
Jesse Armstrong
- English
- Writer and producer
Press clippings Page 18
Unlike the patchy That Mitchell and Webb Look, Peep Show draws on the strengths of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain.
Mark and Jez's theatre visit produced some great lines - I can't believe coming here costs more than a film
and If this was on television, nobody would be watching.
There was a spot-on realism here that perhaps got lost in the outrageous antics of the last season.
The only question is: five series in, where is there for the characters to go? On the evidence of the opener, it should be fun finding out.
Dugald Baird, The Guardian, 7th May 2008As always, the writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain have got our thought-processes exactly right. Not many people would vocalise these particular thoughts like Mark and Jez do on this occcasion, but, let's face it, we've all thought something similar. And that, above all else, is Peep Show's enduring success.
annawaits, TV Scoop, 4th May 2008Things improved radically on Friday with the return of Channel 4's best comedy in the history of laughter. Yes! Peep Show's back!! I only discovered this gem last year but the complete DVD collection now sits proudly displayed on my shelf and I'm reliably informed that makes me immediately cool so way hey!
Most shows entering their fifth series would be showing signs of aging and losing the edge that made them so intriguing but that's not so here. Thanks to the surreal brains of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain and the always wonderful performances from David Mitchell and Robert Webb, Peep Show appears to be going from strength to strength at a stage when other shows wilt under the pressure.
The world of Peep Show is surreal, of course, but the scripts and acting draw you into the world of Mark and Jez so well you don't want to leave. David Mitchell recently said he'd like Peep Show to carry on for years and, if this is the standard they can keep it to, I'd be happy about that too.
Luke, The Custard TV, 3rd May 2008As we return for the fifth series of this engagingly filthy comedy, Mark (David Mitchell) is getting drunk and maudlin on wedding champagne as his flatmate Jeremy (Robert Webb) urges him to go out on a double-date: Beggars can't be choosers, she's an actual woman.
Mark - remember, this is a man who once based his romantic strategy on the Siege of Stalingrad - arms himself with a copy of the Friends of the British Museum magazine and goes forth again to search for love...
I adore Peep Show and I adore Mark and Jeremy, an amiable pair of misfits trapped in a squalid, mutually destructive friendship. Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's script is packed with the kind of quotable funny lines that should be on T-shirts, and Mitchell and Webb are both just marvellous.
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 2nd May 2008it's not exactly Peep Show is it?
The show consisted of a group of disconnected characters, with barely a semblance of plot. The premise of the show was thinly sketched in, it was set in the Victorian period and made vague reference to the manners and mores of this period but never really exploited the humour and detail that a viewer would expect from a period sitcom.
Caroline Is Not Amused, 18th November 2007Blog Review
The first half of the show is undoubtedly the worst, labouring to quickly set-up the characters and relationships.
Dan Owen, Dan's Media Digest, 14th October 2007Written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong (Peep Show, The Thick of It) and boasting a pedigree cast, which includes Reece Shearsmith, Darren Boyd and Rosie Cavaliero, the second in this commendable comic endeavour doesn't quite deliver the laughs you might expect. The tale of a houseshare in Victorian London, it is silly and clever and marvellously parodies the conventions, characters and cliches of Victorian fiction. With relatives on deathbeds, frustrated spinsters only occupied with embroidery and ebullient doctors, it provides some smirks but there are no laugh-out-loud moments.
Gareth McLean, The Guardian, 12th October 2007A Victorian sitcom. It sounds like an irresistible premise, and the fact that it's written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong only serves to increase the anticipation. But if Ladies And Gentlemen - the second in C4's season of six sitcom pilots - doesn't quite work, there's still a huge amount to enjoy.
Time Out, 9th October 2007For all the quibbles, however, I can't stress enough that Peep Show is by far the best sitcom of recent years.
John Phillips, Off The Telly, 11th May 2007The Thick of It is certainly worth sticking with, despite the fact this depiction of people with a slender grip on democracy is continually undermined by the equally shaky visuals.
Chris Orton, Off The Telly, 19th May 2005