Surprise! Peter Kay's Car Share to return | Story finale and improvised episode for 2018 © BBC/Goodnight Vienna Productions

Surprise! Peter Kay's Car Share to return

Story finale and improvised episode for 2018

Peter Kay's Car Share is to return next year.

He and co-star Sian Gibson have unexpectedly revealed that a 'season finale' was recorded at the same time as the second series.

Before the special episode, BBC One will air a standalone special, unconnected to the main storyline, in which Kay and Gibson improvised a half-hour show without a script.

The pair broke the news on BBC's Children in Need tonight.

'It’s been a very tough secret to keep,' said Kay, while Gibson added: 'I am glad, because we were getting constant abuse about it.'

Series two ended on a cliffhanger earlier this year, when it appeared that Gibson's character Kayleigh stepped out of John’s (Kay's) car and his life forever.

Fans even set up online petition demanding to know what happened, which gathered over 100,000 signatures.

Kay said: 'We were completely overwhelmed by the response and even though we've no plans to write a third series we knew we couldn't end the story there.

Of the improvised episode, due to be screened around Christmas, he added: 'We were always very fond of ad-libbing around the script when we were filming the series so we decided to see what would happen if we took the script away and just relied on just our chemistry alone, reacting to whatever came on the radio.'

Charlotte Moore, director of BBC content says: 'I know it will be music to the ears of millions of fans of Peter Kay's joyous award-winning comedy to hear that Kayleigh and John will be coming back for one last time with a very special finale episode in 2018.'

Shane Allen, the BBC's controller of comedy commissioning added: 'Car Share has been the hit comedy of 2017 with audiences of over 11 million.

'This new finale is going to be the TV comedy equivalent of the Moon landing, 'Who Shot J.R.?' or the Olympics Opening Ceremony, depending on how old you are.'

The finale is written by Paul Coleman along with Gibson and Kay, who also directs.

The news was announced just before tickets for Kay's long-awaited new stand-up tour go on sale at 10am on Sunday.

A teaser for the two episodes has also been released.

Published: 17 Nov 2017

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