Robert Webb

The dysfunctional flatshare sitcom, which seems to get stronger with age, settles into its seventh series. Neurotic nerd Mark (David Mitchell) tries to win back dream woman Dobby (the excellent Isy Suttie) when she starts dating a graphic designer. Meanwhile, feckless Jeremy (Robert Webb) lands a cushy job on a music website but soon makes the mistake of signing up his freaky friend Super Hans (the gloriously deadpan Matt King), whose band go under the moniker of Man Feelings.

Now in its seventh series, Peep Show is officially Channel 4's longest-running sitcom. It's also one of its best, although a brisk scan of my brain archive reveals that it doesn't have much competition. If you discount US imports such as Cheers, in 2 years Channel 4 has broadcast few outstanding sitcoms: Father Ted, Spaced and, at a push, Phoenix Nights and Black Books are the only ones that spring to mind. Still, that's five more than BBC3 will ever produce in twice that time.

In any case, this comedy about two dysfunctional, co-dependent losers is assured of its place in the pantheon. And if the last couple of series haven't felt quite as consistent as before, that's only because the standard set by writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain was so high in its earlier years. But a variable Peep Show is still funnier than most other British sitcoms of recent times.

The latest series began with Mark (David Mitchell) and Jez (Robert Webb) anxiously awaiting the birth of Mark's first child. Correction: Jez wasn't remotely anxious, as is befitting of a feckless, immature, amoral idiot whose only concerns are for himself.

As the hopelessly neurotic Mark fretted over his role in the birthing process, Jez occupied himself with chatting up an attractive woman whose partner lay in a coma: a typically black subplot, just as it was when Seinfeld used it first in 1992. Let's charitably assume that it was unconscious theft on the writers' part.

Though still enjoyable as always, this wasn't the funniest Peep Show episode by any means. Some of Mark's inner monologues felt laboured to the point of self-parody, although his out-of-body fleeing from the hospital was an undoubted highlight.

I was also surprised and warmed by the poignant final moments, where Mark and Jez shared a rare moment of mutual happiness over the birth. It was all the more effective for being so atypical of the series.

In terms of performance, Mitchell and Webb continue to excel in roles they must know intimately by now. Webb in particular gets laughs with his innately amusing facial expressions alone. For all its deserved reputation as a sharply dialogue-orientated comedy, Peep Show remains an ideal vehicle for his clownish physicality.

Peep Show was back, with poor Mark (David Mitchell) down the labour ward discovering how unreasonable women can be when they're having your baby.

"We can always give her a cervical sweep," said the doctor.

Jeremy (Robert Webb) nodded uncertainly. "Chim-chim cheree?" he offered.

When I interviewed Peep Show's Jesse Armstrong a couple of years ago, I asked him whether he and co-writer Sam Bain had thought about quitting while they were ahead. "It takes self-awareness to know when you're past your peak ... we'll probably lack that like everyone else and crank them out until [audiences] are bored of them," he joked. But though the ever-increasing profile of its stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb would suggest there's no danger of audiences getting bored with this caustic flatshare sitcom anytime soon, I do wonder whether the new run would do well to be the last.

The problem, to this carping critic at least, is that where its original brilliance derived from the stasis of its lead duo, thirtysomething suburban odd couple Mark and Jez, they have increasingly fallen prey to such conventional dramatic demands as plot and character development. In Friday's hospital-set series opener, indeed, we saw Mark become a dad, a game changer which resulted in an ending of disorientating sentimentality. That's not to say that Peep Show isn't still a lot funnier than most of the competition; only that these are two self-destructive Peter Pans who should never be allowed to grow up.

Peep Show: why it's still the UK's best sitcom

As David Mitchell and Robert Webb return for a seventh series of Peep Show, Catherine Gee looks at how, after all these years, it's still getting laughs.

The outstanding Peep Show returns for a seventh bleakly comic series, and the first episode opens with Sophie in hospital on the verge of giving birth, and Mark (David Mitchell) and Jeremy (Robert Webb) are there to lend their 'support'. It turns out that Mark is more worried about a burst boiler in his flat and Jeremy only has eyes for fellow visitor Zahra, whose boyfriend is in a coma. But will he wake before Jezza gets his mucky mitts on her?

