Entertainment

Paddy McGuinness: Leisure centre paid better than Phoenix Nights

He played the doorman in the hit show starring Peter Kay.
He played the doorman in the hit show starring Peter Kay. He played the doorman in the hit show starring Peter Kay.

Paddy McGuiness has said he was paid more working in a leisure centre than he was on the hit sitcom Phoenix Nights.

The award-winning series, which ran for two series from 2001 to 2002, starred Peter Kay as club owner Brian Potter, who was determined to make The Phoenix Club the best working men’s club in Greater Manchester.

Top Gear presenter McGuinness played doorman Paddy O’Shea in the show, but said it was not the lucrative acting job one might think.

Speaking to Bush & Richie on Absolute Radio, he defended the idea of older men buying lavish cars, saying it is something they could not afford to do when they were younger.

He said: “I do think men get a bit of a hard time about getting themselves a nice car when they’re in their thirties and forties.

“But it’s because that’s the only time you can bloody afford one, you know you can’t get anything decent in your twenties.

“Well I couldn’t anyhow working in a leisure centre and on Phoenix Nights. And I earned more money in the leisure centre back then.”

He added: “I think motorbkes in general you can kind of get away with it, but a Harley over the age of 40 and people are gong to be looking at you.

“But if you’ve got the skinny jeans on and your shirt open and the medallion, you’ve having a full on mid-life crisis.”