One thing I love about peep show is it is a perfect time capsule of mid 2000's Britain. The colour grading especially. Makes me think about new wide-screen tvs, pressing the red button for extra content and payday loan ads. Also was there ever any sunshine back then?
That’s the perfect summary. There was a gloomy confused angst to the 2000s I always picked up on through media. It always felt like it was a big nasty hangover from the 1990s My mind jumps to Chris Morris’s JAM for a reference to how weird, dark and experimental a lot of the 2000s UK stuff seemed to be. I could talk about this for ages even if it’s hard to pinpoint, it also felt ‘era-less’ too?
Jesse Armstrong managed to make lightning strike twice in co-creating Peep Show and creating Succession. And then a ton of other writing credits on movies and tv shows such as Four Lions (which Sam Bain wrote on as well), In The Loop, Black Mirror, Veep, and The Thick of It. I’m dying to know what’s next, although I’m certain the wait will be worth it!
Jesus christ that host is awful. Im not a violent person but shes got my blood boiling. Such a shame a gathering like this should be a joy to listen to.
I live in the U.S. and was lucky enough to find this on Netflix! I love it! Such a great show! I became a huge David Mitchell fan, starting with this show!
Ironically, for the most time it was on television the show remained pretty much on the verge of being cancelled. Two things saved them - the ridiculously low production cost and DVD sales. It wasn't until season 6 that they really managed to hit these big numbers in terms of viewership.
That level of writing and acting maintained over nine series is incredible. On a par with Dad’s Army. Two exchanges beautifully bookend the series. In the first episode, the unspoken thoughts: ‘Work shy freeloader’/‘Tight-fisted cockmuncher’. In the last, Mark and Jez announce how they’d kill one another, Mark replying ‘I think I’d come at you in the night, with a with a pillow on the face’. The series is so wonderfully wrapped by those two exchanges.
@@RalphBrooker-gn9iv I think you have to have an understanding of the British class system and an appreciation of the cultural references. (Ideally you'll have lived to have known family members of that generation too). But if those foundation blocks are in place you can't fail to appreciate it's genius. It's an absolute joy!
This was such a great unexpected treat, I could go on for hours about how much this show means to me in particular and comedy in general but no one really needs to witness a live autopsy unless they're performing it. Merry Christmark!!!
@@steveconnolly322His book How Not To Be A Boy is quite revealing. His relationship with his wife and daughters was being affected by his drinking and spreading himself too thin with the number of shows he did just for the money.
I've been re-watching it again recently, it's such a great mosaic of all the low moments, confusing thoughts, and strange urges most of us have as young men. Like we each had our own inner Mark and Jeremy - some of us more Mark and some of us more Jeremy - and to see that play out outwardly really resonates. Or maybe the jokes were just funny idk.
Peep Show really spoke to me when it came out. Even being a teenager back then, I saw a lot of myself or who I might grow up to be in both the neurotic and socially awkward side of Mark and the naive and vulnerable side of Jeremy. Now in my 30s I think about and revisit the show all the time and is definitely in my top 3 favourite sitcoms of all time.
Quite concerning to feel like you relate to any of these characters. They were grotesque comedic creations and if you think you're like any of them I only hope therapy has helped.
I finished the game 'Cyberpunk 2077' yesterday (Panam ending) and a character excitedly told me he'd bought the latest album from Curse these Metal Hands. It's outrageouuuss!
Aside from the obvious one I really liked Big Suze (who married a baron IRL), Gerrard and Johnson. I thought Jeff was a marvellous bastard too. Hats off to the casting dept.
Thank god Robert Webb himself commented on how overstated it is that they're 'there for each other' even in spite of the animosity between them. I've always heard that from fans of the show and as Robert Webb says, it's always felt very overstated.
@@mrkeogh reading your comment, my mind wondered thinking about your use of the final comma for far too long before self awareness kicked in, which only stopped me coming to a definitive conclusion about its necessity. What where we talking about?
It's very telling that rob and david immediately shut down the sympathy for their characters shown by the interviewer. It's the same reason I found it difficult in the last season, because you realise there is no redemption for them. But it couldn't have been different for this show.
I watch the entire show approximately six times per year. I'm not kidding. Please tell me that's not crossing some boundary which would require medical attention!
The pepper spray scene(s) is still my favourite. From Jeremy attacking Super Hanz and getting pepper sprayed. To Mark with the bump on his head, lager, cigarette and “heal and grow”. To Jeremy’s revenge and “it’s for your own good” 😂
There's just too many for me to pick a favourite. Jez getting Super Hanz sectioned, was one I saw recently, and maybe it recency bias, but that's a contender!😂
Just found out about these guys and I feel robbed. Spent the entire month watching ALL of their shows. David's character in Peep Show is probably the most relatable character I've ever seen
I think what makes Peep Show such a powerful work is its use of pathos. The incredible combination of POV and inner monologue intensify the skewed, warped viewpoints Jeremy and Mark have, and make the emotional connections to the characters so much more pertinent, and real, because you end up relating to them so much, and seeing the world exclusively through their lenses. Take Mark’s doomed romance with Sophie - you see her almost entirely through his eyes, and as a result for the first two series you don’t get to know her at all. All you see is the pedestal Mark has put her on, in a hope of finally making a relationship work so he won’t be alone. You don’t notice how utterly superficial their “bond” is - nothing more than stupid drawings on post-it notes - and you fall for her endearingly normal sweetness so much that you don’t see that she has little interesting characteristics, few interests (maybe apart from “Sex in The City”) and even fewer friends. She’s just as inept, bizarre, and ruthless as Mark and Jeremy are, but when you’re confronted with her real personality in Series 3 - when she’s shown to be boring at best and an impulsive, selfish hedonist at worst - you feel the surprise that Mark feels. You fall out of love with her too, and without even realising it just like Mark does as he remains in denial about their doomed relationship. You feel his pain when he’s forced by the rules a lifetime lack of love for his authentic self has made him create for himself force him to marry her. This pathos works because Jeremy and Mark are basically two halves of the same person - both co-dependent, both ultimately socially inept, both weak, both deeply desiring meaningful relationships in life, but both with a contradictory fear of change which makes them remarkably human.
