Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, David Mitchell, Robert Webb and the cast of Peep Show | BFI Q&A 

Four panelists? Four? That’s insane

20th anniversary of Channel 4's Peep Show? Chance would be a fine thing.

One thing I love about peep show is it is a perfect time capsule of mid 2000's Britain. The colour grading especially. Makes me think about new wide-screen tvs, pressing the red button for extra content and payday loan ads. Also was there ever any sunshine back then?

Darrien Bain

Jesse Armstrong managed to make lightning strike twice in co-creating Peep Show and creating Succession. And then a ton of other writing credits on movies and tv shows such as Four Lions (which Sam Bain wrote on as well), In The Loop, Black Mirror, Veep, and The Thick of It. I’m dying to know what’s next, although I’m certain the wait will be worth it!

One of the best sitcoms of all time. I quote it all the time!

The el dude brothers together again Ehhhhhh ehhhhhh

It's great to see Robert Webb in such high spirits.

Probably one of the best British comedies made.

At one point years ago, I kept seeing David Mitchell everywhere. It was so weird. Once I heard his voice in a pub, turned around and he was there! 😅

Aside from the obvious one I really liked Big Suze (who married a baron IRL), Gerrard and Johnson. I thought Jeff was a marvellous bastard too. Hats off to the casting dept.

That level of writing and acting maintained over nine series is incredible. On a par with Dad’s Army. Two exchanges beautifully bookend the series. In the first episode, the unspoken thoughts: ‘Work shy freeloader’/‘Tight-fisted cockmuncher’. In the last, Mark and Jez announce how they’d kill one another, Mark replying ‘I think I’d come at you in the night, with a with a pillow on the face’. The series is so wonderfully wrapped by those two exchanges.

I live in the U.S. and was lucky enough to find this on Netflix! I love it! Such a great show! I became a huge David Mitchell fan, starting with this show!

I love this show. But 20 years! Feel so old

Peep Show really spoke to me when it came out. Even being a teenager back then, I saw a lot of myself or who I might grow up to be in both the neurotic and socially awkward side of Mark and the naive and vulnerable side of Jeremy. Now in my 30s I think about and revisit the show all the time and is definitely in my top 3 favourite sitcoms of all time.

I , with no hyperbole, watch the peep show every gosh darn week. The foibles and profundity abound!

1:16 "I've dreamt about the Battle of Austerlitz, and I was Napoleon." Chance would be a fine thing.

Sam Bain. We know.

"You don't want to see my dreams. I've dreamt about the battle of Austerliz and I was Napoleon. A sit-com going well barely touches the sides." 😂

I finished the game 'Cyberpunk 2077' yesterday (Panam ending) and a character excitedly told me he'd bought the latest album from Curse these Metal Hands. It's outrageouuuss!

This was such a great unexpected treat, I could go on for hours about how much this show means to me in particular and comedy in general but no one really needs to witness a live autopsy unless they're performing it. Merry Christmark!!!

Class start to finish

Every now and then the algorithm gets it right, thank you

Fucking love these guys. Always fall asleep to unruly now, David Mitchell is as underrated as it's possible to be

I believe peep show fans aren't known as peepers but just as being in the dobby club

Imagine being Jesse Armstrong and creating one of the best comedies ever and then creating one of the best primetime dramas ever. Legend.

The pepper spray scene(s) is still my favourite. From Jeremy attacking Super Hanz and getting pepper sprayed. To Mark with the bump on his head, lager, cigarette and “heal and grow”. To Jeremy’s revenge and “it’s for your own good” 😂

Bring it back!

amazing!

For some reason I've never really watched Peep Show, but I loved watching this!

It's very telling that rob and david immediately shut down the sympathy for their characters shown by the interviewer. It's the same reason I found it difficult in the last season, because you realise there is no redemption for them. But it couldn't have been different for this show.

Love this

Finally realised... the host is Megan from Peep Show

...so when can we expect a pilot of Moon Prison? 🙏

Great host. Lovely flow of anecdotes

Big beats are the best, get high all the time

Thank god Robert Webb himself commented on how overstated it is that they're 'there for each other' even in spite of the animosity between them. I've always heard that from fans of the show and as Robert Webb says, it's always felt very overstated.

20 years! 😮

Lifelong "Peeper" & watch all 9 series end to end every year to get me thru the winter. Also, would like Rob to play me in my biopic!

This makes me feel very, very old

This Q & A was outrageous !

I've been re-watching it again recently, it's such a great mosaic of all the low moments, confusing thoughts, and strange urges most of us have as young men. Like we each had our own inner Mark and Jeremy - some of us more Mark and some of us more Jeremy - and to see that play out outwardly really resonates. Or maybe the jokes were just funny idk.

