<!-- PLEASE NOTE: THE CHARACTER OF SUPER HANS IS CALLED SUPER HANS, NOT SUPER HANDS, PLEASE REFERENCE THE OFFICIAL CHANNEL 4 BIO PAGE FOR THIS CHARACTER BEFORE MAKING EDITS TO HIS NAME AT http://www.channel4.com/programmes/peep-show/articles/super-hans -->
Peep Show is a British television sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, and created by Andrew O'Connor, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. The series was written by Armstrong and Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb, among others. It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 19 September 2003 to 16 December 2015. In 2010, it became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history in terms of years on air. The show uses point of view shots—giving the programme its title—with the thoughts of main characters audible as voiceovers.
Peep Show follows the lives of dysfunctional best friends Mark Corrigan (Mitchell) and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne (Webb) , who share a flat in Croydon, South London. Mark is a pessimistic, socially awkward loan manager who dreams of being a historian, while Jeremy is a perpetually unemployed layabout and failed musician who lives in Mark's spare room. The show has been described by Bain as portraying "the stubborn persistence of human suffering", while Armstrong said it was "about oddball male friendship, perhaps even 'masculinity.
Despite never achieving high viewing figures during its original run, Peep Show received consistent critical acclaim and has since become a cult classic. In April 2019, three years after its final episode, the series was named the thirteenth greatest British sitcom in a poll by Radio Times. It has also been described as one of the best television programmes produced in the 21st century, and one of the best comedy series of all time.
Cast and characters
thumb|[[Robert Webb starred as Jeremy Usbourne alongside David Mitchell as Mark Corrigan]]
Main
- David Mitchell as Mark Corrigan, a loan manager at fictional company JLB Credit. Intelligent and hard-working, but also pessimistic and socially awkward, Mark is the owner of the flat in Croydon, which he shares with his friend from university, Jeremy. While he considers himself morally superior to others (especially Jeremy), Mark in reality is often self-serving, petty, and mean-spirited.
- Robert Webb as Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne, an aspiring musician and an unemployed "work-shy freeloader" who lives in the spare room of Mark's flat. He is selfish, juvenile, and arrogant, while considering himself to be immensely talented and attractive. Although superficially more socially skilled than Mark, his over-confidence and narcissism mean that in practice he is equally socially inept.
Recurring
- Matt King as Super Hans, Jeremy's bandmate and friend, who regularly uses recreational drugs. He appears in every series, appearing in 36 out of the show's 54 episodes. It is revealed in the second episode of the ninth series that his real name is Simon.
- Olivia Colman as Sophie Hortensia Chapman (series 1–7; guest series 9), a colleague at JLB, who serves as a love interest for Mark (and occasionally Jeremy) throughout much of the series. She and Mark eventually marry but divorce shortly afterwards, and she later gives birth to his child. As the series goes on, Sophie becomes increasingly unstable, using drugs and drinking to excess.
- Elizabeth Marmur as Toni (series 1–2), Mark and Jeremy's neighbour and romantic interest.
- Neil Fitzmaurice as Jeff Heaney (series 1–3, 5–7; guest series 4, 8–9), Mark's colleague and rival at JLB. The two frequently clash over the affections of Sophie, with Jeff's more manly, confident behaviour serving as a foil to Mark's mild-mannered persona.
- Paterson Joseph as Alan Johnson (series 2–3, 5–6, 9; guest series 1, 4, 7–8), a senior loan manager at JLB and Mark's boss for much of the series. While presenting himself as suave and hyper-confident, in reality he is reckless and self-deluded. Despite this, Mark constantly desperately seeks his approval.
- Rachel Blanchard as Nancy (series 2, 4), a free-spirited, exceptionally beautiful but slightly dysfunctional American woman with whom Jeremy has a relationship.
- Sophie Winkleman as Big Suze (series 3, 5–6; guest series 4, 7), Jeremy's ex-girlfriend and frequent romantic interest. She is attractive but naive, and described by Mark as a "mental posho".
- Jim Howick as Gerrard Matthew (series 5–7; guest series 4, 8), Mark's sickly colleague and sometimes-friend at JLB, and later his rival for Dobby's affections.
- Isy Suttie as Dobby (series 5–8; guest series 9), an IT worker at JLB and a self-confessed misfit, much like Mark, who quickly develops strong feelings for her and the couple have a dysfunctional relationship. She is frequently disappointed by Mark.
- Vera Filatova as Elena (series 6), a Russian woman who becomes romantically involved with Jeremy.
Production
thumb|right|This building on Crouch End Broadway forms the setting for the opening credits of the show for Series 1-5. After that, the opening credits setting for Mark and Jez is set in Croydon.
Writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain met actors/writers Mitchell and Webb during an attempt to complete a team-written sitcom for the BBC. They had an old, unproduced script that they wanted to revive called All Day Breakfast and brought in Mitchell and Webb to help out. The show was not made, but the four developed as a partnership, and one idea eventually evolved into Peep Show for Channel 4. Peep Show was originally conceived as a sitcom in the style of Beavis and Butt-Head revolving around two characters watching and discussing television. However, the idea was dropped due to the large expense that airing clips from other shows would bring as well as Mitchell and Webb's fear that, because their characters would only be watching television, "[they] wouldn't be in the show". The title of the show is taken from the 1990s comic book series by Joe Matt.