Why do you think she had no friends though? As you said, we don't get her viewpoint, and from what we do get, she seems to have friends. The people at work, including Jeff and Lisa, the smoothie shop group, Nancy and possibly other members of the dance group. I think she started out normal but boring, and her exposure to Mark and Jez eventually drags her to the gutter. She used to actually be good at her job and be relatively neat and functional. By the end of the series we see her get into drugs, not bother showing up at work, drinking before work, doing a terrible job, deliberately getting pregnant from a broken condom, being a mess of a mother, turning up drunk in the middle of the day at a children's play centre, and much more. I like to think she would have married some equally boring man and had a boring drama free life without Mark (and Jez).
Absolutely loved this. Peep Show is one of my favourite comedies, along with Still Game. Sorry to hear the stationary cupboard is one of Isy's least favourite scenes, as it's one of the funniest scenes of the series, for me, though her reasoning was understandable (and also funny).
I think she would have liked it more if she'd filmed it once she got to know everyone but as her first scene filmed on the show-what a way to start your stint!
@@Cybren2000that's a good thing. Stopping before something becomes crap makes a better comedy show than something that goes on for longer and quality falls.
Any Jesse/Sam fans out there - Channel 4's Babylon' is a must watch. Only one series but Danny Boyle directed. I can't find it anywhere online but it's such a great series. Starred Britt Marling, James Nesbitt, Daniel Kaluuya and even Patterson Joseph (Johnson). Gutted they only did one series
Still my favourite sitcom of all time - would take something truly special to dethrone it! The performances across the board are great of course, the situation is relatable, which provides that grounding to make the absurd aspects even more hilarious, but what makes it standout ultimately is the writing, and one can tell it went through more re-writes than your average comedy courtesy of the determined hard work of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong! What is particularly notable about the writing though are the internal monologues which provide a level of comedic insight into the character's minds that few other shows have managed to pull off so successfully (Fleabag comes to mind, in its own way). 'Comedy of the mind' could be a sub-genre unto itself, as digging deeper into the psychology of a character is well-covered ground in dramatic shows, but seems little served in the realm of comedy, where Peep Show proves it can work brilliantly - because we all have messed up things going on in our heads if you dig deep enough that can be turned to hilarious ends! In a way, I wish it had more imitators, as its particular brand of pathos-ridden cringe truly stands the test of time, but they probably wouldn't be as good anyway!
I disagree that they were too old or that sitcom characters can't change or grow old (the later seasons of Only Fools and Horses were arguably the best - excluding the absolutely horrid final three episodes) I think the main issue with Peep Show was that the quality of the scrips declined a bit, probably due partially to the writers lives changing, and presumably being busier with other things. That said, the final seasons are still far better than your average sitcom and well worth the time. And the early ones are so good that I'd say overall it's in for a shout as the best written sitcom ever. I think it's funnier than pretty much anything, there are so many episodes that make you laugh out loud throughout, which is incredibly rare in sitcoms. Also, to their credit, they did try to progress the characters. At the beginning, Mark is actually a relatively okay bloke, even if he's mostly self interested. He at least maintains the facade of being a nice person, even to himself. Jeremy on the other hand is pretty awful and basically just uses Mark. By the end of the show, Jeremy's carefree, happy go lucky existence and the relative ease it's allowed him to live life with has actually given him the opportunity to introspect and to grow as a person. Whereas Mark has just been absolutely battered by life, and humiliated at every opportunity, which turns him into a monster. Jeremy does whatever he wants and gets away with it, Mark does everything society tells him to and is punished for it. I think it was really good character development, and whether it was by design or not they had the exact right idea for how to progress the show. The problem was just that the jokes weren't there. The witty dialogue was far less frequent, which is almost always the first thing to go. That said, it was still really, really funny at times. I don't really agree that the show is about young men, I think it's about loneliness, middle class/posh people, and the social sphere in England. With the right creative approach, they could easily write some really funny one off hour long specials or something like that. Maybe one every few years. I hate when people drag shows on too long, but I think with a bit of a reset Peep Show has loads more potential in the tank, and the references/characters/feelings portrayed in it are just so good that people aren't even close to being bored of it. A few years off to collect some brilliant jokes is really all it needed. Whatever they decide to do, the show will stand the test of time. It's brilliant.
As you say, Only Fools aged the characters as it went on but Peep Show struggled to do that with Jez [with Robert Webb in his 40's it was hard to be the 'cool young guy' of the early episodes] and when they introduced change like the baby it was mostly ignored. The show did get a bit repetitive later on with Mark getting a new job and a new love triangle each year which would inevitably end in failure and they started having guest writers involved as Sam & Jesse were busy. They did seem quite keen to make 'Back' a 'middle age show' but I think if they had swapped to doing one off specials with Peep show after series 7 they could have kept it going a bit longer.
@@jamesatkinsonja Yeah, I think getting guests writers was a mistake, and I agree they should have switched to one-off specials a while ago. It would have been really good that way. Overall, I can't complain about the ending. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't ruin the show. As for Jez being unable to play the cool young guy (not that he ever really was), there's a really funny David Earl character called Cumbo who I think is a slightly more embarrassing version of the kind of guy Jez might have turned into.
I remember seeing Andrew O'Connor in the late 90s, wandering through a shop having a very Alan Partridgesque conversation on his phone. It felt a bit sad, like someone who didn't realise their best days may be behind them. But more fool me, as Objective Productions ruled the 00s.
