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

[Applause] hello thank you so much for being here it's very for having it's exciting to see you all in a room together I feel like this is like a special moment that like we're never going to see The Beatles All in the room again but here and L we're all headed the same way not necessarily creatively just in a sort of mortality way and and when that happens I will interview you for a podcast about grief about that ready and waiting for that moment but genuinely this is so exciting this is such an exciting moment for fans of Comedy fans of this show um because it's become part of like British comedy history uh which is amazing did you have any idea when you began this process that you would be at 20th anniversary at the BFI of this kind of moment yes I mean no we had no idea we were just a bunch of idiots putting it together with tape and scissors well that's what I felt anyway yeah I think we there was no level of Glory to which we didn't Aspire at some level and I think you sort of quite often people say you know would you have a dream you'd get a third series and so go oh you don't want to see my dreams I've dreamt about the the Battle of ellites and I was Napoleon you know a sitcom going well you know barely touches a sight that's a given that's definitely going to happen so but I think we but nevertheless down for our our hopes were we have exceeded our hopes our hopes were to avoid humiliation by by getting the respectable Accolade of a second series and then sort of go on you see they got they did that two series thing that was was relatively well received and then they that's all you really need isn't it two series and then any more just looks greedy yeah yeah but so we yeah yeah I mean it's incredible because that is the you know where we live these days where one series everyone's like well just well done done you got one series two is like my god wow that's incredible but pacher had nine series like it's just incredible achievement I I want to ask I'm sure most people know this but just in case there are any PE I'm going for peepers is that what you called the fans why not let's go with it as in an expression for eyes no David I'm aware of that phrase I wasn't checking if does everyone else call them peepers I was checking the collective noun of your fans this would be the time to start yeah let's call it let's go for it um so Sam and Jesse where did you guys first meet how did this writing relationship again my God we're really getting into it getting into it um uh we met at Manchester University doing creative writing course and then we met um David and Robert doing a team writing exercise at the BBC and then we saw them doing their stage show in Hammersmith and we really we we blew our heads off really how brilliant they were having I mean there were great writers in the room it was pretty f um exercise this this team writing thing teamw written thing about squatters and uh yes despite everything uh Sam and Jesse's stuff was funny and we got along and did we did we go to play tennis we played tennis with someone in it wasn't s and Jessie that was different people we played tennis with they not so great what a great they didn't they didn't deliver the hit sitcom script and they're dead to us I definitely I definitely played tennis with Jesse though yeah yes we played tennis with Jesse on other occasion we went we played tennis with a writer from the actually tennis he didn't write this is the trouble with waiting 20 years we we can't [ __ ] remember um but the four of us have kind of got along and we and we liked each other's comedy despite the very bad premise of the thing and oh someone else's premise and they were was it just the four of you were there other writers there no there were other writers mainly tennis players who else was in that room they should have been concentrating on their writing they were just too busy inviting me far yeah far too many people in the room it was basically at the BBC they'd heard of this thing teamw writing and worked out well that must be you get one script commission and then get 15 people and put them in a room and say you do the adjectives you do the prepositions and it didn't work out are you allowed to say who else was in that room we genuinely can't remember oh yeah I know there's no worry about liel you can't remember anybody it there was no there was no um animosity there was no there wasn't they were it was it was an ill- fated project right not the Personnel who were blade you've done this before haven't you and um Sam Jesse did you have other ideas being developed at the time was there other projects that you know in that comedy writing way if you were like well this might get off this one what were the other ones that were prison Moon prison tell us about Moon prison that's that's what I call a two-word pitch we had Moon prison we spent a lot of time working on the Techno games which was the Olympics for robots we wrote links for that we were not allowed to be called Olympics for legal reasons robot oit correct uh and yeah I mean you know all writers I think uh most writers have have to have a big portfolio of things because most things don't work and don't go so yeah I can't Moon prison is often of we working on kids shows my parents aliens the Queen's nose shows like that yeah classic amazing shows but can we hear more about Moon prison feel like you're just I feel like you're skipping over Moon prison and all the peepers are like what's Moon prison I'm not making a up we did write a piloton yeah I mean okay so it was a prison yeah right with you it was on the moon what did you have Robin David in mind for Moon prison no we it was it was a vanity project really but you know we you you know as arises how is that a vanity I mean you develop your skills by writing stuff that it doesn't get made you know you have to keep cranking them out and then hopefully you you know you hit P I think when when P came around we'd already had a couple of shows that were on air that had sort of crashed and burned that we'd been writers on that we didn't create so we really felt like we were going to make sure this one was half decent we put put our backs into it for once CU we because we knew we know how easy it is for show to just to disappear yeah right when you started the pilot process for peep show did you feel like as soon as you had a readr and all that stuff did was the reaction different were you getting that immediately like oh this is actually really good this isn't going to crash and Bone well I I I definitely