Peep Show

Peep Show
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Andrew O'Connor Jesse Armstrong Sam Bain
Starring	David Mitchell Robert Webb Olivia Colman
Theme music composer	Daniel Pemberton (Series 1)
Opening theme	Harvey Danger - "Flagpole Sitta" (Series 2 onwards)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of series	6
No. of episodes	36 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Andrew O'Connor
Producer(s)	Phil Clarke
Camera setup	Single-camera (sometimes head-mounted)
Running time	25 minutes
Production company(s)	Objective Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 4
Picture format	PAL (576i) (Series 1-5) HDTV (1080i) (Series 6)
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	9 September 2003 – Present
External links
Official website

Peep Show is a British situation comedy starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb themselves, amongst others. It has been broadcast on Channel 4 since 2003, with the sixth series aired in 2009 and a seventh series commissioned for 2010.^[1] Stylistically, the show uses point of view shots with the thoughts of main characters Mark and Jeremy audible as voiceovers.

Synopsis

Peep Show follows the often sexually-frustrated lives of two men in their early thirties (in their later twenties when the series started), Mark Corrigann (Mitchell) and Jeremy Usbourne (Webb). Having met while at the fictional Dartmouth University together - they occasionally refer to themselves as 'The El Dude Brothers' in reference to their student days - they now share a flat in London.

Mark was, from series one until the beginning of series 6, a loan manager at the fictional JLB Credit (JLB Credit entered administration at the start of series 6). Mark is the more financially successful of the two, but is extremely uncomfortable socially and pessimistic about nearly everything. Jeremy, who at the start of the first series has recently split up with his girlfriend 'Big Suze', now rents Mark's spare room. He usually has a much more optimistic and energetic outlook on the world than Mark, yet his self-proclaimed talent as a musician is yet to be recognised, and he is not as popular or attractive as he would like to think himself.^[2]

Plot summary

In the first series, Mark and Jeremy start out with similar aims of bedding their next door neighbour Toni, though Mark is also tragically obsessed with his workmate Sophie, who is more interested in the more macho Jeff. Both endure awkward situations; Mark suffers a sexual admiration for his boss, Johnson, while Jeremy remembers having oral sex with Super Hans. The two desperately team up to prank call Sophie and launch a pepper spray attack on Super Hans, who has begun a relationship with Toni. By the end of the series, Mark nearly succeeds in having sex with Sophie but this chance is ruined by Jeremy's apparent overdose, while the latter claims that he has a terminal illness in order to receive a hand job from Toni.

In series two, Jeremy meets and falls in love with Nancy and has some success with his music career with Super Hans. Meanwhile Mark is on a downward slope: Sophie plans to move in with Jeff, and Mark forges a short friendship with a Neo-Nazi, and falls for a similarly socially inadequate student, before losing her after an ill-judged return to his old university, where she is currently studying. However, the tables turn once more at the end of the series when Jeremy admits to Nancy — now his wife — that he accidentally had an affair with Toni, leaving his marriage a 'husk', while Sophie dumps Jeff. Super Hans also develops a crack cocaine addiction.

Series three sees Big Suze re-enter Jeremy's life. Meanwhile, Mark and Sophie have finally become a couple, yet Mark is left alone once again when she is relocated to Bristol. Jeremy seduces Mark's sister while Mark falls for Big Suze, and Jeremy and Super Hans attempt to run a pub. In the last episode, Mark plans to propose to Sophie but changes his mind upon realising that they have very little in common. Nonetheless he ends up agreeing to marry her to avoid "embarrassment" after she accidentally finds his engagement ring and accepts a proposal which he has not actually made. Meanwhile Jeremy's efforts to get back together with Suze are hindered somewhat by Super Hans' attempts to go cold turkey.

