Peter Kay has charmed viewers afresh, and broken fresh records on BBCiPlayer, with his second series of ‘Car Share’, but he reveals now he had no intention originally of creating the will-they-won’t-they aspect of lead characters John and Kayleigh’s blossoming friendship.
Speaking on Steve Wright’s Radio 2 show on Tuesday, Peter explained that he never realised viewers would be so entranced by the bubbling romance in the show.
He said:
“There is an undercurrent of romance but I don’t want it to be ‘Just Good Friends’. Not that I didn’t like ‘Just Good Friends’, I loved it. But they did circle around each other for a good few series.
He added the slowly flowering relationship between colleagues John and Kayleigh, forced into accidental proximity then friendship, now growing intimacy, through their firm’s car-share scheme, was accidental:
“It just developed into this. I didn’t realise people would think of it more as a romance. That’s what is more intriguing about it unrequited love or people who very much want to be loved and would love to be in love but are frightened of getting hurt.
“They want to say it but they’re just so frightened that if they’ll say it they’ll get rejected, so the easy option is just not to say it. But really they just want to be in love.“
As well as the characters’ evolution, one of the charms of Series 2 has been the addition of Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, as Kayleigh’s sister’s boyfriend Steve. Peter explains how he came to cast the vocalist in the role:
“When I was writing it I kept picturing Guy Garvey, I don’t know why. I just kept picturing him as this guy with a bike. I rang him and he said he enjoyed it. I said, ‘Well, funnily enough, would you fancy being in it?
“He said ‘Well, I’ve not done anything since school plays.’ And he was really good. It was a bit of a gamble because he could have been really wooden but he was relaxed enough to be himself.
“I thought it was a nice little cameo. With Guy I just kept picturing him in the part and I thought he’s a lovely man and he’s very funny. I like interesting casting and casting people who you think might be slightly different in parts.”
Catch up with ‘Peter Kay’s Car Share’ on BBCiPlayer.