I think what makes Peep Show such a powerful work is its use of pathos. The incredible combination of POV and inner monologue intensify the skewed, warped viewpoints Jeremy and Mark have, and make the emotional connections to the characters so much more pertinent, and real, because you end up relating to them so much, and seeing the world exclusively through their lenses. Take Mark’s doomed romance with Sophie - you see her almost entirely through his eyes, and as a result for the first two series you don’t get to know her at all. All you see is the pedestal Mark has put her on, in a hope of finally making a relationship work so he won’t be alone. You don’t notice how utterly superficial their “bond” is - nothing more than stupid drawings on post-it notes - and you fall for her endearingly normal sweetness so much that you don’t see that she has little interesting characteristics, few interests (maybe apart from “Sex in The City”) and even fewer friends. She’s just as inept, bizarre, and ruthless as Mark and Jeremy are, but when you’re confronted with her real personality in Series 3 - when she’s shown to be boring at best and an impulsive, selfish hedonist at worst - you feel the surprise that Mark feels. You fall out of love with her too, and without even realising it just like Mark does as he remains in denial about their doomed relationship. You feel his pain when he’s forced by the rules a lifetime lack of love for his authentic self has made him create for himself force him to marry her. This pathos works because Jeremy and Mark are basically two halves of the same person - both co-dependent, both ultimately socially inept, both weak, both deeply desiring meaningful relationships in life, but both with a contradictory fear of change which makes them remarkably human.

I remember seeing Andrew O'Connor in the late 90s, wandering through a shop having a very Alan Partridgesque conversation on his phone. It felt a bit sad, like someone who didn't realise their best days may be behind them. But more fool me, as Objective Productions ruled the 00s.

20th anniversary?!?! the sweet embrace of death approaches

hard to watch the writers speak after baby reindeer...

Would have liked super Hans to walk out on stage

One of the greatest shows of all time. Unmatched as the best sitcom of the 21st century

For me, Peep Show is the greatest comedy show of all time. Quality never drops once throughout each season, which is rare for a comedy.

Every year I promise myself I won’t rewatch the American Office and Peep Show and every year by the end of January I’ve already broken my promise. For me Peep Show is as good as sitcoms get.

Any Jesse/Sam fans out there - Channel 4's Babylon' is a must watch. Only one series but Danny Boyle directed. I can't find it anywhere online but it's such a great series. Starred Britt Marling, James Nesbitt, Daniel Kaluuya and even Patterson Joseph (Johnson). Gutted they only did one series

They also wrote on The Queens Nose and My Parents Are Aliens!? They were bloody great 😁

More peep show!

Thank you for posting!.

No Matt King? :( Still love these guys.

It's amazing how I have friends where I am the Jeremy and friends where I am the Mark in the relationship.

Surely the bfi could organise for a sound engineer that can set up a rig that doesn’t clip

I really enjoyed this 💙💙💙💙

Anyone here after Baby Reindeer?

Oh my god, this is piggin' massive!

Just sat down with some traditional cauliflower and 4 naan, gonna sit back and relax 😏

Twins on the left hand side!

omg!! i've been binge watching peep show again this is perfect :D

Absolutely loved this. Peep Show is one of my favourite comedies, along with Still Game. Sorry to hear the stationary cupboard is one of Isy's least favourite scenes, as it's one of the funniest scenes of the series, for me, though her reasoning was understandable (and also funny).

Bring back a middle aged peep show

Gutted I didnt hear about this!

Interviewer was totally right that it seemed glamourous that an American star was in the show. Shame they were silent at that remark

I adore David Mitchell.

Shaaaaame! We will never want to watch Peep Show ever again and everyone involved is complicit (apart from Robert Webb of course)

Loved Super Hans and Johnson. The char grilled dog on the canal..... Priceless.

The BFI stagged us. Good and proper.

Robert Webb is incredibly funny.