Instead, Armstrong and Bain opted to produce a more story-based sitcom with an unconventional filming style. The events of the two main characters' lives are seen almost exclusively from their own points of view with a voice-over providing their internal thoughts. The quality of footage captured with this method is sometimes poor and the technique was used less and less in later series. When head-mounted cameras are not used, scenes are filmed with the camera being held over the actor's shoulder, or directly in front of their face; each scene is therefore shot multiple times from different angles. The POV technique distinguishes Peep Show from other sitcoms; Mitchell has said that without it, Peep Show would be similar to shows like Spaced and Men Behaving Badly.
Two pilots were filmed for the show, which allowed Armstrong and Bain to firmly develop and finalise the style of the show. Armstrong said, "On the run of doing those two pilots, we really created the show in the way that you couldn't if you hadn't tried it out." In the original pilot, Olivia Colman's character, Sophie Chapman, also had a voice-over in addition to Mitchell and Webb's characters, Mark and Jeremy. The POV technique was also restricted solely to the character thinking at the time; it was later expanded so that the view could come from a third party. Many story lines come from experiences in the writers' lives,
thumb|upright=0.8|Zodiac Court in [[Croydon|West Croydon, the filming location of Mark and Jeremy's flat. It is called 'Apollo House' in the series.]]
Mark and Jeremy's flat is supposedly located in Croydon, South London. This is occasionally mentioned in the script, but the location is not emphasised, and, according to pilot director Jeremy Wooding, "the overall idea was that where [Mark and Jeremy] lived was Nowheresville and Anywheresville". Nevertheless, for the first two series, the scenes set in the flat were filmed in a real property in Croydon. The flat's owners did not allow it to be used for series 3, so a replica was constructed in a carpet warehouse in Neasden. Further filming took place at West London Film Studios. Croydon was initially selected for reasons of practical convenience, as many of the cast and crew lived in South London or Brighton. Wooding "liked the idea of there being trams" (i.e. Croydon Tramlink), but Channel 4 stopped him using trams in the series.
The theme tune for the first series was an original composition by Daniel Pemberton and is featured on his TVPOPMUZIK album. From the second series onwards, the theme music is the song "Flagpole Sitta" by the American band Harvey Danger and is considered to be a cult television show. Early previews called it "promising" and noted it had "the sniff of a cult favourite"; Jane Simon of The Daily Mirror claimed that Peep Show in years to come will "be seen as the pinnacle of comedy it obviously is." Peep Show won the titles "The Best Returning British TV Sitcom 2007" and "Comedy of the Year 2008" in The Comedy.co.uk Awards.
The Guardian newspaper described it as "the best comedy of the decade". The Times praised the show's "scorching writing" and named it the 15th best TV show of the 2000s.
Ricky Gervais has been cited as saying "the last thing I got genuinely excited about on British TV was Peep Show, which I thought was the best sitcom since Father Ted". While presenting an award at the 2005 British Comedy Awards, Gervais called it "the best show on television today" and said it was a "debacle" that it did not win an award.
In 2019, Peep Show was named the 13th greatest British sitcom of all time in a poll by Radio Times. In 2021, the BBC ranked it 42nd on a list of the 100 greatest TV series of the 21st century.
In June 2020, a scene from series 2 episode 1 of Jeremy in blackface was removed from Netflix due to concerns over racism.
Ratings
Despite the critical acclaim, Peep Show never garnered consistently high viewing figures. At the beginning of 2006 there were rumours that the show would not be commissioned for a fourth series due to insufficient ratings of just over a million viewers. However, due to the large DVD revenues of the previous series, a fourth series was commissioned. The premiere of the fourth series showed no improvement on the ratings of the previous one, continuing to attract its core audience of 1.3 million (8% of viewers). Despite the low viewing figures, the fifth series of the show was commissioned prior to the broadcast of series 4. Channel 4's decision to commission the show for a fifth series was said to be for a variety of reasons, including again the high DVD sales of the previous series (400,000 to date), the continued high quality of the show itself, and the rising profile of Mitchell and Webb due to the success of their BBC sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look, their advertisements for Apple, and their feature film Magicians. The fifth series showed no improvement with 1.1 million viewers. Producer Andrew O'Connor cited the POV filming style as the reason for the low ratings: "It made it feel original and fresh and got it commissioned for a second series, but it stopped it from being a breakout hit and stopped it finding a bigger audience."
Awards and honours
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Award
! Category
! Nominee(s)
! Result
!