I remember thinking this is you know the other stuff has been interesting and getting our hopefully developing our skills and getting our foot in the door and getting an agent but I really hope this works because this is I really think this is funny like this is what I I want to write you know this this kind of Comedy for these kind of people forever so if this doesn't work then maybe the in I'm not good for the industry the industry isn't good for me so yeah we were really scared but really excited for the opportunity and how did you guys feel when you got that script did they send it to you like did you guys send it before it was before email it was before email my God this is like a retirement home chat about tennis and they Well we'd written we've kind of skipped a bit where I don't know why I'm it could be really unimportant and boring but we skipped a bit where we we wrote still might be boring that's what Jesse well I'll do my best you okay no many important things are boring and the culture needs to realize I'll try and you just be on you be on that yeah um I yeah we wrote A Thing Called all day breakfast where uh the four of us uh wrote two pilot scripts like two episodes and we did that with the BBC and that was actually that was great and it was kind of the sort of parent of Peep Show in that there was a uh there were there were sort of versions of Mark and Jeremy there I was I was Otto who was much bigger than Jeremy and posha and his dad was an arms dealer but he had that Jeremy kind of extrovert thing going on and uh and there was a version of Mark in Phil Phil Phil and uh Phil was and you know not just because of my performance but also in writing much much harder to make funny than a and uh I think David pointed this out yeah and but it's and the in Peep Show obviously Jeremy's a bit like Otto and Mark's a bit like Phil but Phil is a lot funnier it turns out if you can hear what he's thinking oh yeah what he does is incredibly pedestrian and uh unamusing but what he's thinking you know is is potentially funny and that's I think the way it totally redeemed the Phil slm Mark as a comic character the fact that you could suddenly know what was going on inside his head so we read those scripts at the BBC and the controller of BBC 2 wasn't there and the controller of BBC 3 turned it down do you want names yes I do 100% you can look it up so that was you wrote two episodes and then you had a lovely readr and they turned they basically walk through they was walking around oh proper walk through we we stood up in everything we really we really did just pulled out all the stuff Jeff MCG was in it brilliant actor yeah he played the third dimble bee brother fiction of dimbleby brother Tony dimbleby yes I forgotten the dimble be um and they turned it down yeah but it was I seem to have introduced this completely in a appropriate of bitterness what is a celebration of something that went right but what was it interesting I well I think interesting but definitely important but possibly boring you the judge is that I think we were envisaged all day breakfast as a studio sitcom of the old school with track studio audience five cameras uh in a way which is now hardly anything is made like that anymore so uh and obviously Peep Show is not just not like that it's particularly different um so in a way you were spurred into making that risky visual Choice by the controller of bbc3 thank you what an amazing creative uh input he or she or it has made also it was at that particular moment wasn't it when the sitcom genre was changing it was all multicam when we started and then two shows came out that I think really made a big impact on us personally but on the genre which was raw family and spaced and they were shot so differently yeah to normal sitcom just like oh okay we should rethink this what can we do that's different and exciting and visual that's not a multicam yeah well okay well that wasn't boring and I think it was interesting okay we take both boxes so far yeah yeah um when you so you film is it right you filmed two pilots yeah two half Pilots two half Pilots they Channel 4 commissioned the first half of a pilot and then 6 months later they commissioned the second half of continuity fun there well it was particularly because the flat we shot it in had used the location fee from the half first half of the pilot to redo their kitchen we had had actually paid for our own continuity [ __ ] incredible were you rewriting in that process I think is is not the way you normally should write such a crazy way to because we literally wrote the first half not knowing what the second half would be okay that's not normally how you did it that's how Dickens did his novel a real challenge you thought we'll just film a bit see how we feel wait six months yeah and that became episode two of the first season with the facial spasming with Jeremy Gets a Job yeah that's how I I only remember episodes by what I was doing with my face um so I can't use that system because I never do anything with M but I think I think it's really interesting what you were saying about the all day breakfast because that is something that makes you know this more it's a traditional double act in a way but because we get to hear what's going on we especially with Mark get his sense of vulnerability which like you said must have been missing before if you don't hear what he's thinking then he can be quite an ass but I think even if you well no but then you get to understand how how how pained he is inside as to himself so then I think even when he is being awful it's you know that there's just painful cringing happening 360 degrees of Mark is in pain I mean on on paper they're both quite unpleasant men basically only I mean they're I mean they're very human I think that's kind of the best you can say but they they behave quite poorly a lot of the time it's not like they they do a bad thing and then they feel bad about it and then they they just carry on doing the bad thing again again um but they but you sort of you were very aware of Sam and Jesse would put these other flavors in and I was very aware that because Jeremy has this kind of cruising petulant and is just just horrible so much of the time that when you see these other bits like he's has a kind of puppyish enthusiasm and kind of the flip side of that he's quite vulnerable sometimes so you've got to seize on those bits and kind of go you know and get to play play get to play get to play Al Otto was like well off and sort of rich and we changed that in Morris channel four suggested because I think in