I remember seeing someone on the phone once and I thought 'what a loser' but I kept an interest in them and it turns out that sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong. He's working in an administrative role at Pizza Express (board room level). I guess we've all got mobile phones these days. He had brown gloves on, and I remember wondering what on earth he was thinking when he got dressed that day.
@@Jacam781 he was thinking it was cold and the only gloves he had were brown, possibly? The more prescient question would be what was he thinking when he bought those gloves, surely?
Every year I promise myself I won’t rewatch the American Office and Peep Show and every year by the end of January I’ve already broken my promise. For me Peep Show is as good as sitcoms get.
I've been watching through recently, and I have to say an underrated moment (might've been in the wedding episode) is lovely Nancy blithely saying, "I had a great night, although Super Hans did try to sexually assault me at one point" and Jeremy turning over his shoulder and cheerfully scolding "Super Hans!" and you hear "Sorry!" from the other room.
lights go dark screen flashes 'BIG BEATS ARE THE BEST..." and after an audible toke of crack, Hans exhales while saying 'GET HIGH ALL THE TIME', also there's a red'n'yella snake
I wanted to know: is the final scene of the final episode a nod to Withnail & I? Withnail ends with the break up of the two main protagonists at an enclosure with wolves, while Peep Show ends with Mark and Jeremy watching wolves on TV. (Must have spent the zoo animals budget, so had to play stock footage.)
It wouldn't surprise me, as there's also Super Hans' line "I've accidentally run to Windsor", which seems suspiciously close to Withnail's line "We've come on holiday by mistake".
Withnail and I has a couple of Peep Show precursors: 1) Occasionally we can hear what "I" is thinking, for example, in the pub toilet: "I could hardly piss straight with fear. He was a man with 3/4 of an inch of brain who'd taken a dislike to me. What had I done to offend him?". That is very Peep Show. 2) Danny the drug dealer is clearly a template for Super Hans, whether the writers or the actor did in intentionally is unknown. I like the wolf thing you pointed out, and the "I've accidentally run to Windsor"/"We've come on holiday by mistake" parallel thing. Maybe we all just spend too much time thinking about Peep Show.
David being David and saying they shot the first series in 2002 so it’s actually 21 years since they shot it and joking about it being an 20th anniversary .. but to David Mitchell David Mitchell.. I’m pretty sure this reunion happened last month in January 2024.. so that would be 22 years since they shot the first series and 21 years since the show first aired on channel 4 in 2003 😉😂
I really struggle to understand where the sound engineers are in these panel thingies.. There is terrible sound, on the brink of feedback and no one seems to do anything about it. Take the EQ and carve it out. Or walk up and adjust the mic. Do the preparations right so none of this happens.
@@Dude0000 I had better sound when i was 11 and all i had was 3 channel "sound console" with master tone "eq", and area speakers in the ceiling. It really is not an excuse and while i've done sound engineering for public speech and panels literally since i was kid, i'm not that special. Just your average local sound guy. So, if i know i can do better: the production quality sucks big time. Sound is often the last item in the list, after catering and hospitality for the guests. Even in musical productions... But it is also the most obvious sign of professionalism. Good sound is not that hard, and while i know that some situations are VERY challenging... There are still no excuses from the production even if we can excuse sound engineer working in impossible conditions. There are some excuses, you are sometimes just told to appear at certain time and "everything is fine" but you should not accept such conditions. A lesson you learn at some point, to demand better so you can do the BASIC stuff. BTW, at 11 i wasn't handling everything, all i knew was what to do if something starts to feedback, and how ot find the edge, and how much to pull back from it. That was so my dad could step away for a minute. Handling feedback with poor equipment is where i started. But too often it is just some intern who is put to that role, with minimal experience and using some AV department Bose and plastic mics.. It costs 400-1k to hire a sound guy, depending if they bring any own gear and HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO YOU THAT AUDIO; THE MAIN CONTENT IS GREAT... The thing is, we can lose the picture here.. Easily and be able to follow it. Audio is the #1 information, and there are people on stage that deserve respect. Probably their #1 event that year... So it is inexcusable, especially considering the budget of such event. Just accommodation, catering etc. alone is a hefty sum, and that is not about the event itself.
@@Dude0000 Comes with the territory but yeah, i do care about sound quite a bit. Does not need to be perfect but it at least has to be understandable: comprehension is #1 requirement, otherwise all the resources we used to do the whole thing went to trash.
Fun fact, between season 1 and season 2, Ricky Gervais contacted channel 4 and persuaded them to actually commission season 2 😉 . Hence the 12 month delay for the second season…
@@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549 Iain Morris who worked on the show did an interview where is said channel 4 hated peep show, and if it wasn’t for Ricky sticking up for the show, they might not of got the second season. I don’t think Gervais has spoken about it publicly. At the time channel for offered Ricky a talk show which he ended up accepting.
@@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549echoing what others have said but it came from Ian Morris. Ricky also served as a writer on Bruiser which was essentially the precursor to the Mitchell and Webb show which also featured Martin Freeman and Matt Holness, so it makes sense that Ricky was well acquainted with their work and would advocate for it.
12 months seems a normal gap. There was an 18 month gap between 3 and 4 and by all accounts, 3 could have been the last season but after that it was usually renewed when the current series was in production
And as any XFM listener knows Ricky used to wrestle Ian Morris in his living room with his top off ("it's not gay"), so he probably had a word in his ear then whilst winning by submission.
Love Peep Show and this is a great vid. who is the host? I recognise her and she mentioned that she had been in the show. Which character does she play?
Who is she? Ive a feeling ive seen her in other things but I cant remember! Additional - its Megan from the life coaching plot, thanks to someone below telling me!
