Forever FM, Elsie, a wayward monkey and that heart-breaking finale: the 7 best Car Share moments

• This trailer for the Car Share finale will have you yearning for John and Kayleigh to get together again
• Peter Kay found last episode of Car Share the “hardest to write”

**Warning: some of the following clips contain swearing**

1. Pure and Simple

As John and Kayleigh discuss their favourite albums, John reveals his is Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. Kayleigh’s is Now 48.

“They’re all on it,” she says. “All my faves: S Club 7, Steps, Samantha Mumba, Shaggy.”

At the end of series one, when it looks like the two are no longer going to be car sharing together, John gives Kayleigh a heart lamp as a goodbye gift. Kayleigh’s present to John is a copy of Now 48 and a Post-It note telling him to play track 2, Hear’Say’s Pure and Simple, because the lyrics remind her of him. As he drives off singing along ("wherever you go, I'm going to be there...") his grinning face says it all.

The layered meaning behind it might be endearing, but the pure and simple notion of having a Now compilation as a favourite album is just hilarious.

2. Stink Ray

Reece Shearsmith stole the episode, not just this scene, as irate fishmonger Ray. Forced to pick him up on their way to work when he accosts them in the street, a massively hungover Kayleigh ties an air freshener round her face to try and mask the smell of ‘Stink Ray’.

It’s any wonder they ever scrambled together enough decent takes to make it to air, as this hilarious outtakes reel shows how borderline impossible it was to film with a straight face. Ray’s version of Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes the Hotstepper complete with the words “lyrical dance flap” is an absolute treat and an unquestionable highlight of series one.

3. Conleth Hill as Elsie / Smurffette

Another Car Share scene-stealer was Conleth Hill. Game of Thrones fans went wild when they realised the actor had swapped Varys for a deli counter worker called Elsie in the BBC1 comedy.

Dressed as Smurfette, Elsie hitches a lift with John (Harry Potter) and Kayleigh (Hagrid) back from a staff party. Elsie is utterly pissed, needs to stop and have a wee on the kerb (just as Martine McCutcheon’s Perfect Moment is playing on the radio) and even propositions John with the promise of going halves on a Pot Noodle.

If all that wasn’t bad enough, when it looks as though John and Kayleigh are about to share a perfect moment of their own and finally kiss, Elsie phones to say that she must’ve left her asthma inhaler in his car when he dropped her off. Perfectly-written. Very funny. Surprisingly devastating.

4. Jump on yer bike

Closely mirroring viral road-rage videos like Ronnie Pickering and that angry bloke who stacks it and loses his glasses, John has an altercation at a traffic light when a cyclist decides to use his car as a coaster for his water bottle.

The footage of John and the cyclist arguing is uploaded to YouTube and watched by a few hundred people, much to his dismay. But that’s not the end of it. As so often happens, the argument gets a remix and is mashed up with The Pointer Sisters’ Jump (for My Love). And this is the result:

It might’ve only been seen by 8,000 fictional people on Car Share, but in the real world this clip has now been watched over 125,000 times. And rightly so – it's a belter.

5. “There’s a monkey on the roof!”

After an ill-fated trip to a safari park, John and Kayleigh realise they have a stowaway – a monkey on the Fiat.

“Get out quick! There’s a monkey on the roof,” shouts John, as Kayleigh squeals about it being “a little baby one” and offering it a Curly Wurly. “Little baby?” retorts John. “The bastard will rip your face off!”

The scene then cuts to the pair, cut and bedraggled, with the monkey strapped in to the back seat and John reflecting: “Christ that were a struggle. Little swine.”

It might be one of the most ridiculous and far-fetched plots of the entire series (even John knowingly comments “I can’t believe this is happening, it’s some shit comedy”), but it’s flipping funny nonetheless.

6. Forever FM

Although the hidden jokes and signs are brilliant, it's Forever FM that has proved to be as much of a character in Car Share as John, Kayleigh or the red Fiat. So although this isn’t one moment per ce, we couldn’t not mention this perfect parody of local radio stations: from the horrendously insensitive ‘guess the year’ clues in the morning to its brilliantly-nostalgic playlist and the infamous adverts.

There’s Brillington College (“where brilliance is almost our name”) and the funeral directors who state your family will get a cash payout “when you’re just a photograph in a frame”. And let's not forget the tasty line for a butcher’s: “give your mouth a treat, try some of Ken’s meat”.

7. That Finale

It’s no wonder there was a national outcry when this scene aired. After John and Kayleigh give a storming duet singing Billy Ocean’s Red Light Spells Danger, suddenly the talk turns serious. With John saying he “loved this – us, driving, singing,” Kayleigh starts questioning just what ‘this’ is.

John doesn’t want to probe or poke holes in whatever it is that’s between them; Kayleigh disagrees. He is texting, distracted, and turns up Forever FM. She turns it down and repeatedly tries to have a serious conversation with him.

“I can’t do this anymore… I love you, and it’s killing me you don’t feel the same” she eventually says, tearfully getting out of the car just as the incredibly sweet tribute John had sent to their favourite radio station played out.

The entire 10-minute final sequence of series two gave us one of the most poignant and heart-wrenching scenes in recent comedy history. It might have been an ending that was low on laughs, but it was incredibly well-written, authentic and tear-jerking. Here’s hoping the final final episode is just as memorable.

Peter Kay’s Car Share: the Finale airs Monday 28th May at 10pm on BBC1