Robert Webb

Back review

Simon Blackwell's comedy about a suspected cuckoo in the nest was surprisingly touching without veering into sentimentality. Bring on series two.

Preview - Back

David Mitchell and Robert Webb's new sitcom concludes tonight, with revelations presumably on offer.

Back, episode 6 review: deserves a second series

Even if you like your comedy dark, Back (Channel 4) can still leave you reeling. Starring Peep Show's David Mitchell and Robert Webb, the six-part series has explored childhood trauma, jealousy, small-town anxiety and, above all, self-loathing. Fortunately, it is also very, very funny.

Mitchell & Webb's guide to making Freshers Week friends

David Mitchell and Robert Webb, by their own admission, were two of the dorkiest people ever to darken their grubby, beer-stained digs, and things turned out pretty well for them didn't they? Here's the comedy duo's foolproof guide to making friends during Freshers Week. May it serve you well.

Is the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb really 'Back'?

In all honesty, I don't care if there's always a little bit of Mark and Jez in Mitchell and Webb's work. Peep Show's popularity means the show will forever be referenced when talking about the comedians.

Book review: How Not To Be A Boy by Robert Webb

Primarily it's an entertaining story, sometimes powerful and sometimes polemic, of a man trying to figure himself, and society, out.

The sitcom, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb as brothers returning to their home town, continues enjoyably. It doesn't push them out of their comfort zones (as Stephen, Mitchell is an amiable curmudgeon paralysed by emotion; Webb's Andrew is an untrustworthy narcissist), in the tradition of Peep Show. Tonight, Andrew suggests a makeover ("Church pews, library chairs") in the pub, but leaves Stephen to break news of an accompanying staff makeover.

"I'm humbled and I'm proud," says Andrew of being included in his former foster father's will, to a disgruntled Stephen, who scoffs at the logical inconsistency. Business as usual in one way, then, for the Robert Webb/David Mitchell team in episode two of Simon Blackwell's dramedy, which involves a sly pop at the practice of baptism and sees Andrew stage a festival to help keep the pub afloat, while ramping up the sibling rivalry several notches.

TV preview: Back, Episode 2, C4

When writer Simon Blackwell's new series starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb was launched last month publications were sent an episode-by-episode breakdown. But shortly afterwards we were asked not to publish it as it was felt it would give too much away in advance. Having now seen the second episode I think I can see why.

Back, which began on C4, can be read in a few ways. Back as in, David Mitchell and Robert Webb are back, together, hurrah: the Peep Show guys reunited, and playing quasi simulacra (the sober, moral but sarky one, and the smiley shallow one). Back - as in Stephen's dad, a pub landlord and inveterate foster father, has died, and the mourners suddenly include Andrew (Webb), who was fostered for about 10 minutes back in the lost 80s, and they will replay their memories of those days with wildly differing degrees of enthusiasm and accuracy. Back - as in, you can never really go there.

It's a triumph, in that writer Simon Blackwell looks to be embarking on a grown-up exploration of memory that manages to be in parts explosively funny, too. Mitchell's character (as ever) reveals himself as too clever to pull off real pathos: Webb's (as ever) as too misguided to garner real dislike. Painfully sharp but also oddly touching, if you let it.