Peep Show | |
---|---|
Genre |
Sitcom Dark comedy |
Created by |
Andrew O'Connor Jesse Armstrong Sam Bain |
Written by | Jesse Armstrong & Sam Bain (48 episodes) Simon Blackwell (4 episodes) Tom Basden (1 episode) Jon Brown (1 episode) Additional material from David Mitchell Robert Webb Callum Blades |
Directed by |
Jeremy Wooding (series 1) Tristram Shapeero (series 2-3) Becky Martin (series 4-9) |
Starring |
David Mitchell Robert Webb Matt King Paterson Joseph Olivia Colman (series 1–7, 9) Neil Fitzmaurice Isy Suttie (series 5–9) |
Opening theme | "Pip Pop Plop" by Daniel Pemberton (series 1) "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger (series 2–9) |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 9 |
No. of episodes | 54 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Andrew O'Connor Jesse Armstrong Sam Bain |
Producer(s) | Phil Clarke |
Camera setup | Single camera (sometimes head-mounted) |
Running time | 24 mins |
Production company(s) | Objective Productions |
Distributor | All3Media |
Release | |
Original network | Channel 4 |
Picture format |
PAL (576i) (series 1–5) HDTV (1080i) (series 6–9) |
Audio format | Stereo |
Original release | 19 September 2003 | – 16 December 2015
External links | |
Website |
Peep Show is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The television programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb, amongst others. It was broadcast on Channel 4 from 2003 until 2015. In 2010 it became the longest-running comedy in Channel 4 history.
Peep Show follows the lives of Mark Corrigan (Mitchell) and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne (Webb), two dysfunctional friends who share a flat in Croydon, London. Mark is a socially awkward and despondent loan manager with a cynical outlook on life, while Jeremy is a juvenile slacker and talentless unemployed musician who lives in Mark's spare room. Stylistically, the show utilitizes point of view shots, with the thoughts of main characters Mark and Jeremy audible as voice-overs.
Though it never achieved great commercial success, the show received consistent critical acclaim and became a cult favourite. In September 2013, Channel 4 announced that the show's ninth series would be its last. Series 9 was filmed throughout August and September 2015 and premiered on 11 November 2015. The final episode aired on 16 December 2015.
In the first series, Mark and Jeremy start out with similar aims of bedding their next-door neighbour Toni (Elizabeth Marmur), though Mark is also dangerously obsessed with his workmate Sophie (Olivia Colman), who is more interested in the manly Jeff. Both endure awkward situations; Mark suffers a sexual admiration for his boss, Alan Johnson, while Jeremy remembers having oral sex with Super Hans (Matt King) during a drug binge. 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 sexual favours from Toni.