Peter Kay sitcom will debut on BBC iPlayer

Comedian Peter Kay is to star in a new sitcom which will be the first BBC series to be shown in its entirety on catch-up service iPlayer before hitting TV.

Car Share will feature the Bolton-born comic as a supermarket worker called John, thrown together with a female colleague in a company car share scheme.

The six-episode series, the first Kay sitcom for BBC One, is set in north-west England, where it will also be filmed.

Peter, 39, said: "To be finally working with the BBC on a new comedy is a great opportunity. And the idea of two people car sharing to work each day really appealed to me, as it highlights the comedy in the minutiae of the daily trek and allows the spiralling conversations of life to unwind in all of their glory."

BBC One controller Danny Cohen said: "It is hugely exciting that Peter Kay is coming to BBC One with his new series - even more so with the innovative plan we have to launch the show online."

Sian Gibson is to star as Kayleigh, Peter's co-worker at the large out-of-town store.

Shane Allen, the BBC's controller for comedy commissioning, said the sitcom would show Peter heading in 'a more naturalistic comedy direction'.

"It will be a nifty new addition to his incredible body of work and the way it is being launched is very canny," he added.

BBC bosses announced last week that they had commissioned their first original dramas, a series of six short films, specifically for the iPlayer. The BBC had previously screened comedy pilots and spin-offs from other shows exclusively on the online service.

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.