COMEDIAN Bob Williamson has been enjoying an unexpected moment in the spotlight thanks to Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights TV show.

The lanky Bolton entertainer (he's 6ft 4in and nene-and-a-half stone) has been featured twice in the latest series as a hapless "turn" who fails to impress wheelchair-bound Brian Potter (Peter Kay) and club colleagues.

But, although Bob is grateful for the exposure, he has no plans to revive a career which brought him widespread recognition in the 1970s and 80s.

"I am the only stand-up comic who can't," he said.

Bob was part of the 1970s folk/comedy boom which included Jasper Carrott, Mike Harding, Billy Connolly and Bernard Wrigley.

The former postman made records, appeared on television and radio, made lots of showbusiness friends and developed a stage act which he performed in clubs and concert halls throughout the country and abroad.

But in the early 1990s he suffered a nervous breakdown, brought on by stage fright, and eight years ago he slipped on the stairs at his Tonge Fold home, causing serious damage to his back. These days he needs constant pain killers and lives on invalidity benefit. He accepts his current situation with brave humour. On the variety of medicines he now has to take, he quipped: "When they bury me they will need a child-proof lid on the coffin."

Bob, who is now 54, is seen in separate editions of Phoenix Nights with a singing plastic polar bear and a toy monkey which sings "Hey Macarena" while he points and sways nearby.

It turns out that the monkey used to belong to Bob's mother, Dorothy, and it now lives with Bob along with various other items.

Peter Kay rang him up one day because he knew Bob collected "silly things".

When Bob told him about the singing monkey, he was asked to take it along to filming one Sunday morning at St Gregory's social club in Farnworth.

He did not really expect to be filmed, but suddenly found himself doing the 30-second sequences without a rehearsal.

As the cameraman urged him to keep going lower, he felt the pain in his back. He says he was like "an ironing board" for three days afterwards.

"I ended up like Richard the Third. It was doing my back no good at all," he said, not long after confusing a young waitress by asking for "corporation pop".

Bob appreciated the reminder of past glory days with "a great bunch of lads" and, like most people, is greatly impressed by Peter Kay's talent.

But he knows he could not cope physically with all the standing around he would have to do if his career was to be revived.

So he enjoys being recognised again, but that's as far as it goes.

"This is the last time the monkey and I will be seen in public," he joked as he posed for a photograph.