Peep Show

Peep Show series 9 review: Gregory's Beard

Peep Show series 9 delivers another belter in "Gregory's Beard", as Super Hans gets married and Jez ponders his sexuality...

With Jez still in the bride's bad books, Mark is roped into best man duties for Super Hans's wedding - a task made bearable by the fact former girlfriend and current stalkee Dobby will be in attendance. While Mark holes himself up in a hotel to write a speech that will sum up half a lifetime of Hans-related debauchery, the freewheeling Jez is back at the (unbeknown to him) CCTV-rigged flat, broadening his sexual horizons. As morbidly relatable and compulsively quotable as ever, Peep Show is going out on a characteristically brilliant low.

Super Hans' real name revealed - or do they?

Writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong say the truth might not be so simple, even though series nine episode two appears to confirm his real name.

Josh could learn a lot from Peep Show as it contains a realistic central conceit and two characters who you can believe in. Even though I've found the last couple of series of David Mitchell and Robert Webb's sitcom to be rather mediocre it's still been consistently funny. This final series opened six months after Mark's beloved Dobby departed for New York partly thanks to Jeremy with the pair not having talked since. Reunited at Super Hans' stag do it was business as usual for the passive aggressive pair with Jeremy having been hit the most now living in the groom-to-be's bathroom. Mark meanwhile has seemingly moved on and is now living with his bank colleague Jerry (Tim Key) with the pair enjoying documentaries about William Morris on a nightly basis. But it's clear that Mark doesn't quite know how to quit Jez and by the end of the episode they were back together and Jerry had literally been rolled out of the door. Judging from this opening instalment of the last series Peep Show is going out on a high with both Mitchell and Webb at the top of their game. Mitchell is particularly strong as the mentally weak Mark who knows his relationship with Jeremy is no good for him but keeps going back to him nonetheless. Meanwhile Webb hasn't really changed his performance of Jez since the first series which I think is part of the character's charm. The end scene in which Mark, Jez and Super Hans bundle Jerry into the lift was a classic Peep Show moment and I was laughing all the way through it. I'm just wondering how writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong are going to end the series and more importantly if Mark and Jeremy are ever going to get their happy ending. In my opinion Peep Show isn't a sitcom that particularly necessitates a joyous conclusion but I wouldn't be opposed to see the El Dude Brothers finally experience some good fortune.

"The problem for you is... I'm your friend."

Never was a truer phrase spoken. In a glorious opening to the very last series of Peep Show, the fabulously distrustable Jez, within whom somehow reside the soul and bones of Caligula, is living in a loo. Darling Mark is, six months on, still seething with anger about his ex, Dobby, and Jez's having tried to stick tongues down throats, yet needs Jez, if only to obviate his boredom with new real life and a new real flatmate. An apology is called for, by Mark, clearly with a certain pomp. Jez's witchy obfuscation and attempt at male bonding - "Obviously, I think we're both very sorry about what happened" - was a masterclass. Asked to apologise again, he resorted to crazed and thickened accents. Always a winner I find, when saying sorry. Just lovely and surely gong-heavy soon.

Radio Times review

[The boxset is] the perfect TV present for the masochists in your life. The agony of watching Mark, Jez and Super Hans navigate awkward situations is addictive and glorious. And part of that joy comes from the fact that we all recognise ourselves in the characters. So as the glorious show enters its final ever series, this is a perfect present for anyone who loves watching TV that makes them laugh -- and also want to die inside.

It only returned this week, so I can't really say much about the consistency of this sitcom's final series, but Episode 1 was amusing. You can always rely on Peep Show for amazing one-liners and weirdly comical situations, but I think the show ran out of worthwhile story four series ago. It should have ended after Mark's disastrous wedding, because seeing the show constantly resetting itself (ignoring things like Mark being a father, or the fact his continued friendship with Jez isn't plausible) is what stopped it becoming an all-time classic. It just went on too long. But it continues to be funny, for the most part, because the jokes are still there and the performances always good. I just wish more care had been taken with its overall storylines and character arcs.

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In celebration of the return of one the the greatest British comedies ever, here's a reminder of just how terrible it is to be a grown up...