Peter Kay records theatre cameo

Peter Kay has recorded a part as a "muckmiser" at the local sewage works

Comedian Peter Kay has returned to the theatre where he worked in the box office before he was famous, to record a voice-over for its latest play.

Kay will be heard in Lighthearted Intercourse at the Bolton Octagon.

Maxine Peake, who started her acting career at the theatre, also returned to record lines as Kay's character's wife.

The play is a new version of one written by Bill Naughton. He was most famous for writing Alfie, which later became a film starring Michael Caine.

Lighthearted Intercourse has only been staged once, in Liverpool in 1971. In that production, William Roache, better known as Coronation Street's Ken Barlow, took the lead role as a young married man in 1920s Bolton.

Kay and Peake, who both hail from the town, have recorded parts as a "muckmiser" at the local sewage works and his wife.

Peake returned to the venue where she made her professional debut in 1998's Early One Morning

Bolton Octagon artistic director David Thacker said: "It's a real pleasure for us to have Maxine and Peter back here at the Octagon.

"Both have a history at the theatre - Maxine's first professional production was at the Octagon and Peter worked in the box office - so it's great that they wanted to return for this project."

Naughton, who died in 1992, described the play as a "high comedy in low places" - but he was never completely happy with the finished product.

His widow Erna has now given Thacker a dozen draft scripts, as well as notes left by Naughton, in order to create a new version.

Thacker said: "Though it retains the title from the Liverpool Playhouse version, Erna Naughton considers the Octagon's Lighthearted Intercourse to be a world premiere."

Naughton's other plays included Spring and Port Wine, which was turned into a film starring James Mason, and The Family Way, which was filmed with John and Hayley Mills.

Lighthearted Intercourse is at Bolton Octagon until 3 November.