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Johnnie Walker Meets... Peter Kay
Further details
The two-hour show will see Johnnie Walker and Peter Kay get behind the wheel and take to the road for two hours of great conversation, laughs and music as they interview each other while taking in the sights of Peter's home towns of Bolton and Manchester.
The interview is a result of Peter's fondness for Johnnie as a broadcaster, as Peter explains: "I wrote to Johnnie because I've always listened to him - all my life. I love Sounds Of The 70s and I just feel that if you like somebody, you should let them know, so I wrote to him and then we had a phone chat. Johnnie said 'why don't we do an interview?' and suggested we could maybe record it in an actual car on the move, in a similar style to Car Share?' I thought that'd be a great idea brilliant, just a nice drive, a nice chat. I agreed on the proviso that it wouldn't just be an interview about me. That Johnnie talked too, he's an interesting man with some fascinating stories."
Johnnie says: "Peter contacted me saying that he was a fan of the show - which was lovely to hear as I'm such a huge fan of his. You can tell he loves radio from the radio station Forever FM that he created for BBC One's Car Share. The station was a big part of the show. We got chatting about my Sounds Of The 70 show and music in general, and I came up with the idea of doing a special two hour show driving around Bolton whilst having a chat and playing lots of our favourite records. We had a lot of fun on the drive, as you can hear from all the laughter."
As they drive around the area listeners will be treated to a playlist covering the 1950s to the current day includes Gary US Bonds, The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, The Drifters, Mike & The Mechanics, Simon & Garfunkel and Van Morrison.
Broadcast details
- Date
- Friday 30th December 2016
- Time
- 5pm
- Channel
- BBC Radio 2
- Length
- 120 minutes
Cast & crew
| Johnnie Walker | Host / Presenter |
| Peter Kay | Guest |
Press
I tuned into Johnnie Walker Meets Peter Kay with trepidation. Peter Kay only agrees to go on TV or radio if he can take over. He's a broadcast bully, a chat-show terrorist, taking everyone hostage from host to guests to audience. Though I enjoy his standup (if Michael McIntyre has his finger on the pulse of the suburban south, Kay knows what makes northerners howl), I can't watch him on live TV. He makes everything about him. It's maddening.
And at the beginning of the programme he did exactly this, hogging the mic as though it were his show rather than Walker's. Plus, his hijack clearly began before they had even started recording, when they'd met at Piccadilly station and Kay shouted at a punter that Walker was his long-lost dad and he'd just found out he was adopted. Funny, of course... but no one else had a choice. Nobody ever does with Kay.
Gradually, though, Kay let Walker speak and managed to get some lovely stuff from the long-time music fan, especially about the Beatles and being a DJ in San Francisco when the Sex Pistols played their last gig. Of seeing the Beatles in 1963, on a Saturday night in Handsworth, Walker said: "They inspired me to do something different. Four blokes who made this amazing music, had this great sense of humour, and the world was going nuts. They played two gigs in one night... It was the freedom and potential of being young and being yourself and really having a go at something."
Lovely stuff from him, and in the end from Kay too. Music has a way of unwinding people into revealing themselves, and a relaxed Kay was far more charming than his usual hyperactive show-off. Plus, he played Frank Wilson's Do I Love You (Indeed I Do), so we can forgive him a lot.
Miranda Sawyer, The Observer, 1st January 2017