Peter Kay

Although Peter Kay has spent 2018 out of the spotlight due to what the comic has described as "unforeseen family circumstances", he has still managed to put out the final two episodes of his beloved Bafta-winning sitcom. The first, Car Share: Unscripted, was a hit-and-miss improvised episode that included a joke some viewers considered transphobic. Will this overall finale be a more decisive hit? And will John (Kay) and Kayleigh (Sian Gibson) drive off into the sunset?

TV Preview, Peter Kay's Car Share

Always charming, funny and worth watching. This final episode caps a hugely successful era for an inventive and risk-taking writer/performer.

Peter Kay's Car Share risks harming its legacy

I still have enough faith in his comedic integrity for there to be several testing bends and large potholes in the road yet for John and Kayleigh. The course of true love never did run smooth, especially on the ring-roads of Greater Manchester.

The show [Peter Kay's Car Share] is known for its gentle observational comedy (gags about local commercial radio, street signs, workplace jargon) and romantic sub-plot about whether the couple will eventually cop off. The penultimate edition had a USP of being improvised, but it made a different splash when the trans community had a Twitter hissy about a chat in which the pair listen to a "Your Song" radio feature in which a woman requests More Than a Woman in priase of her husband, who transitioned. They barrack the story, leading objectors including Peter Tatchell to argue that the BBC was encouraging transphobia.

An obvious response is that the actors were in character, and it seems a reasonable possibility that two north-west retail employees would not necessarily have got with the gender fluidity programme. Also, Gibson, realising that Kay had thrown a nuclear spud into the discussion, is careful to, in modern parlance, call him out for being so "harsh" about people.

Even so, it seems extraordinary that the BBC, which traditionally sees its remit as caution, should have ended up being more provocative about the most controversial contemporary topic than C4 [broadcasting Genderquake the same week], which boasts a licence to provoke.

The solution to this conundrum lies in the BBC1 show's title. Being "unscripted", it missed out on the editorial phase during which the BBC bosses do most of their cleaning work. By the time they saw the trans gaff, the only option was to cut it from the finished product - a far more radical act of censorship than at script discussion stage.

So the subject proved expectedly controversial in an unexpected place, but the big question - of whether one community should be permitted a veto on media coverage of itself - remains stubbornly unresolved.

Peter Kay's Care Share unscripted review

The joy of the show was that he made a scripted show look like it was unscripted - and that's enough to make anyone drive off at the wrong exit. We look forward to normal, pothole-free transmission returning in the near future.

Peter Kay's Car Share Unscripted review

I am pleased to state that I absolutely loved it.

Why's Car Share picking on trans people for laughs?

Hate crime against LGBT people is on the rise, and right now the trans community need as many allies as they can get.

Peter Kay's Car Share Unscripted, review

Beautifully mundane but you miss the drive of a plot.

Peter Kay's Car Share Unscripted: hilarious & touching

What a lovely amuse-bouche this was as we eagerly await the main course - the very last episode of the Bafta award-winning Car Share, which is broadcast later this month.

Car Share unscripted review

With lines straight out of Phoenix Nights, the new episode makes you love John and Kayleigh even more.