Mark and Sophie visit Sophie's parents in series four after their engagement, and Jeremy ultimately has sex with her mother. Big Suze breaks up with him for Johnson. In an attempt to get away from Sophie, Mark joins a gym, and discovers that Nancy is working there and Jeremy tries to win her back. Sophie leaves on a foreign business trip, leaving Mark to consider a fling with a woman from his school reunion. Jeremy finds some highly-paid handyman work for one of his musical heroes but discovers that his employer expects Jeremy to give him "a hand". Mark and Jeremy spend a weekend on a canal boat for Mark's stag do, where Mark meets a businessman with contacts in India and attempts to secure a job there as a means of escaping his impending wedding but the plan falls apart when Jeremy accidentally kills the businessman's daughter's beloved dog. In the final episode, as the wedding approaches, Jeremy is having difficulty juggling a hungover Super Hans, the wedding, Nancy and his desperate need to urinate. After several attempts to get out of marriage, including jumping out in front of a car, Mark ends up marrying Sophie. However, she runs out on him after the ceremony, planning to seek a divorce or annulment because Mark is "horrible".

In series five Mark resumes his search for "the one". He asks out the new IT girl Dobby although the date ends badly when they find a dishevelled Sophie in the toilets. Dobby remains interested however, even when Mark is forced to reject her offer to be his date at his upcoming birthday party as Mark has to take an Australian he met while speed-dating. Meanwhile, Jeremy runs out of money and is temporarily evicted by Mark and then fails in asking Big Suze if he can stay with her and Johnson. Jeremy next tries to obtain money from his mother after his great-aunt dies. Jeremy's poor relationship with his mother is revealed, while Mark thrives in her company and is given the job of writing her boyfriend's military biography. Jealous, Jeremy ruins Mark's ambitions by revealing how Mark was raped by the veteran's daughter, after she had sex with him while he was asleep. In the final episode, Mark fails to ask Dobby out and she finally moves on. He is promoted to Senior Credit Manager by Johnson but is unable to fire Sophie as ordered after she reveals that she is pregnant with his child. In the series' closing moments, it is revealed that Jeremy too has recently slept with Sophie and that her baby may, potentially, be his.

Series six begins with JLB Credit closing down and Sophie revealing that Mark is the baby's father. Meanwhile Jeremy meets Elena, a beautiful Eastern European woman and occasional drug dealer who lives in their building. Jeremy quickly falls in love with her, but things deteriorate when it is revealed that Elena is not only bisexual but also has a long-term partner called Gail who is returning to London. Mark looks for work, starting a company with a recession-frazzled Johnson, almost landing his dream-job as a history walks guide, and finally landing as a waiter in Gail's Mexican themed restaurant, all the while trying (and failing) to get anywhere with Dobby. To resolve their women troubles, Jeremy and Mark host a party, which ends in Jeremy rekindling his love for Elena, Mark drowning a snake in a bucket of vomit, and Gail and Elena deciding to get married. In the final episode, Mark pledges to take driving lessons in order to drive Sophie to the hospital when the baby arrives, but lies to her when he fails his test. Jeremy spirals into despair over losing Elena. Sophie goes into labour early and with Mark forced to reveal he cannot drive and Jeremy too drunk, the series ends with Sophie driving herself to the hospital with the two boys in the back seat.

On 18 March 2009, Channel 4 commissioned a seventh series of Peep Show, before the sixth series was broadcast. It has been scheduled for 2010.^[3]

Major characters

• David Mitchell as Mark Corrigan (Series 1-)

Loan manager Mark Corrigan is the owner of the flat that he shares with Jeremy. He is sensible and careful, but often has moments of impulsive and erratic behaviour. He appears to have had a somewhat miserable upbringing, with a domineering father, and some infidelity by both parents. He is a graduate in Business Studies from fictional Dartmouth University, where he met Jeremy. He has a love of history, especially ancient history - which he originally wanted to study at university, before being coerced by his parents into reading Business Studies instead - and modern military history. Mark is conscious of Jeremy's intellectual inferiority, but still looks to him for social guidance. Mark is plagued by paranoia as to how others perceive him, and doubts over whether his actions are normal. He is very reactionary and at times appears to be rather eurosceptic. He is often unable to grasp how modern society operates, and simply endures activities that others seem to enjoy. Mark's infatuation and relationship with Sophie is a major theme of the first four series. Following their disastrous wedding and break-up, he pursues a series of other women during Series 5, wondering whether each could be "the one". He was voted the 12th Greatest Comedy Character in a 2007 Channel 4 poll.^[4]

