ST HELENS comedian Johnny Vegas is lining up with the best of them for a BBC documentary due to be screened in the New Year.

For Johnny, alias Mike Pennington, alias failed Butlin's performer and drunk potter, will be featured in 'Laughing Stock' on Close Up North on BBC 2 on Thursday, January 6 at 7.30pm.

The programme, which also features Steve Coogan, John Thomson, Henry Normal and Peter Kay, takes a look at the new generation of comedy stars to come from the North West in the 1990s.

It is being presented by Radio One's Mark Radcliffe and looks at how the region has produced some of the most innovative and funniest comedy stars of recent years and profiles some of the emerging talent.

Steve Coogan says of Johnny: "I remember seeing Johnny Vegas for the first time and he knocked me off my feet because he was confident but very different. You didn't feel that he was copying anyone else."

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