Peter Kay, the national treasure from Bolton, returned to our screens this week with the first episode of the second series of his award winning sit-com, Peter Kay’s Car Share.  Second series syndrome(where things are a poor second effort) was nowhere to be seen here because this offering was absolutely faultless television.  It was interesting, captivating, but most of all it was really funny.

The writing was top-notch, together with the acting, editing and music.  If this first episode is anything to go by then I will be amazed if we don’t get to see a third series.  This show is that good, that I cannot praise it anymore than I am doing here.

The start of the second series continued from where the first series had ended, namely John(Peter Kay) listening and singing to Hearsay’s ‘Pure and simple’ song that Kayleigh(Sian Gibson) had given him via her NOW 48 CD.  Having now moved to her sister’s, Kayleigh kept ringing up John as she made her way into work via a walk, a bus journey and a tram ride.  Very early on the humour was coming at us, I am thinking here of when we heard Kayleigh pretend she was head of promotions whilst chatting to a woman on the bus.  For example, Kayleigh stated, ‘I’ve got to get a Christmas team together.  There’s a whole new range coming out this year that I’ve got to oversee, it’s not just about hanging balls these days’.  Sian Gibson is a brilliant comedy actress and is just as funny, if not funnier than Peter Kay is in this.

The beauty about this sit-com is that like all the best sit-coms in the history of this genre, it makes comedy and humour out of the mundane, i.e. them travelling to and from work.  During the course of this episode funny things happened that made me appreciate the high quality of the comic writing.  There was the odd funny play on words gag, however it is the situations that John and Kayleigh find themselves in that is at the heart of why this show works as well as it does.  Funny things that occurred included John having a row with a cyclist, this argument then going viral on Youtube, and an hilarious incident where he nearly picked up a strange looking woman by mistake when shouting to Kayleigh that he would give her a lift home.

The finer details also make this show very amusing.  Yet again we heard an unbelievably bad radio advert courtesy of Forever FM, that was that bad it was very funny.  One of the highlights of this episode was us seeing a fictitious street advert, promoting a new and upcoming reality TV show on Channel 4.  Accompanied with five people pictured in mining gear, the ad read, ‘Miner celebrities, they’ve finally hit rock bottom’.  It is just little touches like this that makes this show be as special as it is.

The episode ended on a touching note as John said he would pick Kayleigh up the next day, her great company making it worthwhile for him.  It was a glorious ending to a glorious comeback episode.  I still stand by what I said last year about this programme being the best British comedy since The Office, Cracking and sublime, I can’t wait for the next instalment! 5/5.