• Robert Webb as Jeremy (Series 1-)

A wannabe musician, Jeremy, also known as "Jez", is a "work-shy freeloader" who is unemployed for most of the series. He is naïve, immature and often selfish, and considers himself very talented and attractive. He tends to be more sociable than Mark, but can sometimes be quite malicious and spiteful. Jeremy is hedonistic and enjoys recreational drugs as well as casual sex. However, he also becomes emotionally involved in his relationships with Toni, Nancy and Big Suze. Although Jeremy only engages in heterosexual relationships, there are several indications of homosexual desires and experiences, a theme which is discussed by producer Phil Clarke and script editor Ian Morris in their commentary to Episode 4 of Series 3. Like Mark, Jeremy comes from Kent, attended Dartmouth University, and qualified as a nurse^[5] but does not appear to have spent long in the post. The spelling of Jeremy's surname is unclear - it has been rendered as "Osborne", "Osbourne", "Usborne" and "Usbourne", with Channel 4's official website for the series using both of the latter two spellings.^[6] His uncle's name is spelled "Usborne" on the Memorial Service pamphlets in episode 6 of series 1. However, in episode 5 of series 3, Jeremy's surname was spelt as "Usbourne" on a letter requiring him to do jury service. The Peep Show script book pokes fun at this confusion by featuring an old school report of Jeremy's, in which the teacher is unsure which boy in his class is "Jeremy Osbourne" and which is "Jeremy Usbourne" - he clarifies that this report refers to "the blond one". In episode 3 of the sixth series, Jeremy appears to be referred to as "Mr Usbourne" by Elena's boss.

• Olivia Colman as Sophie Chapman (Series 1-)

Sophie is a co-worker and love interest for both Mark and Jeff; she eventually marries Mark, and almost immediately separates from him. She is from a rural background, and a storyline develops where she begins drinking heavily and taking drugs. She is less friendly with, or respected by, their boss Johnson than Mark. At the start of Series 6, it is confirmed that she is pregnant with Mark's child.

• Matt King as Super Hans (Series 1-)

Jeremy's band-mate and friend, Super Hans likes to think of himself as being superior to others and is an untrustworthy fantasist. He regularly uses recreational drugs, and experiences a crack cocaine addiction in the second series, later referenced again in the final episode of the third series. His contentious opinions often contradict Jeremy's own ideas. He works in a recording studio in the first series. At the end of Series 5 he joins a religious cult. During the finale of series 6 it was revealed he is father of two 7 year old German twins. Russell Brand originally auditioned for the part.^[7] Hans was inspired by the character Danny from the film Withnail and I.^[8]

• Paterson Joseph as Alan Johnson (Series 1-)

A loan manager, Alan Johnson (usually referred to and addressed simply as "Johnson") becomes friends with Mark after meeting him at JLB. Mark was extremely impressed by Johnson, even beginning to question his own sexuality. As of series 2, he became Mark's boss. Although a smooth, cool and professional businessman and apparently a pillar of the community, he was previously an alcoholic for 15 years. Mark continues to get on well with Johnson despite some upsets. Jeremy by contrast does not, especially after Big Suze leaves Jeremy for him. An early draft of the final episode of series three was to conclude with Johnson committing suicide, but the idea was rejected as being too dark.^[9]

• Rachel Blanchard as Nancy (Series 2, 4)

Arriving in England from small-town America to escape her conservative upbringing, Nancy is kooky and hedonistic. Her attitude towards love and relationships is affected by her upbringing and her Christian beliefs, leading to her sending Jeremy very mixed messages, from attempting wild, kinky sex one minute to abstaining completely the next (the "last taboo"). She later marries Jeremy for visa reasons, and is portrayed as either unaware or uninterested in Jeremy's obsession with her.

