‘It’s pure and simple’ as the pop group Hearsay sang at the end of the final episode of the series,  in my opinion ‘Peter Kay’s Car Share’ is the best British TV comedy since ‘The Office’ first aired.  High praise indeed some might say but it is the undoubted truth in my view.

Although different in so many ways to one another, as soon as I saw the opening credits to ‘Peter Kay’s Car Share’ then it did remind me a bit of ‘The Office’. Both also have this very naturalistic feel to them. By this I mean the comedy is not forced in any way and we are privileged observers of them mundanely at work or travelling to work.  The humour arises out of the mundane and the everyday though and it is largely why both shows are so brilliant.

I love comedian Peter Kay so was a bit apprehensive when first watching this sit-com.  I knew the critics would love slaughtering him if this was a below-par effort. Furthermore, as a keen watcher of British soaps operas through the years, I have never really enjoyed episodes that focused solely on just two or three characters in the same scene throughout.  By the end of episode two though(I missed the first one) I had enjoyed this car share experience immensely.  I found the thirty minutes whizzed by so quickly and the ‘dogging joke’  near the end really made me laugh. It definitely made a positive first impression on me.

I guess it was at the start of episode three that made me first sit up and take notice of just what fantastic comedy actress Sian Gibson is.  Starring as supermarket promotions airhead Kayleigh, she nearly had me jumping out of my chair with laughter as she drunkenly fell over trying to get into the car.  I have not seen Sian in anything else which I can not believe because she is such a great comedic talent.  The funniest episode for me was episode four and I literally had tears rolling down my face when she had an hilarious aquaphobic panic attack in a car wash.  Peter Kay’s character John(assistant supermarket manager) was equally as funny in this scene too. His startled reaction to her panic attack was comedy gold.

The key to this comedy being so enjoyable was without doubt the on screen chemistry that existed between Sian Gibson and Peter Kay.  I have read that they hold a genuine friendship off camera so this therefore transmitted itself beautifully on camera.  There was no awkward acting or ill timed pauses between the pair. The banter and interplay between them just came across so naturally.  I guess the highest compliment I can play to them both as performers is that most of all I believed them as characters. I forgot for thirty minutes each episode that this was the great comic Peter Kay doing some acting. I saw him as John and Sian as Kayleigh, just two ordinary supermarket employees chatting as they traveled to work.

The car radio was a joy to behold in the episodes.  It helped serve to punctuate the dialogue, generate humour and as well as motivating more dialogue.  The music on the radio also helped generate moods, as music by its very nature does.  At times the tunes featured gave the show a certain kind of poignancy.  I am thinking of say when the shots of people busily going to work were shown, alongside some emotive tune. I could be looking too deeply into this but for me such sequences were all about emphasising the perpetual ‘rat race’ aspect of modern day life.

I loved the ‘will they or won’t they’ storyline element that featured throughout the last episode.  During the course of the six episodes they had become really close as characters as they had gradually got to know one another a lot more.  I found the ending sweet, endearing and extremely moving. I was dying for them to loving embrace one another but I guess it was better to end the way it did, leaving us wanting more.

As the ending credits rolled I was sat there grinning like a Cheshire cat, having loved the brilliant completion to a series that I absolutely loved.  I was just gutted it is over though. I wish series two was starting next week.  You know when a television show makes you feel like this then you just have to tell the whole wide world what a belter it was. TV COMEDY DOES NOT GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS……… IT IS THAT ‘PURE AND SIMPLE’ AS HEARSAY SAY!