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2004
| British Academy Television Awards
| Best Situation Comedy
| Phil Clarke, Andrew O'Connor
|
|
|-
| Rose d'Or
| Best European Sitcom
| Peep Show
|
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2005
| British Comedy Awards
| Best Comedy Newcomer
| David Mitchell
|
|
|-
| Writer: Comedy
| Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
|
|-
| rowspan="6"| 2006
| British Academy Television Awards
| Best Situation Comedy
| Robert Popper, Tristram Shapeero, Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| Best TV Comedy Actor
| David Mitchell
|
|-
| Robert Webb
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| RTS Programme Awards
| Situation Comedy and Comedy Drama
| Peep Show
|
| rowspan="2"|
|-
| Writer: Comedy
| Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2007
| rowspan="2"| British Comedy Awards
| Best TV Comedy
| Peep Show
|
| rowspan="2"|
|-
| Best TV Comedy Actor
| David Mitchell
|
|-
| RTS Craft & Design Awards
| Tape and Film Editing - Entertainment & Situation Comedy
| Mark Everson
|
|
|-
| rowspan="9"| 2008
| rowspan="2"| British Academy Television Awards
| Best Situation Comedy
| Robert Popper, Becky Martin, Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong
|
| rowspan="2"|
|-
| Best Comedy Performance
| David Mitchell
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| British Comedy Awards
| Best Television Comedy
| Peep Show
|
| rowspan="4"|
|-
| Comedy Performance
| David Mitchell and Robert Webb
|
|-
| Writer: Comedy
| Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
|
|-
| rowspan="7"| 2009
| rowspan="2"| British Academy Television Awards
| Best Situation Comedy
| Becky Martin, Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong, Izzy Mant
|
| rowspan="3"|
|-
| Best Comedy Performance
| David Mitchell
|
|-
| British Academy Television Craft Awards
| Best Writer
| rowspan="2"| Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| British Comedy Awards
| Best TV Sitcom
|
| rowspan="2"|
|-
| Writer: Comedy
| Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2010
| rowspan="2"| British Academy Television Awards
| Best Situation Comedy
| Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong, Phil Clarke, Becky Martin
|
| rowspan="2"|
|-
| RTS Craft & Design Awards
| Tape and Film Editing - Entertainment & Situation Comedy
| Mark Davies, Mark Everson
|
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2011
| rowspan="2"| British Academy Television Awards
| Best Situation Comedy
| Sam Bain, Jesse Armstrong, Phil Clarke, Becky Martin
|
| rowspan="3"|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2016
| British Academy Television Awards
| Best Scripted Comedy
| Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Becky Martin, Hannah Mackay
|
| rowspan="2"| In 2008 it was voted "Comedy of the Year".
American adaptations
In 2005, The Carsey-Werner Company created a pilot for a U.S. remake starring Johnny Galecki as Mark and Josh Meyers as Jeremy. However, the pilot failed, and the series was never produced. Galecki went on to star in The Big Bang Theory shortly afterwards.
Spike TV commissioned its own version in 2008, originally to be written and directed by Robert Weide, executive producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm. It was then set to be written by Armstrong and Bain and directed by Dylan Kidd, but it never went to series.
In 2016, Starz commissioned its own version with Eli Jorne attached to showrun, but it never materialised.
In May 2019, Sam Bain, co-creator of the original Peep Show series, confirmed in a Guardian article that another U.S. remake was in the works in collaboration with FX Networks. It was being written by Karey Dorenetto and would feature two female leads, but never came to fruition.
In December 2022, FX Networks ordered a pilot for another US remake, which would be written by Stefani Robinson and, like the proposed Karey Dorenetto version, would feature two female leads. In April 2023, it was announced Minnie Driver and Amandla Jahava would be starring in the pilot. In September 2024, FX Chairman John Landgraf announced that the pilot would not be moving forward.
Other media
All episodes are available on region 2 DVD. Box sets containing multiple series were also released alongside the standalone DVDs. Series 1–6, 8 and 9 contain special features such as deleted scenes, making-of films and specially recorded scenes to compliment specific episodes. All DVDs were released by Channel 4 DVD. Series 1 was originally released by Video Collection International before being rereleased in 2006 by Channel 4 DVD with the box art changed to match all other series. All episodes were rated 15 by the BBFC, except for s1 e4 which was rated 18.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ DVD Releases
|-
!rowspan="2"|Title
!rowspan="2"|Discs
!colspan="1"|Release date
|-
!Region 2
|-
|Series 1
|1
|2004
|-
|Series 2
|1
|28 November 2005
|-
|Series 3
|1
|6 November 2006
|-
|Series 4
|1
|5 November 2007
|-
|Series 5
|1
|16 June 2008
|-
|Series 6
|1
|2 November 2009
|-
|Series 7
|1
|27 December 2010
|-
|Series 8
|1
|26 December 2012
|-
|Series 9
|1
|26 December 2015
|-
|}
A book entitled Peep Show: The Scripts and More, which featured the scripts of every episode from the first five series as well as an introduction from Mitchell and Webb, was released in 2008.
In 2018, a fan-hosted podcast was created, called Podcast Secrets of the Pharaohs, a play on Business Secrets of the Pharaohs, a fictional book in the show. Hosted by Rob Graham and Tom Harrison, the podcast reviewed episodes of the show, alongside guests, including David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Paterson Joseph, Vera Filatova, Sophie Winkleman and Paul Clayton. The podcast concluded in 2022.