Peep Show

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.

Peep Show, Series 8 episode 1: review

It's admirable Peep Show has lasted so long and remained so consistently funny, so kudos to Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong for keeping the show fresh and hilarious.

Peep Show's amusing start to series eight

As always, the genius of Peep Show is the format itself where we see everything through either Mark or Jeremy's eyes and get to hear their private thoughts. No other show can even copy it without there being legal implications, one assumes, so it's pretty unique in the comedy world.

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Hail, Croydon's kings of comedy: Peep Show is back

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Time for another peep into the consciousness of Croydon berks Mark and Jez. It may be series eight but the exploits of our odd couple are as beautifully imagined as ever. Mark is still the same tortured square and still nursing a sort of robotic crush on wide-eyed Dobby, whom he hopes will move in to his flat and oust Jez. And Jez is coming to terms with his failure as a musician. Now his career plan consists of the headline "Three-oh Walcott", which he plans to sell to a tabloid when Theo Walcott turns 30.

As we rejoin the deluded duo, Mark is trying to wheedle Dobby away from sickly Gerrard's bedside with the line "But it looks like there's someone on The Apprentice who I think we're both really going to loathe, a real specimen!"

Peep Show, Channel 4, preview

If you've never watched this warped, 21st-century answer to The Likely Lads (and there's a reasonable chance you haven't: its biggest audience yet is just 1.8 million), you may be wondering how a comedy that sounds so uncomical can have survived so long - indeed, flourished, winning Baftas, British Comedy Awards, Royal Television Society Awards and the Rose d'Or.

Is it just us, or is Mark Corrigan getting nastier? As the realities of approaching middle-age and being a Dad (not that he seems to be taking fatherhood that seriously) begin to encroach, Mark seems more snide, more calculating, less afraid of his own capacity for unpleasantness.

As we rejoin the El Dude brothers, Mark is waiting for Jeremy to move out, so he can move Dobby in and 'keep her locked up, like Fritzl'. You old romantic, Mark. But Jeremy, predictably enough, has problems of his own. Super Hans has gone straight and the pair are burning mementoes of their former hopes and dreams. Everything to do with the band has to go. Yes, 'even the contract we signed with God on mephedrone'. A sad state of affairs, but maybe some therapy will sort Jeremy out?

Increasingly cartoonish, but still good fun.

Are Mitchell & Webb anything like their characters?

The actors reveal their dating tips and mishaps, first kisses, romantic gestures and how they knew they'd met "the one".

TV preview: Peep Show

So here it is, back again, in its new Sunday evening, post-Homeland slot, presumably in the further hope of picking up new viewers in need of a laugh after an hour of teeth-clenched suspense.