Emmerdale star Lisa Riley has reacted to a joke that comedian Peter Kay made on stage which appeared to reference her, saying that she is “not offended”.
Metro has reported that Kay’s live show at Manchester’s AO Arena over the weekend was interrupted by two hecklers, with a man reportedly having shouted Kay’s famous phrase “garlic bread” at him multiple times.
It adds that a woman later called out, “We love you Peter Kay”, to which Kay responded with “Go on, off you go, Lisa Riley”.
Kay has since spoken out about his reason for making the comment during his Better Late Than Never (Again) tour, telling Good Morning Britain that he “didn’t realise that was an insult”.
“The lady who was ejected did look remarkably like Lisa Riley, I don’t know how that is an insult,” he said.
Riley, who plays Mandy Dingle on Emmerdale, has since reacted to Kay’s comment by sharing an Instagram post of a ‘Keep calm and laugh’ graphic, accompanying it with the caption, “It’s a laugh, it’s funny!!!”
She later shared a statement on her Instagram Stories directly addressing Kay’s comments, in which she confirmed that she “never was offended” by the reports of what happened at the gig.
“PLEASE draw a line under this now, I am not offended, never was offended,” she wrote. “I love Peter Kay to pieces. Laughter is my favourite medicine.”
Later this week, Riley’s character Mandy will find herself in terrible danger when she is caught up in the dramatic double limo crash on Valentine’s Day.
Mandy is a passenger in one of the cars, which is carrying a group of the village’s women off for a night out. With a different limo taking some of Emmerdale’s men out, both vehicles are involved in separate terrifying incidents which see the limos crash off the road.
With one of the cars trapped on a frozen lake, one mystery villager ends up in the icy water – will they survive the ordeal? And could any of the other injured passengers lose their lives in the disaster?