Comedy, the late, great Tony Hancock would often tell his dinner guests, was simply “frustration, misery, boredom, worry – all the things people suffer from”.
This may go some way to explaining the success of a crop of deceptively simple, single-camera comedy-dramas that have all but replaced our more traditional idea of the sitcom in the television schedules.
The popular comedy is written by and stars Sian Gibson and Peter Kay as supermarket employees John and Kayleigh who found themselves thrown together as part of the company car share scheme.
Originally launching on BBC iPlayer in 2015, the series was a huge success, becoming the most watched new sitcom since 2011. It also won Best Scripted Comedy at the BAFTA Television Awards, while Peter Kay took home an award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy.
The classic sitcom no longer rules the TV schedules in the way that shows such as Fawlty Towers, Open All Hours and Porridge did in the 1970s. Or does it?
A panel of TV practitioners attempted to tease out the answer last month at an RTS early-evening event, “No laughing matter: how does comedy fight back?” This stimulating debate made one think that we could be living through another golden age of TV comedy without necessarily knowing it.
Actress and Writer Sian Gibson tells Lindsey Russell how she pleased she is for friend Peter Kay who won a RTS North West Award for Best Performance in Comedy in Car Share.
Here she explains the fun she had filming the BBC One show.
