If the BBC give us a comedy with just two actors is it down to bravery or budget cuts?

Peter Kay's Car Share (BBC1) is a new sitcom written and directed by Kay. He also stars in it, alongside Sian Gibson who plays Kayleigh, his car-sharing buddy. She's the bubbly, talkative one, strapped into the front seat of the car alongside grumpy John (Kay) as they navigate the depressing rush hour traffic of a depressing Northern town.

John and Kayleigh work for a supermarket who've introduced a car share scheme for their staff, assigning them 'buddies' who they'll drive to and from work. What a good idea! It'll help the environment, surely? Nah, grumbles John. It's just because they ain't got enough room in the blooming car park.

John is miserable, and his mood dampens when his sat-nav can't find Kayleigh's house. It dampens even further when Kayleigh spills her urine sample all over his shirt. But wait, why is she taking a urine sample to work in a plastic drinking bottle? There was no explanation given for that plot. Well, maybe I'm over-thinking it. This is a comedy, so let's just accept the laughs that come with a man being soaked in urine. The hilarity will excuse the niggling randomness of that urine bottle he's trying to force into the car's cupholder�except it wasn't particularly funny, it was simply pantomime humour: 'a've got yer p*ss in me mouth!'

There was no need for bursting bottles of pee because the best parts in this sitcom were the gentle ones, those where John and Kayleigh were having their awkward, stumbling, but utterly natural conversation, with their small talk gradually inching into friendship and perhaps something warmer. Forcing some slapstick into this was jarring.

It's through the conversation that the comedy was revealed, such as Kayleigh needling John into revealing details of his love life, and John only throwing off his taciturn, rush hour tetchiness when he protests that he's not gay, and certainly not 'a big gay mute!' as the workplace rumours have been saying. Forgetting political correctness, Kay captures the bumbling, childish discomfort of the school playground in being labelled 'gay' by your peers - but there's no malice in it.

As the pair are forced into conversation by the delays and frustrations of the rush hour traffic, we also learn Kayleigh isn't the dashing, giggly redhead we first assumed her to be. Instead, all her babbling chatter conceals a woman who's lonely and going home to nothing but a ready meal, as is John.

I haven't watched the rest of this series yet, even though it's all instantly available on iPlayer where it was uploaded last week, because it's not funny or engaging enough to pull me in again. Moreover, it seems obvious that John and Kayleigh are going to get together, a gentle romance formed within the leather confines of a rush hour Fiat 500L. That's all very nice, but that's all it is.