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Four panelists? Four? That’s insane
😂
P😊😊
No soup hands?!
One thing I love about peep show is it is a perfect time capsule of mid 2000's Britain. The colour grading especially. Makes me think about new wide-screen tvs, pressing the red button for extra content and payday loan ads. Also was there ever any sunshine back then?
this the office two pints bottom royale family etc etc etc perpetually gloomy. agreed. edit forgot partridge always overcast
Yes
mid 2000's england...not scotland, not wales, just england...yes, there is a difference...
@@datgrrl_official I get what your trying to say, I was more referring to how things looked and technology differences rather than the culture.
That’s the perfect summary. There was a gloomy confused angst to the 2000s I always picked up on through media. It always felt like it was a big nasty hangover from the 1990s
My mind jumps to Chris Morris’s JAM for a reference to how weird, dark and experimental a lot of the 2000s UK stuff seemed to be. I could talk about this for ages even if it’s hard to pinpoint, it also felt ‘era-less’ too?
20th anniversary of Channel 4's Peep Show? Chance would be a fine thing.
A fine thing indeed.
@@blackcrowking Corrigan! 200 lattes!
saying that too much now
Fwankfurt
Soon as!
One of the best sitcoms of all time. I quote it all the time!
It's very moreish
Chance would be a fine thing
@OfficialFingazMC Hi honey you're home
They even have lovely clean Nancy on the panel.
I , with no hyperbole, watch the peep show every gosh darn week. The foibles and profundity abound!
Same, I always have it in a tab ready to go when I need a break from all of this depressing sh*t
@@thesequelvintage JACKO Tv is a hero
watched the entire show in 3 days last week, actually mad it never made it across the pond
Jesse Armstrong managed to make lightning strike twice in co-creating Peep Show and creating Succession. And then a ton of other writing credits on movies and tv shows such as Four Lions (which Sam Bain wrote on as well), In The Loop, Black Mirror, Veep, and The Thick of It. I’m dying to know what’s next, although I’m certain the wait will be worth it!
All my favourite British shows
Fresh meat is also Jesse Armstrong , not as good as the other two but still very very good
Jesus christ that host is awful. Im not a violent person but shes got my blood boiling. Such a shame a gathering like this should be a joy to listen to.
Fresh Meat is terrible. Jack Whitehall is thoroughly unlikeable.
Ha! That’s my fave episode of black mirror. Of course he wrote it.
I live in the U.S. and was lucky enough to find this on Netflix! I love it! Such a great show! I became a huge David Mitchell fan, starting with this show!
glad you enjoyed it and didnt need a US remake to understand it!
Do yourself a favour, go watch the pilot for the US version 😂
It makes...no fucking sense 😂
Probably one of the best British comedies made.
what on earth do you mean 'probably'
👌👌
Ironically, for the most time it was on television the show remained pretty much on the verge of being cancelled. Two things saved them - the ridiculously low production cost and DVD sales. It wasn't until season 6 that they really managed to hit these big numbers in terms of viewership.
At one point years ago, I kept seeing David Mitchell everywhere. It was so weird. Once I heard his voice in a pub, turned around and he was there! 😅
Well obviously he’s going to be there if you heard his voice
@@5cott1711 could have been the TV.
@@5cott1711well don’t you sound a cu**
which pub? :) haha
Wooow... that would be a dream!
That level of writing and acting maintained over nine series is incredible. On a par with Dad’s Army. Two exchanges beautifully bookend the series. In the first episode, the unspoken thoughts: ‘Work shy freeloader’/‘Tight-fisted cockmuncher’. In the last, Mark and Jez announce how they’d kill one another, Mark replying ‘I think I’d come at you in the night, with a with a pillow on the face’. The series is so wonderfully wrapped by those two exchanges.
Is Dad’s Army good? I saw snippets on daytime tv and thought it looked ropey.
@@bigman25plus25 Arguably the finest sitcom ever. Whatever your age it’s worth it.
Was never the same after Walker died just like Peep Show was never the same after Season 4
@@RalphBrooker-gn9iv I think you have to have an understanding of the British class system and an appreciation of the cultural references. (Ideally you'll have lived to have known family members of that generation too). But if those foundation blocks are in place you can't fail to appreciate it's genius. It's an absolute joy!
@@sammyb1651 Agreed. It's a rare older sitcom that still gets repeated pretty much every week [on BBC 2] because it still has an audience
The el dude brothers together again
Ehhhhhh ehhhhhh
Ehhhhhh ehhhhhh
Unenthusiastic "eeeeeeehhh"
If you haven’t watch the tv show Back you should. Bummed they stopped after two series cause I felt like it was going to end up great
I love this show. But 20 years! Feel so old
Me too. I caught Peep Show on Channel 4 when it was in its second series. 😃
But remember it only ended 9 years ago
This was such a great unexpected treat, I could go on for hours about how much this show means to me in particular and comedy in general but no one really needs to witness a live autopsy unless they're performing it. Merry Christmark!!!
It's great to see Robert Webb in such high spirits.
That guy is a star actor. Why isn’t he in all sorts of brilliant things?
@@steveconnolly322His book How Not To Be A Boy is quite revealing. His relationship with his wife and daughters was being affected by his drinking and spreading himself too thin with the number of shows he did just for the money.
@@steveconnolly322He's written a couple of books recently. Maybe it's a choice to be acting less?
@@junbh2 I hope so, but he coul def do both
Well his health problems I'm sure have played big part in it.
Every now and then the algorithm gets it right, thank you
I believe peep show fans aren't known as peepers but just as being in the dobby club
Corfu '06?
