For better or, mostly, worse, Peep Show's odd couple of uptight young fogey Mark and feckless slacker Jeremy have been co-habiting in Mark’s drab Croydon flat for nearly 10 years. In that time, the cult Channel 4 sitcom’s stars, David Mitchell and Robert Webb, have become major players on the British comedy scene, along with writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. As an eighth series starts on Channel 4 this Sunday (November 25), the unfortunate Mark and Jeremy’s chronic underachievement in life and love continues unabated, to the delight of the show’s fans. TV&Satellite Week magazine caught up with Mitchell and Webb to find out where it all went wrong... At the end of series seven, Mark told Jeremy to move out. Has he gone? Robert Webb: "I don’t think it would really be Peep Show if he ever got round to moving out. He spends the series making pathetic attempts to, and does have a couple of nights away." David Mitchell: "It’s not that he doesn’t move out, it’s that he doesn’t really move in anywhere else. He doesn’t seem to have any clue how shelter could otherwise be obtained than by staying with Mark." How are Mark and Jeremy’s love lives? Mitchell: "Mark is in love with Dobby [the IT geek played by Isy Suttie] and feels she should move in as a sign that she is sufficiently defeated in soul and spirit to remain with him for the medium to long term." Webb: "Jeremy does get involved with a woman called Celia, but she’s not one of his classic, six-episode girlfriends – it’s a two-episode fling." Are they both working? Mitchell: Mark gets a job with a bathroom fittings firm, which is humiliating. Also, he got the job thanks to Super Hans [Jeremy’s druggie friend, played by Matt King], which is a really low point.: Webb: "Jeremy becomes a life coach, but he’s unable to subjugate his own interests and aims to those of his clients." How would they like their lives to have turned out by now? Webb: "Jeremy just wanted to be rich and famous, preferably in something to do with music, but it doesn’t really matter. Mainly he was in it for the large house with the blue pool table." Mitchell: "Mark would like to be living in the home counties with a wife and children, going to the office every day on the train – the complete, conventional Reggie Perrin lifestyle. Then he’d be ready for the Reggie Perrin breakdown." Are you fond of them, despite their flaws? Mitchell: "I can see where Mark’s coming from a lot of the time, but he does terrible things. For instance, when he urinated in his boss’s desk, that was not a proportionate response to his feelings of being undervalued at work." Webb: "Jeremy is a really unsavoury character, and there’s a great joy in playing that. His low point was probably pretending to have a terminal illness in order to get sex." Have writers Sam and Jesse taken any of your traits and given them to the characters? Mitchell: "There’s no doubt Mark’s fear of change, suspicion, cynicism and grumpiness are things they’ve seen in me." Can you see life looking up for Mark and Jeremy in the future? Webb: "I think the more unpleasant and terrible things happen to them, the more fun it is. It would be a disaster if our characters were to find any measure of contentment or fulfillment." Besides another series of Peep Show, what’s next for you? Webb: "We’re doing a comedy drama next year about a British diplomat in a fictitious central Asian country. David’s the ambassador, new to the job, and I’m the deputy who’s been there a long time and gone slightly native." Mitchell: "I’m really excited about it, but it makes me feel old. It’s as if we’re supposed to do comedy dramas because these days our sketches are all about how difficult it is to bend down." Are there any plans for Peep Show’s 10-year anniversary next year? Webb: "I imagine there’ll be some kind of open-top bus ride through the streets of Croydon." Mitchell: "I think Trafalgar Square has been pencilled in. No doubt David Cameron will jump on the bandwagon: 'Can I just take this opportunity to congratulate the cast and crew of Peep Show. We’re big fans.'"
