Peep Show gets a 5th series
Great news for comedy fans this morning... MediaGuardian are reporting that Channel 4 have re-commissioned Peep Show for a fifth, six-part series.
Peep Show, written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain is a British Comedy Award winning cult sitcom about two socially dysfunctional twenty-somethings who share a South London flat. Wannabe popstar Jeremy (Robert Webb) is a lazy man with big ideas, mostly about himself. His old friend and flatmate is the astonishingly tragic Mark (David Mitchell), an obsessive loser with a no-pain, no-gain view of the world. Peep Show has a unique filming style - much of the action is seen through the eyes of the characters - hence the title.
Such is the confidence of Channel 4 in the comedy that they've asked the show's production company Objective Productions to produce another series before the fourth has even been shown. It is certainly a brave move by the broadcaster as despite being widely praised by the likes of Ricky Gervais the last two series of Peep Show have struggled in the ratings. In fact this news comes as somewhat of a shock as at one point, just after the third series, Channel 4 were considering axing the show completely - its quite a turn around and great to see a channel finally putting their faith in a format.
A Channel 4 spokesman is quoted as saying: "It is such a good show and we didn't want to get into a situation where we couldn't get Robert and David when we wanted them. People who love it love it and rightly so, but for the next two series we will be hoping for it to do in ratings terms what it has always done in terms of its sheer quality".
Peep Show series four begins next month. Having proposed by accident to Sophie, Mark now faces the horror of having to actually go through with the wedding. Or will he? And, when Nancy, Jeremy's beautiful ex 'visa wife' unexpectedly turns up again, how far will he go to win her back? Also this series, Mark spends a horrific weekend with Sophie's argumentative parents, tries to get his gym instructor sacked, and also gets involved in a spot of arson. Meanwhile, Jeremy performs some 'handy work' for a male pop star, does something pretty unspeakable to a dog and, worst of all, sleeps with Sophie's mother.
Mitchell and Webb are also starring in Magicians - the film written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain which will be in cinemas soon.
In other commissioning news Channel 4 has also asked Objective to make four more episodes of Star Stories and is expected to continue with the format of mock biopics of assorted celebrities on an "ad hoc basis" from here on in.