British Comedy Guide
Peep Show. Jeremy Usbourne (Robert Webb). Copyright: Objective Productions
Robert Webb

Robert Webb

  • 52 years old
  • English
  • Actor and writer

Press clippings Page 37

A trio of Guillemots banging away on the piano is not the only reason FM gave me hope for the future of the British sitcom, though they undoubtedly helped. This radio station romp, with Chris O'Dowd and Kevin Bishop as Smashey & Nicey for the noughties, oscillated so wildly between cool and naff it was as weird as watching Morrissey chitchat with Adrian Chiles on The One Show.

Though it's certainly the greatest radio-based sitcom since Frasier, FM can't decide whether it wants to be down with the kids of give 'em a kick up the skinny jeans. It tries too hard and not hard enough, throwing in rubbish jokes and sharp one-liners with scant regard for quality control, yet somehow - unlike the over-praised No Heroics, its closest cousin - it's actually funny.

That's largely down to the sheer likeability O'Dowd and Bishop bring to the pair of ludicrous out-of-touch muppets they are playing. The kind of DJs who got into it because they like the sound of their own voices not because of anything as daft as the music, they're past their shelf life and they know it. But that doesn't mean they're going to let any young'uns muscle in on the act.

It's no instant classic and there's nothing much in the way of a plot but FM has its finger sharply on the ageism dial like no other sitcom. Drag yourself away from the comedy genius of Robert Webb doing a Jennifer Beals impression and give it a go.

Keith Watson, Metro, 26th February 2009

David Mitchell is fast becoming king of the panel game. He's scarily good at them, so it's no wonder he's called on to lend his wits to shows from QI to Mock the Week, and from Have I Got News for You to a Radio 4 show called The Unbelievable Truth that's not a million miles from this.

This is the one where he and Lee Mack are team captains and Angus Deayton is chairman. The contestants have to bluff their way through various tales while their opponents work out which are true. So, for instance, did Gabby Logan really once steal red liquorice from Madonna's dressing room? Under close questioning from Rob Brydon it looks less and less likely. And is the mystery guest really Logan's former gymnastics rival, Mack's swimming teacher or, in fact, Robert Webb's ex-girlfriend?

Brydon and Mitchell make a great pair and what could be a stilted format is saved by some brilliant interplay and Brydon's flights of fancy.

David Butcher, Radio Times, 11th July 2008

Things improved radically on Friday with the return of Channel 4's best comedy in the history of laughter. Yes! Peep Show's back!! I only discovered this gem last year but the complete DVD collection now sits proudly displayed on my shelf and I'm reliably informed that makes me immediately cool so way hey!

Most shows entering their fifth series would be showing signs of aging and losing the edge that made them so intriguing but that's not so here. Thanks to the surreal brains of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain and the always wonderful performances from David Mitchell and Robert Webb, Peep Show appears to be going from strength to strength at a stage when other shows wilt under the pressure.

The world of Peep Show is surreal, of course, but the scripts and acting draw you into the world of Mark and Jez so well you don't want to leave. David Mitchell recently said he'd like Peep Show to carry on for years and, if this is the standard they can keep it to, I'd be happy about that too.

Luke, The Custard TV, 3rd May 2008

As we return for the fifth series of this engagingly filthy comedy, Mark (David Mitchell) is getting drunk and maudlin on wedding champagne as his flatmate Jeremy (Robert Webb) urges him to go out on a double-date: Beggars can't be choosers, she's an actual woman.

Mark - remember, this is a man who once based his romantic strategy on the Siege of Stalingrad - arms himself with a copy of the Friends of the British Museum magazine and goes forth again to search for love...

I adore Peep Show and I adore Mark and Jeremy, an amiable pair of misfits trapped in a squalid, mutually destructive friendship. Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's script is packed with the kind of quotable funny lines that should be on T-shirts, and Mitchell and Webb are both just marvellous.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 2nd May 2008

Interview with David Mitchell and Robert Webb

The Telegraph interviewed David Mitchell and Robert Webb in the build up to the second series of the show.

Michael Deacon, The Telegraph, 16th February 2008

That Mitchell and Webb Look is an uproarious sketch series from the fine folks at BBC America that, unlike most of its ilk, hits far more home runs than groundouts. Written and performed primarily by the comedic duo of Robert Webb and David Mitchell, it's a cleverly cheeky pastiche of offbeat characters and biting wit that's rife with dead-on social commentary.

Ray Richmond, Hollywood Reporter, 8th February 2008

I wonder if David Mitchell and Robert Webb have many duppy to feed. They're certainly working hard: Peep Show, plus a film, Magicians, and those awful Apple Mac adverts (the duppies could have gorged themselves on that cheque). And now another series of That Mitchell and Webb Sound. Like all their work, I think I won't really like it and then find myself tuning in and laughing like a drain. It's always at the same thing, which is the chubby uncool feller (is he Mitchell? Or Webb?) getting angry. This week he lost his rag about footie fans becoming too immersed in the game, deciding to do the same with Raiders of the Lost Ark. 'At the end we're tied to a stake in the ground, and you lot open the Ark of the Covenant, and the wrath of God comes out and melts your face,' he snarled. Said by Chubby, this was hilarious.

Miranda Sawyer, The Observer, 27th May 2007

Peep Show funny men David Mitchell and Robert Webb remind us that they're not just great comic actors but gifted writers as well with this new sketch show that's been adapted seamlessly from Radio 4's ]That Mitchell and Webb Sound].

Time Out, 12th September 2006

David Mitchell and Robert Webb have put together a wonderful radio comedy programme of satirical sketches. The show is a relativly quick-fire montage of sketches, which manages to be topical while not directly impersonating or parodying any specific figures, in the same way the shows such as Dead Ringers do.

Funny.co.uk, 4th October 2003

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