No. Definitely not a member of the Dobby Club.
not even gonna lie, that supply closet scene made me join the Dobby club
"You don't want to see my dreams. I've dreamt about the battle of Austerliz and I was Napoleon. A sit-com going well barely touches the sides." 😂
Imagine being Jesse Armstrong and creating one of the best comedies ever and then creating one of the best primetime dramas ever. Legend.
...but also being very, very bald. So you know, swings & roundabouts.
@@sratushe’s like a non-footballing guardiola
He looks like an alternate reality Karl Pilkington who finished Uni.
he's a bum. he steals works of others
@@mftmss7086 wow show me please dude
I've been re-watching it again recently, it's such a great mosaic of all the low moments, confusing thoughts, and strange urges most of us have as young men. Like we each had our own inner Mark and Jeremy - some of us more Mark and some of us more Jeremy - and to see that play out outwardly really resonates.
Or maybe the jokes were just funny idk.
This is absolutely true
1:16 "I've dreamt about the Battle of Austerlitz, and I was Napoleon."
Chance would be a fine thing.
A fine thing indeed
You’re saying it too much now.
@@olivertaylor9755 Chance would be a fine thing.
Peep Show really spoke to me when it came out. Even being a teenager back then, I saw a lot of myself or who I might grow up to be in both the neurotic and socially awkward side of Mark and the naive and vulnerable side of Jeremy. Now in my 30s I think about and revisit the show all the time and is definitely in my top 3 favourite sitcoms of all time.
Quite concerning to feel like you relate to any of these characters. They were grotesque comedic creations and if you think you're like any of them I only hope therapy has helped.
@@drumgold23relating to a character doesn’t mean you completely embody them, nor does it mean you personally align with their ethics!
@@drumgold23 isn't the whole point of peep show that you can bashfully relate to some of the embarassing things the characters do and think?
@@idrinkcarrotjuiceexactly, that drumgold just seems a bit simple
@@dulcieofarrell8432I relate to superhans, doesn’t mean I’m hungry for crack, has twins that I rarely see or beat my freinds up for reasons unknown.
I finished the game 'Cyberpunk 2077' yesterday (Panam ending) and a character excitedly told me he'd bought the latest album from Curse these Metal Hands. It's outrageouuuss!
'AAAANDS!
I always thought he said Kirstys metal hands.
I really do love the many Peepshow references in CP2077
Aside from the obvious one I really liked Big Suze (who married a baron IRL), Gerrard and Johnson. I thought Jeff was a marvellous bastard too. Hats off to the casting dept.
Jeff?!
Tube up his nose tube up his nose he's a man with a tube up his nose
Love, Jeffy
Jeff??? As In Jeff????
Fucking love these guys. Always fall asleep to unruly now, David Mitchell is as underrated as it's possible to be
Thank god Robert Webb himself commented on how overstated it is that they're 'there for each other' even in spite of the animosity between them. I've always heard that from fans of the show and as Robert Webb says, it's always felt very overstated.
Oh, yes. Jez and Mark massively resent their dependence on, and inability to escape from, each other.
@@mrkeogh reading your comment, my mind wondered thinking about your use of the final comma for far too long before self awareness kicked in, which only stopped me coming to a definitive conclusion about its necessity.
What where we talking about?
This Q & A was outrageous !
Contagious!
Sooo futile
aaaaAahhhaaaahha
It's very telling that rob and david immediately shut down the sympathy for their characters shown by the interviewer. It's the same reason I found it difficult in the last season, because you realise there is no redemption for them. But it couldn't have been different for this show.
I watch the entire show approximately six times per year. I'm not kidding. Please tell me that's not crossing some boundary which would require medical attention!
For some reason I've never really watched Peep Show, but I loved watching this!
The pepper spray scene(s) is still my favourite. From Jeremy attacking Super Hanz and getting pepper sprayed. To Mark with the bump on his head, lager, cigarette and “heal and grow”. To Jeremy’s revenge and “it’s for your own good” 😂
There's just too many for me to pick a favourite. Jez getting Super Hanz sectioned, was one I saw recently, and maybe it recency bias, but that's a contender!😂
Just found out about these guys and I feel robbed. Spent the entire month watching ALL of their shows. David's character in Peep Show is probably the most relatable character I've ever seen
I think what makes Peep Show such a powerful work is its use of pathos. The incredible combination of POV and inner monologue intensify the skewed, warped viewpoints Jeremy and Mark have, and make the emotional connections to the characters so much more pertinent, and real, because you end up relating to them so much, and seeing the world exclusively through their lenses. Take Mark’s doomed romance with Sophie - you see her almost entirely through his eyes, and as a result for the first two series you don’t get to know her at all. All you see is the pedestal Mark has put her on, in a hope of finally making a relationship work so he won’t be alone. You don’t notice how utterly superficial their “bond” is - nothing more than stupid drawings on post-it notes - and you fall for her endearingly normal sweetness so much that you don’t see that she has little interesting characteristics, few interests (maybe apart from “Sex in The City”) and even fewer friends. She’s just as inept, bizarre, and ruthless as Mark and Jeremy are, but when you’re confronted with her real personality in Series 3 - when she’s shown to be boring at best and an impulsive, selfish hedonist at worst - you feel the surprise that Mark feels. You fall out of love with her too, and without even realising it just like Mark does as he remains in denial about their doomed relationship. You feel his pain when he’s forced by the rules a lifetime lack of love for his authentic self has made him create for himself force him to marry her. This pathos works because Jeremy and Mark are basically two halves of the same person - both co-dependent, both ultimately socially inept, both weak, both deeply desiring meaningful relationships in life, but both with a contradictory fear of change which makes them remarkably human.
How do you not notice how superficial their bond is and how little he actually knows her? To me that was half the humour of it.
Professor Yaffle
Why do you think she had no friends though? As you said, we don't get her viewpoint, and from what we do get, she seems to have friends. The people at work, including Jeff and Lisa, the smoothie shop group, Nancy and possibly other members of the dance group.
