Paddy McGuinness shuts down work misconception and insists he’s ‘busiest he’s ever been’-Josie Copson-Entertainment – Metro

Paddy Mcguinness is busy (Picture: Nicky Johnston/Comic Relief via Getty Images)

After spotting untrue discourse, Paddy McGuinness wants to set the record straight on his career.

The 50-year-old comedian is booked and busy with an upcoming stand-up tour Nearly There…, presenting a Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 2, and over on the medium of TV, he has taken over from Gregg Wallace on Inside The Factory.

He’s also hitting the road with former Top Gear co-star Chris Harris on a travel show, currently titled Paddy and Chris: Road Trippin. While his gameshow, Tempting Fortune, is the only entertainment launch in 2023 that has been recommissioned for a second series on Channel 4.

24 years after playing a bouncer on Peter Kay’s Phoneix Nights, Paddy is doing well for himself but finds not everyone acknowledges his workload.

‘I was reading a few weeks back about how I didn’t have any work, and I was like “What? I’m the busiest I’ve ever been”,’ he told Metro.co.uk.

‘It’s weird, if you’re not on TV constantly then everybody thinks you’re not working. 

‘Sometimes it can wind you up, but I’ve been doing this so long, so 90% of the time I just think it is what it is.

Peter and Paddy as their fictional characters Max and Paddy (Picture: Mark Campbell/Shutterstock)

‘I eat a pot of Onken yoghurt to feel better,’ Paddy, who is working with the food brand on their latest campaign, added with a laugh.

It’s not just this ability to please those employing him that has kept him in the job so long, but, of course, his comedic bones.

There are certain people who could make reading out the contents of a phone book a giggle, and Paddy is one of them.

During our interview, his Zoom call chatter (‘I know everyone puts themselves as though they’re sat on a beach in Barbados. I don’t mind that. The one that freaks me out is when people do the blurred background. I’m like, “What are they trying to hide?”’), and a new obsession with honey (‘You know you can get wine and coffee snobs, I’m getting like that with honey. I’m looking at where they are from, and their properties. I’ve just got into crunchy honey. I want to try Urban honey, which is made by bees in the city.’) stays in our head long after we put down the phone, causing us to snigger on the tube ride home.

His natural ability to find the funny in everything – whether consciously or unconsciously – was clear from day dot.

While working as an actor on Phoneix Nights, Peter gave his childhood friend Paddy the life-changing opportunity to submit material. While already balancing his job as a fitness instructor at a council leisure centre with his scenes, he also had lofty ambitions to write.

During one shift, on council-headed notepaper, Paddy wrote a sketch that involved drunk Butt Wanderers fans getting off a coach and trying to get into the social club.

‘Peter loved it. What you see with that scene was verbatim how I wrote it,’ he recalled.

‘When I look back at Phoenix Nights, I think: “God, that was such a good thing to be a part of.” I was carefree, living in the moment, and having fun. I never really appreciated what we were doing. It’s only now when I look back that I wish I really soaked that up and enjoyed it. You appreciate things more as you get older.’

Although he jokingly shares one grope: ‘There were no writing fees though, which I still mention to Peter to this day.’

It wasn’t long before Paddy was able to hang up his whistle and grace the small screen full-time.

Paddy was left scratching his head (Picture: BBC / Thames / Ray Burmiston / Matt Burlem)

However, as with most careers, Paddy’s one hasn’t come without knockbacks, especially in the currently precarious TV industry where budgets are being slashed and programmes, even those with strong ratings, are being pulled from schedules. Paddy recently found himself ‘scratching his head’ when I Can See Your Voice was paused. The series saw competitors guess if people were miming their real voice, or bluffing. Paddy pointed out that while entertainment shows are costly, he thought the BBC show could make it.

‘That one for me was a head-scratcher because the fact of the matter is it used to win its slot every week. I still scratch my head on things, and wonder why we couldn’t have made it work,’ he shared.