• Sophie Winkleman as Big Suze (Series 3-)

Big Suze lived with Jeremy in a shared flat (which Jeremy nostalgically refers to as the "love shack") for around a year and a half, prior to the start of the first series of the show. She was often mentioned but did not actually make an appearance until her introduction as a major supporting character in the third series. Suze is incredibly posh, though she appears to want to become more bohemian. She is an actress, but between roles works as a waitress in a café. Jeremy is desperate to get back together with Big Suze, and although they reunite briefly, she later leaves him for Alan Johnson. Her nickname comes from her height rather than her weight.

• Neil Fitzmaurice as Jeff Heaney (Series 1-)

Jeff is a work colleague of Mark's at JLB Credit and a confident, macho bully from Merseyside. The two repeatedly clash, not least for the attentions of Sophie, who chooses Jeff but leaves him after he continues to chase women. In the later series, as Mark and Sophie's relationship takes its course, he is frequently seen mocking Mark.

• Elizabeth Marmur as Toni Papadopoulos (Series 1-2)

The next-door neighbour of Mark and Jeremy, and an object of their lust throughout the first series of the show. She is separated from her husband Tony at the beginning of Series 1, but the couple reunite during Series 2, although they are still seen arguing. Her father died when she was aged three and she may subconsciously be seeking a "daddy substitute". During her childhood she regularly went skiing, and has two sisters; one with cancer, and one half sister whom Jeremy briefly dated. She is opinionated and sexually liberal, and engages in casual sex with Jeremy on several occasions. In an early episode, she engages in pyramid selling of cleaning products, but at the end of Series 2 she is shown working as a supervisor in a call centre.

• Isy Suttie as Dobby (Series 5-)

Dobby works in the IT department of Mark's workplace and is a self-confessed IT misfit, much like Mark. She has many interests that are similar to those of Mark, such as MMORPGs. Mark meets her in series 5 episode 2 in the office canteen.

• Vera Filatova as Elena (Series 6-)

Elena is a Russian émigré who lives in the same block of flats as Mark and Jeremy. She works part time as a legal secretary in human rights law but deals drugs on the side and has a sexual attraction towards single fathers. In Episode 4 Series 6 it is revealed she is bisexual and has a "long-term partner" called Gail, who has been out of the country for a long time but has recently returned. Like Jeremy she is a musician.

Production

Writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain met actors and writers David Mitchell and Robert Webb during a failed 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 did not work out but the four developed as a partnership,^[10] and one idea eventually evolved into Peep Show for Channel 4.^[11] Peep Show was originally conceived as a Beavis and Butt-head-esque sitcom and 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".^[12]

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 voiceover providing their internal thoughts.^[12] Scenes in the show are sometimes filmed using cameras strapped to the actors' heads, or attached to a hat,^[13] to give the viewer a point of view identical to that of the protagonists.^[14] The quality of footage captured with this method is sometimes poor and the technique has been used less and less in recent series.^[15] 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.^[16][13] Armstrong and Bain's choice of the style was influenced by the 2000 Channel 4 documentary Being Caprice about the model Caprice Bourret which featured a similar technique that had in turn been copied from the 1999 film Being John Malkovich.^[8] Bain noted: "So it's a third-hand steal, really. We thought it would be great for comedy, hearing someone else's thoughts. The voices give you a whole other dimension in terms of jokes."^[12] The idea for using voiceovers came from a scene in the Woody Allen film Annie Hall in which the true feelings of the characters are conveyed by subtitles.^[8] The POV technique separates Peep Show from other sitcoms and Mitchell claims that without it Peep Show would be similar to shows like Spaced and Men Behaving Badly.^[12]

