More TV Memories – Phil Kay Feels…

Phil Kay Feels… (Channel 4, 1997)

There used to be a time (and maybe there still is) when Channel 4 would give a comedy show to any comedian who happened to be vaguely in fashion. One example is when a lot of the people who took part in the early editions of Whose Line Is It Anyway? were given their own series to show off more of their skills. And this is someone else who got their moment of fame.

Phil Kay (no relation to Peter I imagine) is a Scottish comedian who had been on the scene since the late-80s. His rather distinctive style meant that he was given his own series, shown rather late at night on Fridays. Every week in Phil Kay Feels… he would take a look at a different subject, and the editions were suffixed Natural, Technical, Lovely, Entertaining, Sporty, and Wet.

He would come on stage and improvise his material, going off into all kinds of bizarre areas, and hopefully the studio audience had realised that they might end up having to participate too. A few pre-recorded sketches were included as well. There are a few amusing moments that I remember. The first was the opening sequence, where Phil would draw a picture based on that week’s subject.

And there was also a show where he had a sausage, and he suddenly made a Grange Hill joke which was amusing, before this idea had become a rather worn-out and cliched nostalgic reference. A lot of the audience participation was memorable too. But there was also the time when in the Natural edition, he came on stage in the nude, which is definitely a way to get people’s attention.

There was only one series of Phil Kay Feels…, but he has made a few TV appearances since. He was in the one-off sitcom Lust For Glorious, he starred in the UK Play show Next Stop Phil Kay where he toured the country, and he was also a panellist in some of the early editions of QI. He has continued to perform on the stand-up circuit, and he is now something of a veteran.