I think she started out normal but boring, and her exposure to Mark and Jez eventually drags her to the gutter. She used to actually be good at her job and be relatively neat and functional. By the end of the series we see her get into drugs, not bother showing up at work, drinking before work, doing a terrible job, deliberately getting pregnant from a broken condom, being a mess of a mother, turning up drunk in the middle of the day at a children's play centre, and much more. I like to think she would have married some equally boring man and had a boring drama free life without Mark (and Jez).
One of the greatest shows of all time. Unmatched as the best sitcom of the 21st century
Absolutely loved this. Peep Show is one of my favourite comedies, along with Still Game. Sorry to hear the stationary cupboard is one of Isy's least favourite scenes, as it's one of the funniest scenes of the series, for me, though her reasoning was understandable (and also funny).
I think she would have liked it more if she'd filmed it once she got to know everyone but as her first scene filmed on the show-what a way to start your stint!
Lifelong "Peeper" & watch all 9 series end to end every year to get me thru the winter. Also, would like Rob to play me in my biopic!
Yup, it just turned Peep Show season again
Me too.
Lovely to see Nancy there!
For me, Peep Show is the greatest comedy show of all time. Quality never drops once throughout each season, which is rare for a comedy.
I think the quality did drop later on but it was still good
father ted was pretty good all the way through.
I did find it dropped in later seasons.
@@jack28augyeah but that was just three series for twenty something episodes
@@Cybren2000that's a good thing. Stopping before something becomes crap makes a better comedy show than something that goes on for longer and quality falls.
Any Jesse/Sam fans out there - Channel 4's
Babylon' is a must watch. Only one series but
Danny Boyle directed. I can't find it anywhere
online but it's such a great series. Starred Britt
Marling, James Nesbitt, Daniel Kaluuya and
even Patterson Joseph (Johnson). Gutted they only did one series
Agreed
I just posted this in response to another comment. Nobody seems to know Babylon but it is an absolute banger.
All four, it'll be on channel 4s online streaming surely?
@@jamesm4903 unfortunately not
This makes me feel very, very old
Still my favourite sitcom of all time - would take something truly special to dethrone it! The performances across the board are great of course, the situation is relatable, which provides that grounding to make the absurd aspects even more hilarious, but what makes it standout ultimately is the writing, and one can tell it went through more re-writes than your average comedy courtesy of the determined hard work of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong!
What is particularly notable about the writing though are the internal monologues which provide a level of comedic insight into the character's minds that few other shows have managed to pull off so successfully (Fleabag comes to mind, in its own way). 'Comedy of the mind' could be a sub-genre unto itself, as digging deeper into the psychology of a character is well-covered ground in dramatic shows, but seems little served in the realm of comedy, where Peep Show proves it can work brilliantly - because we all have messed up things going on in our heads if you dig deep enough that can be turned to hilarious ends! In a way, I wish it had more imitators, as its particular brand of pathos-ridden cringe truly stands the test of time, but they probably wouldn't be as good anyway!
Finally realised... the host is Megan from Peep Show
Yeah it took me a couple mins too.. can you life coach me?
@@oclarke31 please call the life coaching federation to set an appointment
No. But I will section you
@@steveconnolly322 if you section me, ill section you right back!
@@steveconnolly322 You've had your fun with the sectioning. There's gonna be no more sectioning today.
Best Sitcom ever made
I disagree that they were too old or that sitcom characters can't change or grow old (the later seasons of Only Fools and Horses were arguably the best - excluding the absolutely horrid final three episodes)
I think the main issue with Peep Show was that the quality of the scrips declined a bit, probably due partially to the writers lives changing, and presumably being busier with other things.
That said, the final seasons are still far better than your average sitcom and well worth the time. And the early ones are so good that I'd say overall it's in for a shout as the best written sitcom ever. I think it's funnier than pretty much anything, there are so many episodes that make you laugh out loud throughout, which is incredibly rare in sitcoms.
Also, to their credit, they did try to progress the characters. At the beginning, Mark is actually a relatively okay bloke, even if he's mostly self interested. He at least maintains the facade of being a nice person, even to himself. Jeremy on the other hand is pretty awful and basically just uses Mark. By the end of the show, Jeremy's carefree, happy go lucky existence and the relative ease it's allowed him to live life with has actually given him the opportunity to introspect and to grow as a person. Whereas Mark has just been absolutely battered by life, and humiliated at every opportunity, which turns him into a monster. Jeremy does whatever he wants and gets away with it, Mark does everything society tells him to and is punished for it. I think it was really good character development, and whether it was by design or not they had the exact right idea for how to progress the show. The problem was just that the jokes weren't there. The witty dialogue was far less frequent, which is almost always the first thing to go. That said, it was still really, really funny at times.
I don't really agree that the show is about young men, I think it's about loneliness, middle class/posh people, and the social sphere in England. With the right creative approach, they could easily write some really funny one off hour long specials or something like that. Maybe one every few years. I hate when people drag shows on too long, but I think with a bit of a reset Peep Show has loads more potential in the tank, and the references/characters/feelings portrayed in it are just so good that people aren't even close to being bored of it. A few years off to collect some brilliant jokes is really all it needed. Whatever they decide to do, the show will stand the test of time. It's brilliant.
As you say, Only Fools aged the characters as it went on but Peep Show struggled to do that with Jez [with Robert Webb in his 40's it was hard to be the 'cool young guy' of the early episodes] and when they introduced change like the baby it was mostly ignored. The show did get a bit repetitive later on with Mark getting a new job and a new love triangle each year which would inevitably end in failure and they started having guest writers involved as Sam & Jesse were busy. They did seem quite keen to make 'Back' a 'middle age show' but I think if they had swapped to doing one off specials with Peep show after series 7 they could have kept it going a bit longer.