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 had a voice-over as well as 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.^[12] Bain and Armstrong are the show's principal writers and Mitchell and Webb provide additional material.^[17] Many storylines come from experiences in the writer's lives,^[10] particularly Bain's.^[8] For example, the season five episode "Burgling" sees Mark apprehend a burglar by sitting on him, something Bain once did in a video shop before he was told to get off as he was scaring the customers.^[8] The writing for each series takes place seven to eight months before filming begins; once each episode is mapped out scene-by-scene they must be approved by the producer Andrew O'Connor and Channel 4. Rehearsals take two weeks and filming lasts for six to seven weeks.^[13]

For the first two series the scenes set in Mark and Jeremy's flat were filmed in a real property in Croydon, where the show takes place. The flat's owners did not allow it to be used for series three and so a replica was constructed in a carpet warehouse in Neasden.^[16]

The theme tune for the first series was an original composition by Daniel Pemberton and is featured on his TVPOPMUZIK album. Since the second series the theme music has been the song "Flagpole Sitta" by the American band Harvey Danger ^[17] (however, the original first series composition is still heard briefly during scene changes). A working title for the programme was POV, as noted by David Mitchell on the DVD commentary for the first episode of the first series.

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.^[12]

American versions

In 2005, the Fox network commissioned a pilot for an American version of Peep Show (named Odd Couple), however, the pilot was unsuccessful.^[18] Jeremy was played by Josh Meyers, and Mark was played by Johnny Galecki.^[18] Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain have commented that the American version did not utilise the point-of-view filming like the original.

Spike TV has since commissioned its own version, originally to be written and directed by Robert Weide, who is the executive producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm.^[18] However, it is currently being written by Armstrong and Bain.^[19]

Reception

The series was met with critical acclaim,^[20] and is considered to be a cult television show.^[10][21] Early previews called it "promising"^[22] and noted it "ha[d] the sniff of a cult favourite";^[23] Peter Conchie of The Independent however labelled it "artless and [an] overly ironic hybrid of Spaced and The Adam and Joe Show [...] is best watched through knitted fingers."^[24]

British Sitcom Guide voted the show the "Best Returning British Sitcom of 2007".^[25] The following year, when the site became "The British Comedy Guide", it was voted the "Comedy of the Year" for 2008. It nearly won the award for "Best Returning British TV Sitcom", but lost to Outnumbered by six votes.^[26] The Guardian newspaper described it as "the best comedy of the decade".^[27] 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".^[28] 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.^[29]

Despite the critical acclaim, Peep Show has never garnered consistently high viewing figures.^[20][30] 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.^[31][32] However, due to the large DVD revenues of the previous series, a fourth series was commissioned.^[33] The premiere of the fourth series showed no improvement on the ratings of the previous, continuing to attract its core audience of 1.3 million (8% of viewers).^[34] 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),^[35] the continued high quality of the show itself,^[36] 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.^[37] The fifth series showed no improvement with 1.1 million viewers.^[38] 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."^[30] Bain and Armstrong agreed that the POV style stopped it from becoming mainstream.^[10]

The first episode of series six - the first to be shown in its new earlier time slot of 10pm - attracted Peep Show's highest ratings to date, with 1.8 million viewers (9.2% audience share), with a further 208,000 (1.8%) watching it on Channel 4+1. ^[39]

Awards

Peep Show has won several awards.

• In 2004, it won the Rose d'Or for "Best European Sitcom."^[14]
• At the end of 2006, following the third series, Peep Show was honoured with the British Comedy Award for best TV comedy.^[40]
• It won the same award in 2007 and Mitchell also won "Best TV comedy actor" in the same ceremony.^[41]
• Mitchell and Webb both won the "Comedy performance" award in the 2007 Royal Television Society awards.^[42]
• The fourth series won the 2008 BAFTA for "Best situation comedy".^[43]
• In 2009, Bain and Armstrong won the Royal Television Society award for "Writer - Comedy".^[44]
• Mitchell won the 2009 BAFTA Television Award for "Best comedy performance".^[45]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Peep Show

• Peep Show at Channel4.com
• Peep Show at TV.com
• Peep Show at the Internet Movie Database
• Peep Show at the British Comedy Guide