Robert Webb

Peep Show made despair ridiculously funny

The eighth series of Peep Show saw David Mitchell and Robert Webb return as odd couple Mark and Jez, whose unlikely bromance is now as comforting as it is funny.

There was a moment at the start of last night's Peep Show where my own internal monologue got a bit antsy. Could the dysfunctional flat-share sitcom really be back for an eighth series? Surely Mark and Jeremy should have moved on a bit from their odd-couple shtick by now - Mark has a baby for goodness' sake.

Wasn't the joke, like the show's protagonists, getting a bit old? But then Mark and Jeremy started interacting with other humans and it was all OK again. Or rather, it was very much not OK. It was, as usual, watch-through-your-fingers-make-it-stop stuff and sadistically enjoyable it was too.

Peep Show, shot on single camera and soundtracked by the thoughts spooling through the heads of its two anti-heroes, has been going since 2003. And while jobs, mates and girlfriends have come and gone, nothing has changed. Mark still thinks he's cleverer than he is. Jeremy still thinks he's cooler than he is. Both still have zero people skills. The wince-per-scene rate remains remarkably high.

The series kicked off with Jez packing up to make way for Mark's girlfriend, Dobby, to move in. Except that Dobby seemed quite happy in her own flat and, worse, was spending an awful lot of time with Mark's rival Gerrard. There was an inkling that Jez might not be moving out so soon after all.

As usual, the cringe-factor ratcheted up until Pompous and Punchable had each delivered a tour de force of squirm. Mark's was a eulogy to his former rival that he précised into bullet points and a "take-home message" in order to rush off to an interview while Jeremy's was a sweaty, paranoid and futile attempt to wrongfoot his therapist. Both were exquisitely performed by David Mitchell and Robert Webb but I still hope that this series might be their last. I'm not sure there's much more the writers can put them, and us, through.

Mitchell and Webb interview

Men, maturity and morals with David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

The award-winning sitcom returns for an eighth series after a gap of two years. Starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb as a flat-sharing odd couple (as the original tagline put it, "two very ordinary weirdos") the show, written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, has never attracted a mainstream audience but retains a dedicated cult following and deserves its reputation as one of the best sitcoms around. It is also the longest-running sitcom in Channel 4 history.

Despite the long interval, we pick up exactly where season seven left off - with Mark (Mitchell) trying to eject Jeremy (Webb) from the flat in order to install his love interest Dobby (Isy Suttie). But neither seems eager to comply with Mark's plans. In fact, Dobby is more concerned for the welfare of Mark's chief love rival Gerrard (Jim Howick) who's milking a flu attack for all its worth; while Mark's efforts to move Jeremy on by funding some psychotherapy sessions prove predictably futile. Meanwhile Super Hans (Matt King) has traded in his musical ambitions for a job in a bathroom fittings firm and suggests Mark try out for a position there too - something he's determined to go for even when tragedy intervenes.

A quick chat with David Mitchell and Robert Webb

TV & Satellite Week magazine caught up with Mitchell & Webb to find out where it all went wrong...

Sound your horns, the El Dude brothers are back. David Mitchell and Robert Webb crack out their tried-and-tested repressed posh boy meets liberal loser routine for a mind-blowing eighth series of Peep Show this week.

When we last left the inner-monologuing duo, Jez had agreed to move out of the flat so that Mark could live with girlfriend Dobby, but unsurprisingly he's still hanging around, despairing at his failure as a musician and confiding in a therapist. Anyway, Mark has bigger problems than Jeremy - like Dobby's constant vigil at sickly Gerard's bedside.

Mitchell and Webb: fear and loathing in Croydon

As Peep Show returns, David Mitchell and Robert Webb talk to Tara Conlan about the cast's new agonies, their own doubts over Sky's commitment to the arts - and why comedy outranks drama.

Mitchell worries Webb will show him up at wedding

David Mitchell admits he is fearing the worst at his upcoming wedding - as his Peep Show co-star Robert Webb unleashes his Best Man's speech.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb interview

'We couldn't write a sitcom while Peep Show was still on'.

Robert Webb returns in specs and cardie as inept geology lecturer Dan, who this week masterminds a disastrous field trip to the Pennines. Back in so-called civilisation, Josie has been expelled from her course following last week's wince-inducing dentistry class and hatches a grisly plan to win back her place. Oregon cross-examines the man of her dreams, convinced he must have a flaw, while Howard is still trying to woo Sabine with all the subtlety of a steam train.

So far series two hasn't put a foot wrong - although JP does, and gets up close and personal with Mother Nature.