Peter Kay's Car Share co-star Sian Gibson feared she'd 'ruined' his career
Sian Gibson had given up on showbusiness and was was living happily in Mold, north Wales with her family, when an email from the actress' old friend Peter Kay changed everything
Sian Gibson had worked with Peter Kay more than once before winning the role of Kayleigh in Car Share, appearing in That Peter Kay Thing and three episodes of Phoenix Nights. But when she first saw a script for the much-loved BBC series, she had almost completely given up on acting.
'I was working in a call centre in Chester when Peter sent me a script, asking what I thought of it,' she told the Radio Times.
Sian, who pops up on Sunday Brunch this weekend, has stayed busy since the success of Car Share. She's appeared in Death in Paradise, Taskmaster and most recently with Timothy Spall in the BBC's Death Valley.
But she didn't think Car Share would restart her acting career – in fact she thought her performance might have wrecked Peter Kay's career as well: 'When I first saw it, I thought I was dreadful – I was worried that I had just ruined Peter Kay's career.'
Sian's fears proved to be unfounded and Car Share went on to be one of the most-watched shows on iPlayer, winning multiple awards including Best Comedy at the 2016, 2018 and 2019 National Television Awards.
Sian has known Peter for many years. They had bonded over a shared sense of humour while they were studying performing arts at the University of Salford. She says she was sure that he was the student from her year that was most likely to succeed.
Peter would painstakingly edit together his home-made sketches into short films, Sian recalls, and had a perfectionist streak that viewers would soon see in Car Share. Songs on the show's fictitious Forever FM radio station often blossom into wildly imaginative 'pop video' fantasy sequences.
Sian's path to fame was a little rockier than Peter's, she revealed. 'Things were great at the beginning of my career. Because I'm short, I always played younger parts. I was in my 20s and always played teenagers. Then I hit 30 and that doesn't work anymore. It all just dried up.'
She recalled one disastrous audition that, for a while, looked like it would be the last one: "I remember going to the final audition of my acting career,' she recalled.
Sian explained that the audition was for a small role in Emmerdale: "All I had to say was, 'You alright?' I sat in the waiting room getting nervous and I was that desperate for the job I couldn't even deliver the line – I was too hyper because I wanted it so much. That's when I realised it was over.'
She married her husband Ian, a gas fitter, and in 2013 they had a daughter together. She wasn't too keen on her job in a banking call centre but it was steady work and she ended up staying there for several years: "Because the people were nice and it was next door to a lovely garden centre that did the best toasties,' she told the Independent. 'I'm still not entirely sure what they did.'
When Peter sent her the Car Share script, she asked him why he hadn't chosen 'one of those really good actresses' such as Suranne Jones or Sheridan Smith, but he explained to her that what was most important to him was their easy chemistry, which came from a 20-year friendship.
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