where the work is so you’ve got to go down to London but it’s only two hours on the train. You can do your work and be back for teatime.”
Unlike Kay, when McGuinness left school he had ambitions to be a lab technician.
“The subjects I was only any good at in school were science but I did a diploma at college and realised it was the most boring job ever. So I worked on a building site, I was a silver service waiter, in an engineering factory, a bread making factory, leisure centres...
“You learn a lot of good life experiences doing jobs like that so I’m glad I did all that.”
While still doing odd jobs around Bolton, his school friend recruited him to appear in his series of comedy dramas for Channel 4 called That Peter Kay Thing. That led to two series of Phoenix Nights.
After its huge success, he and Kay co-wrote and co-starred as the club doormen in the spin-off series, Max And Paddy’s Road To Nowhere.
Rumours that Kay had finished writing two more series of Phoenix Nights are, as far as McGuinness is concerned, false.
“These rumours come about because Peter starts them for his own amusement,” he jokes.
“I know nothing about that.”
Since then McGuinness has mixed stand-up comedy with a varied career on the small screen.
He’s fronted an advertising campaign for Greggs, appeared on Sky’s The Match and Inside Wayne Rooney, played the lead in E4’s Chuck Stryker: The Unknown Stuntman, guest hosted The Paul O’Grady Show and This Morning, presented Raiders Of The Lost Archive on ITV1, joined Rory McGrath on a roadtrip for Rory And Paddy’s Great British Adventure and even partnered Keith Lemon on Let’s Dance For Comic Relief.
But nothing has given him as much exposure as Take Me Out.
“I even get a game of Take Me Out going on stage during the show,” he says of his latest tour, which comes to the Capital FM Arena on Friday.
“Because they are big venues I want it to be visually good to look at, so it’s a bit special in that respect.”
Such as?
“Let’s just say there are a few tricks up the sleeve.”
It’s his biggest tour and he admits the nerves are there.
“If you’re not nervous then there’s something wrong.
“On the last tour I did about 60 nights and when I went on stage totally relaxed I just couldn’t remember what I was saying.
“Once you lose that nervous energy you can become a bit complacent. It’s good to be nervous.”
He married Liverpool model Christine Martin in the summer but resisted the magazine deals which were offered.
“Some things are private,” he says, simply.
“And you can’t tell your nan that she can’t take a photo because of the contract you are under, she wouldn’t understand.”
He adds: “Although one magazine did superimpose our heads on to someone else’s bodies at a wedding for their front cover.
“So a lot of people will have thought ‘Oh they’ve done a magazine deal’”.
It was a big family occasion in Cheshire and married life is all right with him.
“Everything’s just the same, really. I don’t feel any different. We’ve been together for years.
“The only real difference is the ring on the finger. It’s nice. I like it.”
The Paddy McGuinness Saturday Night Live Tour comes to the Capital FM Arena on Friday October 14. Tickets are £25, call 08444 124 624 or visit www.capital.com
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