BOLTON funny man Peter Kay has smashed box office records at the Manchester Evening News Arena with his long awaited return to stand up comedy.

Originally four nights were scheduled for his Tour That Doesn’t Tour – Tour in April next year, but the frenzy for tickets forced the comedian and arena bosses to hastily add extra nights for fans to see one of Britain’s best loved comedians.

Now Kay will be taking up residency at the arena for an unprecedented 20 night run through April and May – with all 20 nights selling out within an hour of tickets going on sale to the general public.

Hundreds of fans queued up at the Arena since 6am this morning for tickets and the comedian even had 100 pasties delivered to the eager crowd.

General Manager of the M.E.N Arena, John Knight said: "We could have kept going, but there were just no other dates available at the arena to extend the run any further.

"The Tour That Doesn’t Tour – Tour is exclusive to the M.E.N Arena, and people are coming to Manchester from all over the country to see Peter Kay’s first live performances in 7 years."

Peter Kay said: "It really is hard to comprehend. I was apprehensive about going back on tour after such a long time, but the response has been completely overwhelming.

"I want to say thank you to everybody who has bought tickets and I promise to give them a crackin’ show. I might even don my old stewards jacket and show a few of them to their seats."

The 20 night run eclipses anything which the arena has seen in its 15 year history. The previous longest run by any act was Take That’s 11 nights in December 2007.