Writing in his forthcoming memoir TV: Big Adventures on the Small Screen, a follow-up to his best-selling 2007 autobiography The Sound of Laughter, Kay said that he could imagine bringing back Potter for a feature film.

“I still write down ideas. I had an idea only today of Brian getting Young Kenny to paint an enormous letter ‘H’ on the roof of the club so he can advertise they’ve got a helicopter pad,” writes Kay, according to extracts published by The Sun.

“The chance of a helicopter ever landing is, of course, zero,” he goes on. “As the years pass, I’m becoming more like Brian, but if Phoenix Nights rose again it’d have to be for something very special, maybe a film? Perhaps Brian could get visited by three ghosts. Now, wouldn’t that be an idea?