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Peter Kay has rightly earned himself a reputation as one of the country’s finest comedians, mixing in wry observations, northern humour and good, old-fashioned joke-telling at its finest. And yet even the most ardent Kay-fan, including this reviewer, would have to concede that this DVD release of Peter Kay--Live At Manchester Arena is a misstep.

It’s not that the material here isn’t funny, as frequently it is. Kay’s observations on the likes of Crimewatch, Bullseye, the daft things that people say and weddings hit home with resounding accuracy. Yet all this has been delivered before on a far better DVD. His Live At The Bolton Albert Halls disc, released two years’ prior to this one, is a taping made on exactly the same tour, and as a result, the material across the two discs is virtually identical. Furthermore, the show on this latest release is cut down to a dramatically shorter length. Save for a strong DVD extra that takes you behind the scenes of his tour, there’s simply no reason that anyone who bought the previous release should fork out for this one.

Kay’s talents are undisputed, and the aforementioned Live At The Bolton Albert Halls DVD is a must-have for fans of strong stand-up comedy. But you really should give Live At The Manchester Arena a miss, and treat is as the unwelcome cash cow it clearly is.--Simon Brew