‘It’s something I don’t really get stressed out about too much because in my job, you’ve got to have a thick skin and if something comes back, brilliant.’

Paddy has enjoyed working on many of his shows (Picture: Geoff Pugh/Shutterstock)

If he could bring it back he would, and there are some others on his list too – Take Me Out, Top Gear, Question of Sport, and The Keith and Paddy Picture Show.

For now, he’s got the relaunch of Inside The Factory, which is a full circle moment for Paddy, who worked at the Warbutons factory from at 16. Although Paddy hated it, he made it clear that it was the 6 am wakeups, walking five and a half miles in the rain to work, cleaning machines all day and then heading home in the dark, and not the bread itself.

On the bright side, the experience taught him a valuable lesson about never taking for granted fulfilment at work. One way that he finds joy is by collaborating with people he likes being around, and that was his experience on Top Gear with Chris and Freddie Flintoff.

‘We had that thing where we knew what each other was thinking without having to ask. When you get that chemistry it’s great,’ recalled Paddy.

Top Gear has since been rested after Freddie was taken to hospital in December 2022 and was left with facial and rib injuries following a crash at a test track at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.

With Paddy and Chris reuniting without him, we ask if they’ll be checking in with him while together. ‘I think Fred’s still on his recovery, but obviously, we’re always there for each other so whenever he’s ready, he’s ready,’ he stated.

Paddy says the men knew what each other were thinking (Picture: PA)

With all of his programmes, Paddy told us that the world is a critic, but for him, some people’s approval means more to him than most – he seeks the laughter of his children Leo and Penelope, 10, and Felicity, seven, with former long-term partner Christine McGuinness.

‘It’s an honest laugh. Kids’ laughter is amazing,’ he explained.

‘My kids think I’m funny but not in the way an audience would. It’s because I’m the one who does all the daft silly games and they like climbing all over me and everything else. I think 10-year-olds are about on my IQ.’

Paddy and Christine have three children together (Picture: David Fisher/Shutterstock)

While he is no longer with Christine, 36, the spouses remain under the same roof but in separate bedrooms. While some may consider it an unusual situation, Paddy said it is a household still full of laughter.

‘We are a very, very happy house. It’s just normal like like anyone else really. It’s pretty much happy most of the time. There’s always someone giggling or getting into something,’ he shared.

Perhaps, one day we could see him on his former dating show, Take Me Out, where men have to impress 30 women who can turn their light off if they no longer find the suitor desirable. Put simply by the show’s catchprase – no likey, no lighty. Paddy joked if he was taking part he’d try to impress the ladies with his ‘really good’ mashed potatoes.

Paddy presented Take Me Out between 2010 and 2019 (Picture: ITV / Thames / Fremantle)

Presenting a dating show also had the benefit of teaching Paddy about human nature, and discovering a lot of people share one thing in common.

‘I learned that no matter what people looked like, or what they did for a living, everyone has the same insecurities.’

He continued: ‘I cared about that show and the people on it. It was before the days of six packs and everyone looked amazing in bikinis on Love Island. Take Me Out was a show for everyone.’

However, one thing still baffles him – why the women would turn off their lights when a man revealed he still lived at home. ‘I was brought up by a single parent. If my mum, God rest her soul, was still alive, I think I’d still be at home now. I liked it. I used to look at these girls and think: “What’s the problem?”’ he inquisitively asked.

Paddy has teamed up with Onken (Picture: Michael Leckie)

Paddy has teamed up with Onken on their Feed Your Inner Happiness campaign, which found that the most stressful time of the day is 8:15 am. Paddy can understand how they came to that conclusion, as this is usually when school-run chaos is happening.

‘I’m always the person looking at the other parents thinking: “How the hell did you manage to get them in on time?”

‘No matter how organised I try to be, it just never quite works out that way. If I can have a relatively stress-free morning getting the kids into school then the rest of the day seems to take care of itself,’ he shared. Paddy has now provided his own tongue-in-cheek time-saving tips.

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