Is Mark Corrigan ready for fatherhood? Of course not - but he doesn't really have much choice in the matter.

As series seven opens, Sophie is on all fours in the delivery suite, screaming out for gas and air, a water birth, an epidural and, ideally, a less useless birthing partner.

There's every chance the baby will be an adult itself before Mark is grown up enough to deal with a responsibility like this - so there's no surprise tonight when he deals with the stress by hiding.

For self-obsessed man-child Jeremy, the hospital provides an unexpected opportunity for him to get over his ex when he meets another girl visiting her ­coma-stricken boyfriend.

That's just one of the many reasons to love Jeremy - he could be falling headfirst down an active volcano and his number one impulse would still be to scour the area for talent.

As a new arrival ushers in a whole new arena in which Mark and Jez can fail to shine, perhaps this will finally be the series when the nation discovers how to press the number 4 on their TVs, Peep Show makes the long overdue leap from cult hit to national treasure and David Mitchell, Robert Webb, writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and director Becky Martin are carried around the streets of London on golden sedan chairs. We can but dream.

Only Fools And Horses went downhill when Del and Raquel had a baby; will the same happen to our beloved Peep Show? Not likely, judging by this new series opener. While Mark (David Mitchell) waits anxiously in hospital for the birth of his unwanted progeny with Sophie (Olivia Colman), Jeremy (Robert Webb) swiftly gets over Elena when he meets Zahra, whose boyfriend is in a coma. Noooo!

So Mark and Jez are back with the seventh series of Channel 4's longest-running sitcom - which means we've all got something amusing to talk about that doesn't involve people eating kangaroos' bums. Of course, we know exactly what to expect from the socially awkward duo by now - but seven years on, you'd think they might be forced to face up to a few more responsibilities as well.

Sure enough, last night's Peep Show opener saw Mark (David Mitchell) overwhelmed at becoming a father for the first time. But more importantly, in Mark's eyes at least, a burst boiler at home turned out to have been less catastrophic than originally feared. "Minimal water damage!" he exclaimed joyfully on hearing the news, while cradling his newborn baby in his arms.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Prior to the birth, we saw Mark trying - and failing - to support ex-girlfriend Sophie (Olivia Colman) in the maternity ward. Meanwhile, Jez (Robert Webb) trundled off round the hospital and fell in lust with Zahra (Camilla Beeput), who was visiting her comatose boyfriend. In a bid to impress her, he agreed to read out passages from FHM to her unconscious partner - providing just one of the episode's many laugh-out-loud moments.

Still, my favourite moment came when Jez promised Mark he'd find someone to fix the boiler. This could only mean one thing. Sure enough, Super Hans (Matt King) showed up with a "mate who knows a bit about plumbing" - but found time to offer Mark some words of wisdom about childbirth. "Stay away from the goal end," he advised. "And trip your nuts off."

In real life, you'd probably run a mile to avoid Mark and Jez. But seeing the 21st century's version of The Likely Lads return to the small screen is one of the most welcome sights on TV.

Despite never attracting the wider audience it deserves, Peep Show - starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb as Mark and Jez, a latter-day flat-sharing odd couple - has from the outset maintained its reputation as one of the very best British sitcoms. Now entering its seventh season, it is also Channel 4's longest running comedy and, happily, shows no signs of falling off in quality. Quite the opposite; tonight's episode opens up a whole new vista of comic possibilities as Mark (Mitchell) marches none-too-enthusiastically across the Rubicon that is parenthood and, initially at least, doesn't respond well to the prospect of responsibility.

Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's scalpel-sharp script brilliantly exposes the average male's helplessness, incomprehension and terror when confronted with the maternal agonies of childbirth - and the overwhelming urge to run away. Meanwhile, in a different wing of the hospital, Jez (Webb) seeks a cure for his recently broken heart in the shape of the attractively bookish partner of a comatose patient - with predictably cringe-making results.