THERE'S something quiet surreal about being told by Dave Spikey that he's been voted Chorley's Face of Culture.

It sounds as though it's something straight out of Phoenix Nights, the award-winning comedy series Dave co-wrote and starred in with Peter Kay.

"No, it's true," he assures me. "And I really proud of the honour."

Dave, who is currently on his first solo stand-up tour, beat off competition from former England rugby captain Bill Beaumont and Olympic cyclist Jason Queally to top the poll, run by Chorley Borough Council and even had to contend with vote-rigging allegations!

"I didn't know anything about it but someone told me and the first time I looked I had about 350 votes. The next day it had gone up to 20,000. The council stopped the poll because there was a link on Peter Kay's website and someone had worked out a way of making each click count for more than one vote."

Once the poll was reopened Dave recorded an incredible 89,000 votes.

He said: "The idea is to raise the profile of the arts and to take workshops out into the villages around Chorley. I'm very happy to get involved with it. It really is an honour."

Being in the spotlight is something that Dave Spikey is having to get used to. He was nominated as Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards for his work on Phoenix Nights and That Peter Kay Thing and his first solo tour has been selling out venues all over, including two dates next week at King George's Hall in Blackburn -- not bad going for the former head of the Royal Bolton Hospital's haematology department.

Dave used to regard comedy as a hobby. He would write sketches for the likes of Russ Abbott and The Grumbleweeds.

Then came a momentous appearance on the talent show New Faces when, as one half of comedy duo Spikey and Sykey, he came fifth out of six.

"Rather than stick with something we knew, we came up with a brand new routine -- we were dreadful," he said.

Undeterred, Dave then went solo and became a popular act on the thriving Manchester comedy circuit. But he was still working full time at the hospital.

In 1997 he asked part-time cinema usher Peter Kay to help him write some links for the daytime quiz show Chain Letters, which he had been asked to host -- and the seeds of Phoenix Nights were sown.

Channel 4 commissioned a series of Phoenix Nights and it immediately presented Dave with a problem.

"I was on 30 days' annual leave, so I took 60 afternoons off to write and record the series. I'll never forget it."

The phenomenal success of that series led Dave to take the decision to concentrate on comedy full time.

"It wouldn't have been fair on the hospital to take my entire holiday in afternoons again."

For anyone who hasn't seen the show, Phoenix Nights is set in a working men's club in Bolton and part of its success is due to the acutely-observed script.

"The attention to detail is the thing," he says. "We would record scenes several times over until we had it exactly right. It used to drive the cast mad."

Now Dave is leaving the confines of the Phoenix Club and his character Jerry St Clair behind and setting out as himself.

"To be honest, I've been panicking like mad," he confesses. "I have a different problem every week. What are people expecting? Are people just coming to see Jerry? My show won't be me being Jerry, although if things go well I have the option of bringing him on as an encore."

As well as working on the ironically-titled Overnight Success Tour, where the support act will be fellow Phoenix Nights regular Justin Moorhouse, Dave is putting the finishing touches to his latest idea for a series.

"It's set in a local newspaper office where each week the staff manage to miss the big story, usually because they're too busy writing horoscopes or making up the agony column.

"I've been writing it for about three years on and off and several production companies have shown an interest."

As for Phoenix Nights, Dave is unsure what will happen to the Phoenix Club and Jerry St Clair.

"There will be a spin off series with Max and Paddy (the two bouncers in the show) and that may lead to a Christmas special or possibly a third series. It really depends on Peter."

Since the end of the last series Peter Kay has undertaken a 128-date sell-out national tour.

"Peter and I are still good mates," said Dave. "But with his tour and now my tour it has forced us apart and I haven't had chance to see him since he started his tour."

But in the short term Chorley's new face of culture is more concerned about audiences enjoying a night in his company.

Dave Spikey plays King George's Hall next Saturday and Sunday. Both dates are sold out.