Peter Kay has announced a monthly residency at the O2 Arena in London.

It comes after the first UK tour in 12 years, which was announced this week but did not include any dates in the capital.

Since cancelling his 2017 tour due to “unforeseen family issues,” Kay has been out of the public eye.

He said on Wednesday during the Zoe Ball breakfast programme on BBC Radio 2: “I thought we should’ve called this tour Peter Who?”

The 49-year-old Boltonian also expressed shock that the initial tour announcement, which was made on Sunday during the commercial break of the first broadcast of the new season of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, had garnered such attention.

He jokingly said, “I should only be on the news if I’m dead, not if I’m on tour.”

He expressed gratitude to the crowd and that he was “overwhelmed” by the response.

At the 20,000-seat O2 in Greenwich, Kay will make history as the first comic to receive a residency. For over a year, he will perform there once a month.

As a joke, Kay said, “There’s basically just been myself and Prince who have done it, and look what happened to him.” She was alluding to Prince’s passing in 2016.

In 2007, Prince performed a record-breaking 21 consecutive shows at the same location.

Michael Jackson, who passed away in 2009 before beginning his anticipated This Is It residency, was another; he was scheduled to perform for 50 nights, according to Kay. He jokingly said, “I get his shows.

The Phoenix Nights actor informed Ball that he had already played a number of low-key warm-up shows ahead of the tour and that he still had a number of them scheduled.

No matter who you are, he asserted, people won’t laugh if you’re not humorous. “I overthink everything… However, things have been going nicely.

“I’ve done a few; although they’re not secret, people keep calling them gigs. The order is first come, first served.

Ticket prices for the new UK and Ireland arena performances, which kick up on 2 December at the Manchester AO Arena, start at £35 [not including booking costs]. According to Kay, this is the same price as they were during his 2010 tour.

People need a chuckle because of the difficult circumstances, he remarked, so you have to meet them halfway.

“I believe that’s why it was in the news; for once, there was good news rather than bad news.

I thought that was a beautiful touch, somewhat reminiscent of the panda that used to appear at the conclusion of Newsround with John Craven.

The performances will be Kay’s first live tour since 2010, when he performed in front of more than 1.2 million people and broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest-selling stand-up tour of all time.

In recent years, the entertainer has maintained a quiet profile. In August 2021, he made a notable comeback to the stage for two unique charity performances to support Laura Nuttall, a 20-year-old who was suffering from the severe brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme.

Additionally, he had a brief comeback in January 2021 when he spoke with Cat Deeley on BBC Radio 2 about his love of music, mixtapes, and the musical Mamma Mia. Cat Deeley was filling in for Graham Norton at the time.

In 2018, he also unexpectedly showed up at a charity screening of his television series Car Share.

In a surprise television commercial for his next tour, Kay was spotted entering a home with a rolled-up carpet while telling fans in the area that he would be making a comeback to stand-up comedy the following month.

In a nod to the comic’s previous Mum Wants A Bungalow tour, the advertisement ended with fans asking Kay whether he had finally purchased his mother a bungalow. Kay acknowledged that he had and said that his mother now desired a new carpet for it.

Priority tickets for his tour go on sale via two mobile phone companies starting Thursday, and general tickets go on sale at 10:00 GMT on Saturday, November 12.