@@jamesatkinsonja Yeah, I think getting guests writers was a mistake, and I agree they should have switched to one-off specials a while ago. It would have been really good that way. Overall, I can't complain about the ending. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't ruin the show.
As for Jez being unable to play the cool young guy (not that he ever really was), there's a really funny David Earl character called Cumbo who I think is a slightly more embarrassing version of the kind of guy Jez might have turned into.
I remember seeing Andrew O'Connor in the late 90s, wandering through a shop having a very Alan Partridgesque conversation on his phone. It felt a bit sad, like someone who didn't realise their best days may be behind them. But more fool me, as Objective Productions ruled the 00s.
I remember seeing someone on the phone once and I thought 'what a loser' but I kept an interest in them and it turns out that sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong. He's working in an administrative role at Pizza Express (board room level). I guess we've all got mobile phones these days. He had brown gloves on, and I remember wondering what on earth he was thinking when he got dressed that day.
Haha @@Jacam781
More fool you…
@@Jacam781 he was thinking it was cold and the only gloves he had were brown, possibly?
The more prescient question would be what was he thinking when he bought those gloves, surely?
20th anniversary?!?! the sweet embrace of death approaches
True
The scythe is remorseless
David's panel show skills means he is as sharply honed as a Japanese Katana, but with the cooperative nature of string to tie everyone together.
That was.......a very complicated metaphor (and fully deserving of an Angry David Logic critique 😄 ).
Interviewer was totally right that it seemed glamourous that an American star was in the show. Shame they were silent at that remark
The interviewer was in the show, too, if you recall!
@@unclespinnydervish2471She was right? No wonder she seemed so familiar
@@unclespinnydervish2471ahhhh, that’s really cool. Who was she?
She's Megan, Jeremy's girlfriend in the throuple in the last season - very odd they don't mention it.
Big beats are the best, get high all the time
At the time it felt like a much more all-encompassing philosophy.
Class start to finish
Bring it back!
...so when can we expect a pilot of Moon Prison? 🙏
I think they're going to release some lunary clips soon
Unfortunately not. Execs thought the concept was too cheesy, with holes in the plot.
Production costs were Astronomical
No Matt King? :( Still love these guys.
He was running to Windsor!
He was so good!
He's at home eating tuna sandwiches and monging out to Snow Patrol
the bottom half of him was on fire
Macedonia?
Every year I promise myself I won’t rewatch the American Office and Peep Show and every year by the end of January I’ve already broken my promise. For me Peep Show is as good as sitcoms get.
We rewatch both shows pretty much every two years. Obviously, it's much easier with The Peep Show....
Robert Webb is incredibly funny.
I've been watching through recently, and I have to say an underrated moment (might've been in the wedding episode) is lovely Nancy blithely saying, "I had a great night, although Super Hans did try to sexually assault me at one point" and Jeremy turning over his shoulder and cheerfully scolding "Super Hans!" and you hear "Sorry!" from the other room.
Would have liked super Hans to walk out on stage
lights go dark screen flashes 'BIG BEATS ARE THE BEST..." and after an audible toke of crack, Hans exhales while saying 'GET HIGH ALL THE TIME', also there's a red'n'yella snake
@@papasy3748 now that… that is outrageous 🤯
They also wrote on The Queens Nose and My Parents Are Aliens!? They were bloody great 😁
Got to start somewhere!
The Queen's Nose was my childhood. Had such a crush on the main character back then. It was up there with Round the Twist
It's amazing how I have friends where I am the Jeremy and friends where I am the Mark in the relationship.
Robert does a great Prince William impression these days...
Great host. Lovely flow of anecdotes
Surely the bfi could organise for a sound engineer that can set up a rig that doesn’t clip
There's a slight Succession- shaped elephant in the room watching this.
Up there in the top 10 of all time great sitcoms.
top 10?! more like top 3
Darrien Bain
Gutted I didnt hear about this!
20 years! 😮
Oh my god, this is piggin' massive!
This show is an example of humor only british people can make. Love that show(I am Danish).
Yes, it's a lot about the stiff upper lip attitude on the outside and self-loathing on the inside. And lots of bad choices...
More peep show!
Show More Peep!
Just sat down with some traditional cauliflower and 4 naan, gonna sit back and relax 😏
With a nice pint of Guinness (logo in the foam please)
@@ommk9650 make sure not wearing ocean coloured pants
@@SalvatoriusMyspace ocean coloured pants sound so Rainbow Rhythms.
I wanted to know: is the final scene of the final episode a nod to Withnail & I?
Withnail ends with the break up of the two main protagonists at an enclosure with wolves, while Peep Show ends with Mark and Jeremy watching wolves on TV.
(Must have spent the zoo animals budget, so had to play stock footage.)
But… they didn’t actually break up
@@steveconnolly322
The wolves? I believe not, no.
Your thinking into it too much bud 😊
It wouldn't surprise me, as there's also Super Hans' line "I've accidentally run to Windsor", which seems suspiciously close to Withnail's line "We've come on holiday by mistake".
Withnail and I has a couple of Peep Show precursors: 1) Occasionally we can hear what "I" is thinking, for example, in the pub toilet: "I could hardly piss straight with fear. He was a man with 3/4 of an inch of brain who'd taken a dislike to me. What had I done to offend him?". That is very Peep Show. 2) Danny the drug dealer is clearly a template for Super Hans, whether the writers or the actor did in intentionally is unknown. I like the wolf thing you pointed out, and the "I've accidentally run to Windsor"/"We've come on holiday by mistake" parallel thing. Maybe we all just spend too much time thinking about Peep Show.
Bring back a middle aged peep show
They can deage them using advanced CGI
I adore David Mitchell.
