Slapstick, tears and a surprise appearance from Peter Kay – Car Share, the finale, review

If the love in the room at the Opera House on Saturday evening could have been harnessed, it would surely power the Blackpool Illuminations for years to come. As comic Peter Kay came on stage unannounced to introduce a charity screening of the finale of his BBC One comedy Car Share, the audience gave him a lengthy and loud ovation. 

The Bolton comic is at home here – Blackpool has hosted some of his most successful stand-up shows – but the 3,000-strong audience knew Kay has been going through it of late; last December he announced he was cancelling his mammoth 2018 tour “due to unforeseen family circumstances”.

Looking tanned and trimmer than he appears in Car Share, Kay responded to the cheers and shouts of  “I love you” by jokingly telling the sellout crowd, who had snapped up their tickets within minutes of them going on sale:  “All right, all right, calm down.” 

He continued: “Enjoy the last ever episode of Car Share and don’t tell anyone the end. And don’t tell anyone about any hedgehogs.” The latter is a set-up to a fantastic slow-burn gag in the finale.

The audience took their seats as the fictional “fourth-best radio station in the North West” Forever FM – always on in John’s beloved red Fiat 500, in which he drives Kayleigh (Sian Gibson) to work each day – was playing. Its mix of Eighties power ballads, cheesy chat and ads for cruddy local businesses is deliciously observed.

First up was an unscripted episode in which Kay and Gibson were filmed in the car, riffing on anything that came into their heads, including the constituents of a club sandwich. “What does the ‘u’ stand for?” Kayleigh asked a mystified John. “I mean, there’s chicken, lettuce and bacon, but what’s the ‘u’?”

It could have been horribly indulgent (and clearly they were trying to corpse each other) but Kay and Gibson, who met at college more than 20 years ago, have an obvious rapport and  inhabit their characters – no-nonsense John and romantic Kayleigh – so well that it was a joy.

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Before the finale was shown, we saw a rerun of the last episode of the second series. Its inconclusive ending – when Kayleigh declared her love for John and, upset at his lack of a response, stepped out of his car and, seemingly, his life – dismayed many viewers.

The finale picks up the story the next day as a sorrowful John delivers a package to Kayleigh’s home after bombarding her with unanswered texts.

In a finely constructed half-hour of drama Kay immediately sets up tension for the viewer. Will Kayleigh’s brother-in-law (Guy Garvey in the only other speaking role) forget to deliver the package, which contains a love song – cue a spot-on boy-band spoof in a fantasy video sequence – or will the ditsy Kayleigh forget to listen to it?

It’s just the first of many feints and false alarms (there’s lots of talk of a wedding, and my stomach lurched when John had a coughing fit at the wheel – was Kay going to kill him off?) in an episode that is by turns poignant and laugh-out-loud funny as these two losers in love edge warily try to mend what has been broken.

But Kay knows not to tug too strongly at the heartstrings; any time sentimentality hoves into view, it is quickly undercut by joke about trumping or one about a poo that’s unrepeatable in a family newspaper.

The finale is also full of throwaway lines and gags – many of them blink-and-you-miss-it, so the episode will repay multiple viewings – and there are two lengthy pieces of slapstick (one involving the unmentionable hedgehog).  Kay, a gifted comic, draws out the set pieces with multiple payoffs that keep topping each other.

But enough of that, I hear you cry, do John and Kayleigh walk away into the sunset together? No spoilers, but there is resolution of sorts, just not the one anybody might have predicted. I do, however, predict tears for viewers.

The two episodes will be shown on BBC1 in May. Don’t miss them.