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4 hours ago
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Peter Kay has defended his decision to throw hecklers out of a recent gig after a backlash from audience members who accused him of overreacting.
The comedian, who is doing the last leg of his record-breaking Better Late Than Never Again! tour this month, was heckled by two rowdy audience members at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday.
He reportedly became frustrated at a man who continued to shout out his iconic catchphrase of “garlic bread” and a woman who shouted: “We love you, Peter,” and threw them out of the show.
But he was criticised by fans for his response, including comparing the ejected woman to the Emmerdale actor Lisa Riley, which audience members took to be a “derogatory” comment about her weight.
“I didn’t realise it was an insult,” Kay told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday. “She did look remarkably like Lisa Riley. I didn’t realise that was an insult.”
Riley herself defended Kay, writing on Instagram: “Please draw a line under this now, I am not offended, never was offended. I love Peter Katy to pieces. Laughter is my favourite medicine … It’s a laugh, it’s funny.”
Kay, who reportedly said he was “enjoying” the power of having people thrown out of the gig, said in a statement shared with GMB: “There comes a point when dealing with repeated hecklers simply isn’t enough. It’s not something you ever want to do but it becomes a point when it’s no longer fair to everyone around.”
The hosts, Susanna Reid and Ed Balls, said that Kay “felt he had no option but to remove the hecklers as they were spoiling the show”.
Philip Peters, the man ejected for shouting garlic bread, previously told MailOnline he was treated “like a terrorist” by security staff. The 54-year-old said he was left with bruises after six security officers physically removed him from the auditorium, with another three taking his adult son.
“The security guards came over to me and said: ‘You are going to have to leave – Peter Kay doesn’t like people shouting out,’” he said. “I thought they were going to warn me off but they stood me up, brought me to the stairs, which were dead steep. I have massive bruises in my leg. I haven’t been able to walk properly at work today. My arms are all covered in bruises.”
One attender wrote of the moment on X: “I’ve lost a lot of respect for Peter Kay after the way he treated the heckler … having him removed by force by his entourage, and cracking jokes bout it over the 3-4 mins it took. No manners. Huge waste of money.”
Another fan said the comedian “killed the atmosphere in the arena”, and called his actions “completely inappropriate and unacceptable”. Others said the exchange was “embarrassing” and “very harsh”.
However, there were fans who defended Kay’s actions. Jo Llewellyn, who was sitting near those ejected, told MailOnline: “The guy he chucked out absolutely deserved it. He was extremely drunk even before the show started and continued to make a nuisance of himself as the show went on.
“For those of us who sat beside him he ruined the gig. And as for the lady, she was a few seats behind and the people she sat next to also commented that she had been a huge pain and was disrupting the show for others.”
Llewellyn said she was glad the individuals were removed because they were spoiling the show for others. “And if people were so offended at the hecklers being chucked out, why did the crowd near them cheer loudly when they were removed?”
