Comfort classic: Peep Show

Steve Clarke can't get enough of this missing link between Men Behaving Badly and Fleabag.

Essential episodes: Peep Show

Choosing what is essentially the best ever episode, one that is perfect to show to someone if you want them to become a fan for life, was fairly difficult to do and led to lots of ummming and ahhhhhing and various other strange very British noises. But in the end I chose season two's second episode, "Jeremy Makes It", as it contains the characters at their funniest, is a great introduction to their various neuroses, and features a number of extremely memorable moments.

Top 20 British sitcoms of 21st century: Peep Show

Peep Show is still the longest running sitcom in Channel 4 history. Two things particularly (other than Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's brilliant writing) elevate it above the usual odd couple style flat share set-up. Firstly, the unique way it is filmed, enabling us to not only see the world through Mark and Jez's eyes but hear their (often not entirely flattering) thoughts.

Celebrate Mitchell & Webb with 40 Peep Show quotes

In honour Mitchell and Webb's return with Back, here are 40 funny Peep Show quotes.

The EU referendum according to Peep Show

On Wednesday night Twitter was treated to a rather wonderful thought experiment from actor and writer Robert Webb. How would the characters in Peep Show vote in the upcoming EU referendum?

The Australian absurdist shuns all the cosy warmth of Christmas to set his film in a stark, clinical laboratory, where he and his staff (Bridget Christie and Kieran Hodgson) are working on Christmas cracker jokes. Generously, Simmons gives a lot of the best moments to Matt King - channeling his Superhans intensity and oddness into the role of Tall Pall, a mysterious humour troubleshooter. Blink and you might miss Mike Wilmot's cameo contributions to this peculiar scenario.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb return in the award-winning sitcom for a ninth - and final - series after a gap of almost three years. The show, set around a formerly flat-sharing odd couple, never quite attracted mainstream attention but retains a huge cult following and it is deservedly regarded as one of the best comedies around. Largely because of writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's unique gift for replicating the needy, self-deluding inner meanderings of the socially awkward mind.

The story picks up six months after Jeremy (Webb) scuppered Mark's (Mitchell) efforts to persuade his girlfriend Dobby to move in with him - with resentment still festering on both sides. But with Jeremy on the brink of homelessness he soon spots common-enemy potential in Mark's new flatmate Jerry (an excellent Tim Key). Add the fact that the once reliably psychotic Super Hans (Matt King) is attempting reform in the shape of "Sober Hans", and Mark's old boss Johnson (Paterson Joseph) has wangled him a job at a payday loan-style bank - and all the elements are in place for six final episodes of tearfully funny musings on human fallibility.

Radio Times review

It's been more than three years since we last visited Croydon's gruesome twosome Jez (Robert Webb) and David Mitchell's Mark. The unscrupulous Jez was declaring himself to Mark's girlfriend Dobby in a field and Mark is still smarting pompously at the betrayal; so much so, in fact, that he has found a new flatmate, cruelly consigning Jez to a billet in druggie Super Hans's bathroom.

As we rejoin the action six months on from the regrettable field-gate, will Jerry (Tim Key) provide Mark with the requisite, er, fun with William Morris documentaries and reading nights in? It isn't long before Jez seeks to wheedle his way back home in what becomes a hilarious tug-of-love for Mark's affections (and spare room)....

Writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong clearly want to raise the bar in this final ever outing of the cult "point-of view" comedy, which started in 2003. The gags are rapier-sharp and, despite all the usual chaos, mayhem and silliness, there is some deft plotting at work here, too.

Matt King's Super Hans is also brought joyously to the fore and it's lovely to be reminded of what a fantastic (and integral) character he is in the peerless world of Peep.