Still my favourite sitcom of all time - would take something truly special to dethrone it! The performances across the board are great of course, the situation is relatable, which provides that grounding to make the absurd aspects even more hilarious, but what makes it standout ultimately is the writing, and one can tell it went through more re-writes than your average comedy courtesy of the determined hard work of Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong! What is particularly notable about the writing though are the internal monologues which provide a level of comedic insight into the character's minds that few other shows have managed to pull off so successfully (Fleabag comes to mind, in its own way). 'Comedy of the mind' could be a sub-genre unto itself, as digging deeper into the psychology of a character is well-covered ground in dramatic shows, but seems little served in the realm of comedy, where Peep Show proves it can work brilliantly - because we all have messed up things going on in our heads if you dig deep enough that can be turned to hilarious ends! In a way, I wish it had more imitators, as its particular brand of pathos-ridden cringe truly stands the test of time, but they probably wouldn't be as good anyway!

hi from chile, i love peep show

Oi LOOK IT'S CLEAN SHIRT

I've been watching through recently, and I have to say an underrated moment (might've been in the wedding episode) is lovely Nancy blithely saying, "I had a great night, although Super Hans did try to sexually assault me at one point" and Jeremy turning over his shoulder and cheerfully scolding "Super Hans!" and you hear "Sorry!" from the other room.

America loves the show too!

Up there in the top 10 of all time great sitcoms.

David's panel show skills means he is as sharply honed as a Japanese Katana, but with the cooperative nature of string to tie everyone together.

I wanted to know: is the final scene of the final episode a nod to Withnail & I? Withnail ends with the break up of the two main protagonists at an enclosure with wolves, while Peep Show ends with Mark and Jeremy watching wolves on TV. (Must have spent the zoo animals budget, so had to play stock footage.)

They should make Christmas specials

I disagree that they were too old or that sitcom characters can't change or grow old (the later seasons of Only Fools and Horses were arguably the best - excluding the absolutely horrid final three episodes) I think the main issue with Peep Show was that the quality of the scrips declined a bit, probably due partially to the writers lives changing, and presumably being busier with other things. That said, the final seasons are still far better than your average sitcom and well worth the time. And the early ones are so good that I'd say overall it's in for a shout as the best written sitcom ever. I think it's funnier than pretty much anything, there are so many episodes that make you laugh out loud throughout, which is incredibly rare in sitcoms. Also, to their credit, they did try to progress the characters. At the beginning, Mark is actually a relatively okay bloke, even if he's mostly self interested. He at least maintains the facade of being a nice person, even to himself. Jeremy on the other hand is pretty awful and basically just uses Mark. By the end of the show, Jeremy's carefree, happy go lucky existence and the relative ease it's allowed him to live life with has actually given him the opportunity to introspect and to grow as a person. Whereas Mark has just been absolutely battered by life, and humiliated at every opportunity, which turns him into a monster. Jeremy does whatever he wants and gets away with it, Mark does everything society tells him to and is punished for it. I think it was really good character development, and whether it was by design or not they had the exact right idea for how to progress the show. The problem was just that the jokes weren't there. The witty dialogue was far less frequent, which is almost always the first thing to go. That said, it was still really, really funny at times. I don't really agree that the show is about young men, I think it's about loneliness, middle class/posh people, and the social sphere in England. With the right creative approach, they could easily write some really funny one off hour long specials or something like that. Maybe one every few years. I hate when people drag shows on too long, but I think with a bit of a reset Peep Show has loads more potential in the tank, and the references/characters/feelings portrayed in it are just so good that people aren't even close to being bored of it. A few years off to collect some brilliant jokes is really all it needed. Whatever they decide to do, the show will stand the test of time. It's brilliant.

Bring the show back! Please. I can't keep watching these over and over (but i will though)

Still waiting for Vigil S2 Q&A with Cast. Please 😢

I love how Izzie assumes i havent watched the paintball epsiode over 30 times... Along with the rest

Is it really 20 years. It only seems like the 90's

Oh looky looky at this

I miss the mini cam

David being David and saying they shot the first series in 2002 so it’s actually 21 years since they shot it and joking about it being an 20th anniversary .. but to David Mitchell David Mitchell.. I’m pretty sure this reunion happened last month in January 2024.. so that would be 22 years since they shot the first series and 21 years since the show first aired on channel 4 in 2003 😉😂

What a fucking show

I really struggle to understand where the sound engineers are in these panel thingies.. There is terrible sound, on the brink of feedback and no one seems to do anything about it. Take the EQ and carve it out. Or walk up and adjust the mic. Do the preparations right so none of this happens.

I've mistakenly run to Windsor

Fun fact, between season 1 and season 2, Ricky Gervais contacted channel 4 and persuaded them to actually commission season 2 😉 . Hence the 12 month delay for the second season…

20 years since Peep Show was first transmitted. That doesn't make me feel old in the slightest...

I've just realised that Mark Corrigan is actually a real person

I hope you locked the doors and refused to let them leave until they made another series... Thats what Supers Hans would do

Just like Martha... Gadd choose correct actors. Peekaboo 😂

With that cough its a surprise she made it to Frankfurt.

Praise Victron!

"You only need two series..."