David being David and saying they shot the first series in 2002 so it’s actually 21 years since they shot it and joking about it being an 20th anniversary .. but to David Mitchell David Mitchell.. I’m pretty sure this reunion happened last month in January 2024.. so that would be 22 years since they shot the first series and 21 years since the show first aired on channel 4 in 2003 😉😂
The BFI stagged us. Good and proper.
I love how Izzie assumes i havent watched the paintball epsiode over 30 times... Along with the rest
I really struggle to understand where the sound engineers are in these panel thingies.. There is terrible sound, on the brink of feedback and no one seems to do anything about it. Take the EQ and carve it out. Or walk up and adjust the mic. Do the preparations right so none of this happens.
Perhaps it was more for the audience.
@@Dude0000 I had better sound when i was 11 and all i had was 3 channel "sound console" with master tone "eq", and area speakers in the ceiling. It really is not an excuse and while i've done sound engineering for public speech and panels literally since i was kid, i'm not that special. Just your average local sound guy. So, if i know i can do better: the production quality sucks big time.
Sound is often the last item in the list, after catering and hospitality for the guests. Even in musical productions... But it is also the most obvious sign of professionalism. Good sound is not that hard, and while i know that some situations are VERY challenging... There are still no excuses from the production even if we can excuse sound engineer working in impossible conditions. There are some excuses, you are sometimes just told to appear at certain time and "everything is fine" but you should not accept such conditions. A lesson you learn at some point, to demand better so you can do the BASIC stuff.
BTW, at 11 i wasn't handling everything, all i knew was what to do if something starts to feedback, and how ot find the edge, and how much to pull back from it. That was so my dad could step away for a minute. Handling feedback with poor equipment is where i started. But too often it is just some intern who is put to that role, with minimal experience and using some AV department Bose and plastic mics.. It costs 400-1k to hire a sound guy, depending if they bring any own gear and HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO YOU THAT AUDIO; THE MAIN CONTENT IS GREAT... The thing is, we can lose the picture here.. Easily and be able to follow it. Audio is the #1 information, and there are people on stage that deserve respect. Probably their #1 event that year... So it is inexcusable, especially considering the budget of such event. Just accommodation, catering etc. alone is a hefty sum, and that is not about the event itself.
@@squidcaps4308 wow, this really matters to you. Sorry, I condemn the sound then, too.
@@Dude0000 Comes with the territory but yeah, i do care about sound quite a bit. Does not need to be perfect but it at least has to be understandable: comprehension is #1 requirement, otherwise all the resources we used to do the whole thing went to trash.
Twins on the left hand side!
Thank you for posting!.
Oi LOOK IT'S CLEAN SHIRT
Isn't that a good thing?
Oi, clean shirt. How do you get that shirt so clean mate.
Fun fact, between season 1 and season 2, Ricky Gervais contacted channel 4 and persuaded them to actually commission season 2 😉 . Hence the 12 month delay for the second season…
Is that a fact or just something Ricky Gervais tells people?
@@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549 Iain Morris who worked on the show did an interview where is said channel 4 hated peep show, and if it wasn’t for Ricky sticking up for the show, they might not of got the second season. I don’t think Gervais has spoken about it publicly. At the time channel for offered Ricky a talk show which he ended up accepting.
@@kickedinthecalfbyacow7549echoing what others have said but it came from Ian Morris. Ricky also served as a writer on Bruiser which was essentially the precursor to the Mitchell and Webb show which also featured Martin Freeman and Matt Holness, so it makes sense that Ricky was well acquainted with their work and would advocate for it.
12 months seems a normal gap. There was an 18 month gap between 3 and 4 and by all accounts, 3 could have been the last season but after that it was usually renewed when the current series was in production
And as any XFM listener knows Ricky used to wrestle Ian Morris in his living room with his top off ("it's not gay"), so he probably had a word in his ear then whilst winning by submission.
Sam Bain. We know.
Even the actor playing Darrien looks like Sam
I came here looking for a comment like this
Chance will be a fine thing.
??
amazing!
Bring the show back! Please. I can't keep watching these over and over (but i will though)
Megan did a great job Hosting, glad she forgave Jez
America loves the show too!
20 years since Peep Show was first transmitted. That doesn't make me feel old in the slightest...
Me too. I caught Peep Show on Channel 4 when it was in its second series. 😃
@@Summer21. No way. So did I. I was fifteen, it was on right after Max Paddy's Road To Nowhere
@@MosesDeLaRoses That’s cool. I liked Max And Paddy’s Road To Nowhere too, which I bought on DVD. 😃
I hope you locked the doors and refused to let them leave until they made another series...
Thats what Supers Hans would do
We don't need another series-9 was plenty! [And both are around 50 so it would be very different]
Love Peep Show and this is a great vid. who is the host? I recognise her and she mentioned that she had been in the show. Which character does she play?
Megan
hi from chile, i love peep show
Is that Maggie/Megan?! Wonderful
David Mitchell citing the Battle of Austerlitz is very Corrigan of him
I love the interviewer, very funny and makes some great points.
Who is she? Ive a feeling ive seen her in other things but I cant remember! Additional - its Megan from the life coaching plot, thanks to someone below telling me!
What a fucking show
Love this
Is it really 20 years. It only seems like the 90's
Loved Super Hans and Johnson. The char grilled dog on the canal..... Priceless.
I've mistakenly run to Windsor
Accidentally. Dude.
@@lilme7052 yeah well shit is, as shit does
Shout out to the event organisers who planted the microphones too far from the guests.
You had one job........
Luckily we can hear Cariad's coughing clear as a bell.
Johnson pronouncing Frankfurt as Fwonkfort.
JOHNSON?!!?!!
@@trevparks708 MARK.