Peter Kay’s Car Share breaks BBC iPlayer record to become most popular box set premiere

The series, which debuted on iPlayer, was watched 2.8 million times before being broadcast on BBC One

Driving force: Peter Kay stars in and co-wrote ‘Car Share’ (BBC)

Peter Kay’s new comedy Car Share has broken a BBC iPlayer record to become the most watched series to premiere as a box set on the service to date.

Peter Kays' Car Share, which follows two supermarket workers as they are forced to commute together as part of a new car share scheme, was watched 2.8 million times over four days from 24 to 28 April.

Episode one, which premiered on iPlayer on Friday 24 April, received over 1 million requests alone.

The comedy series is part of a new BBC trial to premiere 40 hours of content on iPlayer before the shows are broadcast on TV.

Car Share was shown on BBC One on Wednesday 29 April at 9.30pm after the series’ six episodes were released on iPlayer.

The comedy, which is Kay’s first for BBC One, appeared in BBC iPlayer’s ‘Most Popular’ section all weekend after its debut.

Kay said: “I’ve been blown away by the response so far. How could I not be.”

The success of the series follows BBC iPlayer’s record breaking year in 2014, which saw the service receive 3.5 billion requests.

Sherlock was the most popular programme in 2014 with 4.2 million requests, followed by Top Gear with 3.8 million requests and BBC Three film Murdered By My Boyfriend with 3 million requests.

The success of the comedy series may qualm some fears about the move to make BBC Three an online-only channel in a bid to save money for the corporation.

BBC director general Tony Hall insisted the online-only move would put BBC Three at the heart of the “online revolution”, but many celebrities including comedian Jack Whitehall, Radio One DJ Greg James and presenter Rick Edwards have opposed the plans.

Read more: BBC Three online only move delayed until 2016
Review: Peter Kay's Car Share