Back in 2017, Peter Kay cancelled his entire tour - which was set to be his first live tour in eight years - due to 'unforeseen family circumstances'.

In a statement issued at the time, he said: "My sincerest apologies... I'm sure you'll understand that my family must always come first. I've always endeavoured to protect my family's privacy from the media. I hope that the media and the public will continue to respect our privacy at this time. Once again, I'm very sorry."

Since then, the comedian has essentially retired from public life and has rarely been spotted. In April of this year, he posed for pictures on a tram tour in Blackpool, but has generally kept a low profile.

However, over the weekend he was both spotted in London at a panto, 'Nativity: The Musical', and issued a statement regarding a documentary that had aired about him on UK station Channel 5.

One of the stars of the musical posted the below picture to Twitter:

Kay broke his months-long social media silence by denouncing Channel 5's 'Peter Kay: In His Own Words', which stitched together old footage of the comedian's performances and interviews.

"Very flattering of Channel 5 to commission the programme going out tonight but just to let people know that 'Peter Kay: In His Own Words' has an incredibly misleading title, as it doesn't feature any new interviews with Peter and all the footage is completely historic," it read. "The title gives the impression that Peter has been involved in the making of this documentary which he hasn't. At all."

Despite all of this, there is no word on if or when Kay will make a return to the stage or the screen. The last TV show that he was involved with was 'Car Share', which ended in May 2018.