Peter Kay marked his first public appearance of 2018 with a Jimmy Savile joke

Peter Kay has made a surprise appearance at the special charity screenings of Car Share – and made a controversial Jimmy Savile gag.

After breaking his Twitter silence to announce a one-off charity event to screen brand new episodes of the comedy series, fans who turned up to the event got a huge surprise when the comedian himself turned up to introduce the last ever episode – much to the elation of the audience.

The star shocked everyone when the lights were dimmed and he suddenly appeared on stage during the interval, with a microphone in hand to address the crowd.

‘Now then, now then,’ he began – which was a catchphrase synonymous with prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile, so opened his brief appearance with a controversial quip.

He then said of the now deceased criminal: ‘I’d like to say we forgive you, but we don’t.’

A source told the Mirror: ‘We came back from the interval and suddenly an audio came on of Peter Kay’s voice and we all thought it was just the start of the next episode.

‘He was saying “Now then, now then” in the style of Jimmy Savile. Suddenly a spotlight came out and he walked onstage. The audience went crazy.’

Kay also asked the audience not to spoil the ending of the show for others who won’t have seen it yet, and during the interval spoke about the show itself: ‘What we’ve done is something a little bit different. ‘We used to drive around quite a bit and we just wanted to see what would happen if we filmed a whole journey without a script, just making it up.’

Kay cancelled his upcoming stand-up tour back in December by making the sad announcement on Twitter.

In a tweet, he said that foreseeable projects were on hold due to ‘unforeseen family circumstances’

‘I deeply regret that I am having to cancel all of my upcoming work projects,’ Kay, 44, wrote to his 700,000 followers, but didn’t give an explanation as to why he’d cancelled the entire show.

While the star has still not officially stated the reason for the tour’s canning, the fact that this special charity screening was in aid of The Lily Foundation, a 2007-founded charity that researches mitochondrial disease, has resulted people in connecting the dots and assuming a family member has been affected by the disease, but such stories are all unconfirmed.

Bizarre theories began to swirls around the internet as to why he’d cancelled his £40 million tour – one suggesting the Bolton-born funny man had actually passed away but clearly the evidence from this weekend debunks such a wild claim.

Kay shot to fame with Channel 4 series Phoenix Nights, which ran for two series and was followed up by the comedian’s sellout tours, including Top of the Tower and the record-breaking The Tour That Didn’t Tour Tour.

His 2015 television comedy show, Car Share, has proven a massive hit with audiences, having scooped two BAFTAs for it back in 2016.

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