Is This The Way To Aberystwyth - Tony Christie Featuring Peter Kay Version

Tony Christie Featuring Peter Kay Version

In 2002, Tony Christie's version was used in the British comedy series Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights. The song was re-released on 14 March 2005 to raise money for the Comic Relief charity, with an accompanying video where Peter Kay Lip-synced the song accompanied by various celebrities including Brian May, Roger Taylor, Shakin' Stevens, Shaun Ryder, Bez, Paddy McGuiness, Michael Parkinson, Heather Mills, Danny Baker, Ronnie Corbett, Mr Blobby, Jim Bowen, look-alikes of Cliff Richard (the same lookalike is used in the Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights spin off, Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere) and Mahatma Gandhi, William Roache, Anne Kirkbride, Sally Lindsay, Jimmy Savile, Bernie Clifton, Keith Harris and Orville the Duck, Sooty, Sweep, Geoffrey Hayes and Bungle and Tony Christie himself. Within the first few cameos, Max and Paddy from Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights and its spin-off appear together, arguing and eventually fighting in the Granada studios corridor. This is one of many appearances of characters from Peter Kay's TV series, including Paddy's tennis playing cell mate Cliff (Cliff Richard lookalike) from Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, and both a midget football team and Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights. The video consists almost entirely of Kay walking towards the camera flanked by different pairings of the celebrities, in front of increasingly bizarre and unlikely backgrounds. This time the song reached number 1 in the UK chart and remained there for 7 weeks selling and became the UK's best-selling single of 2005. It has sold over 1.31 million copies as of November 2012.

During its 2005 success the song was credited in chart rundowns and other media appearances to "Tony Christie featuring Peter Kay". However, Kay does not appear on the record, since it is a re-issue of the 1971 version and not a re-recording.

Chart Performance

Spin-offs / spoofs

BBC One's This Week used a parody of Kay's video, starring presenter Andrew Neil, for its opening titles in the run-up to the 2005 election.

On 13 May 2005, another spoof video of the song made by the Royal Dragoon Guards stationed in Iraq was emailed so frequently it crashed a server at the Ministry of Defence. The spoof was entitled "Is This The Way To Armadillo" .

On 6 August 2006, Riverton Rover Crew also did an award winning spoof of the Tony Christie video.

On 2 July 2005, Peter Kay, joined by the crowd, sang an excerpt of this song a cappella, before introducing The Who at Live 8's London concert. Before this, at a 4 May 2005 concert by Queen + Paul Rodgers at the Manchester Evening News Arena, Kay and his regular co-star Paddy McGuinness led the crowd in an impromptu rendition while they introduced the band's encore. The pair were later invited back on stage to take a bow with the band at the end of the show.