Review for Peter Kay's Car Share

Peter Kay plays Assistant Manager John Redmond and Sian Gibson as Promo Rep Kayleigh Kitson who are participating in their company's car share program. On the way to and from work the two tell each other about their past, their day and what ever is on their mind at the time.

They talk about Dogging (or what Kayleigh thinks it is), Christmas, Death, Drinking, Japanese, trying to avoid picking up the smelly, fish counter worker Ray (played by the wonderful Reece Shearsmith), John's ex Charlotte, the sexy new Trolly assistant amongst other things.

The other star of this show is quite clearly the radio. Tuned to Forever FM, old songs trigger memories and comedic moments between the two and the barrage of adverts reminds me of the old Radio Active radio show (Think I'm showing my age there). At times, I did feel like this was just a cheap way to get laughs with adverts for Sheds, Sausages, Weightstoppers, traffic reports and news, though they did make me smile.

Music is also a big part of the show with the characters singing various classic songs karaoke-style. There's a number of surreal moments such as Kayleigh recreating the Anastacia I'm Outta Love video, Cyndi Lauper True Colors or John singing Cliff Richard's Devil Woman amongst others and a funeral reading version of S Club 7's Reach which is just crazy.

Now, I'm not a fan of Peter Kay. I have never found him funny and I think there was always a feeling of smugness about his comedy talent like he thought he was funnier than he was. So when I received his new show I cringed at the thought, but I wiped the slate clean and came to it as if I didn't know who he was. And it worked.

There is a touch of genius to this show that almost felt like an update of the classic Alan Bennett Talking Heads. The simplicity of two people in a car talking is almost like the opening of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction with the two character's talking about what song they wanted at the funeral and love lives.

I really enjoyed everything about the show. There was a Seinfeld 'nothing happens' feel to it with the plots to each episode being so simple that if you asked me to describe them, I couldn't. The throughline of the show is the simmering relationship between John and Kayleigh that will hopefully continue in the next series. By the end I was disappointed there was only six episodes and wanted to watch more.

The lack of any extras is a little disappointing as this is one of the few times when I actually wanted to hear more from Kay about his work. A commentary would have been great and I can't believe there isn't hours of outtakes from the creation of the show?

Peter Kay's Car Share is a wonderfully simple show and that is why it works. I pressed 'Play All' and spent three hours not bored, not wanting to fast forward or switch off, it was just a wonderful time to enjoy every moment of a perfectly created show. Bring on Series Two.