Peter Kay unveils new 'Car Share' cancer scare sketch
Peter Kay has written a new Car Share sketch about his character John Redmond experiencing a cancer scare.
The 47-year-old comedian - who stepped back from public life in recent years - published the script for the hit BBC comedy in Dear NHS: 100 Stories To Say Thank You, a fundraising book featuring stories by celebrities.
In the sketch supermarket manager John confides in a cashier pal Kayleigh Kitson that he went for a brain scan after experiencing bad headaches.
Read more: Peter Kay makes rare TV appearance on BBC's coronavirus fundraiser
He says: "My GP said it was sinuses, but being a proper hypochondriac, I thought b*****ks, what does he know? So I booked in for a brain scan."
John reveals he ended up weeping during the scan after the nurse asked him what music he would like to hear while in the MRI scanner.
He explains: "I went for the Best Of Simon & Garfunkel. I love them and they would have been the perfect choice if the first song hadn’t been The Sound Of Silence, with the opening line, 'Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk to you again'… and there’s me laying in this MRI machine having a brain scan.
Adding: "It got worse – in the third verse the lyrics are 'silence like a cancer grows'. I was in tears. I was ashen when I came out. I told the nurse. I said I thought it was going to be happy, Mrs Robinson and all that.”
The sketch ends with Kayleigh asking if doctors found anything, and John answering: "No, nothing. The GP was right, it was my sinuses after all. A course of antibiotics and I was sorted in a week. That'll teach me."
The sketch begins with John discussing his plans for his dad’s end-of-life care.
Kay’s own father Michael died aged 51 in 1999 after battling osteoporosis and alcoholism.
The comedian has been out of the spotlight since cancelling his last stand-up tour three years ago.
Peter Kay Live: Have Gags, Will Travel was scheduled to begin touring in 2018, but he cancelled all future work, including the tour, in December 2017, citing “unforeseen family circumstances”.
Peter Kay’s Car Share ended with two special episodes in 2018.
The Phoenix Nights star made his first TV appearance in two years on the BBC’s Big Night In charity event, held by Children In Need and Comic Relief to raise money for the fight against coronavirus in April.
Read more: Peter Kay is planning a 'Phoenix Nights' film
He appeared on screen in a sun hat and licking an ice lolly as he introduced a recreation of his and Tony Christie’s 2005 Amarillo video.
The comedian has a 16-year-old son and two younger children with wife Susan Gargan, who he married in 2001.
Dear NHS: 100 Stories To Say Thank You, curated and edited by comedy writer and former doctor Adam Kay, features celebrity’s personal stories of the health service. Other star contributors include Sir Paul McCartney, Stephen Fry, Dawn French, Sir Trevor McDonald, Ed Sheeran and Emma Watson.
For each book sold a donation is made to NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust.
