How Car Share’s Peter Kay drove co-star to hysterics with a look

PETER Kay’s Car Share co-star Sian Gibson has admitted most of the laughter in their soon-to-be-aired improvised episode is ‘completely genuine’ because the pair ‘find the same things funny’.
The duo return with the one-off Car Share Unscripted show on Monday, but this time their comic alter-egos John and Kayleigh are ad-libbing the entire episode.
Kay said he wanted to try it because it is ‘something original’, adding that he ‘couldn’t think of any other narrative comedies that have ever made a fully improvised episode’.
The pair also wanted to try going entirely scriptless because it’s something they often slip into anyway when filming.
But the strategy did have its down sides — Sian said it was hard not to corpse in the middle of filming because Peter is so funny.
‘We were always laughing, and nearly all of the laughter you see in Car Share is completely genuine,’ she said.
‘Peter knows how to make me laugh with just a look, so he constantly makes me giggle.’
Kay explained that, without a script, they ‘just reacted to whatever came on the radio and just went with it, good or bad’.
He added that is was ‘absolutely wonderful’ hearing an audience at a recent screening in Blackpool react to the episode after the comic took a break for ‘unforeseen family reasons’ last autumn.
Last year, Car Share ended on an emotional cliffhanger as John failed to reciprocate Kayleigh’s advances and viewers were upset when Kay said he did not plan to write any further series.
But the comic clearly thought better of it, later announcing both a finale, which will reveal what happens next for the pair, and this improvised episode.
Peter Kay’s Car Share Unscripted will air on BBC One at 10pm on Monday May 7
Author: Anna Thomson