Sian Gibson

Sian Gibson: I had given up on acting before Car Share

The star of the BAFTA-nominated comedy on how Peter Kay resurrected her acting career.

Sian Gibson interview

She had started working at the call centre as a temporary job but ended up staying four years.
Sian revealed: "I sort of fell out of acting really. I definitely lost my confidence."

A consciously old-fashioned comedy one-off, with Catherine Tate and Miles Jupp as a couple whose stay in a honeymoon suite might save their marriage, if only ludicrous circumstance doesn't nobble them. There's quality throughout the cast, with Steve Edge and Car Share's Sian Gibson as the hotel staff, but farce is hard to write and this script falls well short. The pace doesn't gather, nothing anyone does is plausible, and the dialogue is littered with dead lines. Cringeworthy, in the wrong way.

Sian Gibson interview

A call from her old university friend Peter Kay saw Sian Gibson go from answering phones to starring as Kayleigh in his latest hit comedy. In her first interview, she tells Alice Jones about hanging out with Kay, her new sitcom role with Catherine Tate - and why she still can't take herself seriously.

Sometimes the simplest things work best. Car Share is essentially a two-hander about fortysomethings John and Kayleigh; Peter Kay is grumpy singleton John, the manager of a Lancashire superstore, Kayleigh (Sian Gibson) one of his staff whose life, despite her ambition and hard work, seems to be going nowhere. Forced to share their daily commute by their employers, the two at first seemed ill matched, but through the six episodes a touching love story emerges - and the audience see long before them that John and Kayleigh are made for each other.

It was fantastic comedy too, with many of the harder laughs coming from the radio station Kayleigh insisted John's radio should be tuned to - Forever FM - with its atrocious local ads and a slew of Eighties hits they sang along to. There were also wry laughs from the contrast of John's world-weariness with Kayleigh lack of worldliness, not least when she was terribly confused that a man whose handle on a dating site was "Pussy Lover" was not fond of cats.... I initially had my doubts about the fantasy sequences, but theye were sparingly and well used. It's an exquisite piece of work - beautifully written by Paul Coleman and Tim Reid, with contributions from Gibson and Kay (who also directed) - a subtle, slow-burn romance that made viewers laugh and cry, and demanded to be watched again immediately to savour its worth.

Radio Times review

Radio Times Top 40 TV Shows of 2015, #34:

What a comeback! Fears that Peter Kay would never return to equal Phoenix Nights were dismissed when his long-awaited, single-scene sitcom about two carpooling colleagues surprised everyone not just with how funny it was, but how affecting. Kay and the tremendous Sian Gibson sketched out a pair of apparently very different strangers who, the instant they were forced to know each other, discovered common ground and were good-hearted enough to run with it. Noticing them fall in love before they realised it themselves was one of the year's most cheering spectacles.

We loved absolutely everything about Peter Kay's latest vehicle (the comedy, not the car he drives in the series). It's a simple premise, two work colleagues are thrown together as part of a car share scheme and the comedy is confined to the car as the two travel to and from work each day. Much like The Royle Family before it, it's such a genius premise you can't believe it hasn't been done before. Peter Kay and Sian Gibson played off one another with complete ease. Car Share feels like an instant comedy classic. We just wanted to spend time with John and Kayleigh!

Peter Kay's Car Share, a new comedy, restored my faith in television's ability to be something more than just a cattle prod to sell stuff. Kay plays John, a supermarket worker who has been enrolled in his work's car share scheme. It means that twice a day he has to spend 15 minutes or so, there and back, in the company of Kayleigh (Sian Gibson), a virtual stranger. The whole thing takes place in the car, consisting of their chit-chat, the imbecilic radio ads and some wonderful/abhorrent Nineties music (depending on your view of Nineties music).

All six episodes of Car Share went up on iPlayer simultaneously, yet this is one of those shows where a hearty binge might not be the best way to view it. It's one of those comedies like Nurse or Getting On that are more impressionistic than appointment to view. They make no effort to stop you switching off. They're just companionable and somewhere between gently tickling and really funny.

Great sitcom is about people who are trapped and you can't be more trapped than in a metal box, with someone you don't really know strapped in next to you. Of course, it also requires a script as tight as a gnat's whoopsie, as well as sharp performances. Car Share, thus far, has both.

Whether or not this can be sustained over a series we shall see. Episode one has already mined the car radio and its adverts for humour, as well as utilising a fantasy sequence to get us out of the capsule. But in a week in which several new television shows this week were clichéd or overwrought, Kay's simple new comedy felt both current and bold.

Who is Car Share star Sian Gibson?

Sian Gibson has become a hit following her latest role in Car Share - but who is she?