Car Share

John (Peter Kay) is in designated-driver mode tonight as he ferries Kayleigh (Sian Gibson) to the annual work do - he as a hefty Harry Potter, she a diminutive Hagrid - and back. it is the return leg that really shines because the pair are joined by Elsie from the deli counter (played by the superb Conketh Hill), a brash, waspish transgender woman dressed as an enormous Smurf, blogs a lift home, to John's annoyance. She is wonderful. "They broke the mound when they made Elsie," slurs Kayleigh. "Broke the mound?" says John. "They shut the factory."

Car Share: What's so great about NOW 48?

Who wants a copy of a 16-year-old compilation album? Quite a lot of us, it seems. Sales of Now That's What I Call Music 48 surged last week, after the double CD ("featuring 41 top chart hits!") provided the soundtrack to the BBC sitcom Peter Kay's Car Share.

The week in TV: Peter Kay's Car Share

The warm wit of Peter Kay and the big brains of taxi drivers offered a welcome hit of car-bound comfort.

Peter Kay's Car Share, Episode Two, BBC1/iPlayer review

There's an obvious undertow of potential romance in this second series, with the pop songs from Forever FM commentating on the unspoken feelings between John and Kayleigh. But towards the end of the episode it looks like the unspoken is about to be spoken.

'Peter Kay effect' shoots Now 48 album back into charts

Fans of Peter Kay have been clamouring to buy 2001 compilation Now 48 after it was featured heavily in the new series of BBC comedy Car Share.

Peter Kay's Car Share is a direct descendant of Victoria Wood's brand of northern soulful comedy: deceptively simple, heartwarming, and delighting in the inherently naff. The first series garnered loads of praise and became one of the most watched shows on BBC iPlayer thanks to its basic but lovely premise: two colleagues who fancy each other a bit commute to work in a car. Now back for a second series, though with only four episodes, it's more of the same, though Kayleigh has moved in with her sister and, for the first half of the episode, commutes to work by public transport. In such a small upholstered world this counts as a major plot shift.

They share about a million phone calls as John (Kay) listens to the Now That's What I Call Music! (48) CD Kayleigh has given him, singing lustily along to Hear'Say's Pure and Simple and picking his nose and looking at it. There's a road rage encounter with an elderly cyclist that by the end of the working day has gone viral on YouTube, and a singalong to Bardo's One Step Further playing on Forever FM (which is still "playing timeless hits now and forever"). Mostly, though, this is comedy so gentle I didn't actually laugh.

What Car Share needs is a pair of jump leads

The slowest-moving love affair on telly is back. A traffic jam on the M62 shifts like Concorde compared to the romance between John and Kayleigh in Peter Kay's Car Share.

Peter Kay's Car Share review

A winning return for this ingenious comic gem.

Car Share is back but not worth the wait

Considering that we waited a whole two years for this new series, the next few episodes have a lot of making up to do to be honest.