the first draft of the script Jeremy owned the flat and he said that's a bad idea make Mark the flat owner which was a really good idea because taking away some of Jeremy's wealth and power makes him more I think sympathetic yeah he would have been a bit odious wouldn't he might have been if oh yeah yeah I think setting up the codependency as well like he has to be nice to this person who it's clear if he was rich Jeremy might have dumped him along the way when did you find out you got a series then when was the moment that this year-long pilot process yeah we made this pilot in two halves in 2001 and we've shot the series in the Autumn of 2002 so it's actually 21 years since we were making it oh we should go this this isn't no point uh so you know that means the sitcom could vote before 1968 PS could vote um oh that was my next question yes I think that was when the voting age was lower to 18 dial down the jokes [Laughter] sorry um uh but yes so it was what I remember is Andrew Conor who was who' sort of uh ran objective Productions set up objective Productions and it sort of and can I just interrupt to say was formerly on copycats as an impressionist and before that had been young Magician of the year that's just how end of the pier he was the end of the peer renaissance man yeah and um but he he he'd sort of got the commission really hadn't he he'd sort of worked with you and sort of stewarded the project from the start and was the exec of it all the way through and that what I remember is he rang up to tell me it had been commissioned he rang up and said and I didn't realize what scene he was doing that's the problem he was doing the scene of telling a young comedian that he'd got his big break and I was just answering the phone uh he answered the pH he said and he said to me are you sitting down and I just answer in quite a lot of detail about how I was no I'm sort of standing in the corner of a room by a table and I but I could there's an arm of a sofa I could sort of perch on and I and I realized that I essentially I've been given my queue you'd ruined you'd ruined his moment yeah and I'd ruined it so he's like filming when when it first came out did you what was the reaction like straight away or did you were you just happy with what you had made it didn't matter what the public felt we were just pleased to be employed really w we and and well it came it kind of slipped out quite quietly I mean it was a late night Channel 4 thing we were anxious about how it would be reviewed yeah and it when it was kindly reviewed on the whole right it was pretty warm uh and in fact the reviews were always got the Figures were never spectacular the Figures were kind of I got the impression they were sort of on the disappointing side of respectable all the way through but the quality of the people the quality exactly but also we we started off getting low ratings for 2003 and they didn't and they went down over the course of the series but they didn't go down as uh as sharply as viewing figures went down in general right over that time so in a sense we bucked a Triumph yeah we bucked the decline of the medium and so so the 1.6 million we got in 2003 was disappointed to channel 4 the 1.3 million we got in 2015 they were very very [Music] pleased I mean I remember it I vividly remember it coming out and I was at University and I remember the trailer for it and it just being already a funny trailer which I think is a very hard thing to do for a comedy and immediately PE you know my student friends being like Oh that's it's actually funny we should watch it and it just felt like you said it was a very nice moment that this show came out and you know wasn't everywhere in the way that sometimes they do like throw a comedy down your throat but it just grew and grew and then we were able to learn to love the characters did you have like were you confident enough that you had like an nine series Arc parked ready or were you what did you think of that beginning process were you just like let's just see what happens yeah we we me and Sam used to plan the season in great detail and we spent a lot of time thinking about the plots for each episode but I think it's true to say we never gave any thought at all to the subsequent what the subsequent season might be true I think that might have changed after because Shane Allen Channel 4 came in and commissioned two seasons together maybe it was like five and six or something or six and seven I can't remember but that was like a big deal like oh we're we're quite established okay and we were having some some thoughts about that there was one sort of ended with a cliffhanger with a race to hospital oh yes yes that would have been that was the time we knew we had another yeah but usually you would cleverly end it in a kind of well if that's the end of Peep Show then that's a perfectly good ending and if it's not then well a couple of things that might get tied up later yeah um when did you notice uh I mean maybe this is more of a question for um David and Rob when did you notice that kind of people in the street stopping you and it kind of realizing that it had moved from like you said late night students to being a daytime students daytime students no to being part like you said like we're Channel 4 commissioning two series or like you realize oh we're part of Comedy establishment now like Peep Show is now up there with space and and with the royal family oh god well that for me that was very recent I mean I got invited to this and but I mean it's the the audience were people were coming up to say hello quite early on and I don't know if this is particularly a measure of um who was most excited to be watching or just who had the most social courageousness but the people who wanted a self well before selfies people who wanted an autograph if you can imagine such a thing uh they would kind of you wouldn't walk into a student bar and expect a quiet night I mean they were they were sort of young and usually male and usually heading for University or at University or the girlfriend of some bloke who's obsessed with it and then but they love it they've come around to it and and that became and it sort of as the show went on and as we all advanced into the gentle dappled light of midlife um those viewers it wasn't just um my son likes Peep Show now it's my dad likes peep show but it's never I like peep show you know I can respect that this is Britain but uh but the core the core audience kind of stayed the same but it sort of widened as the show got uh became middle-aged yeah I think the people who like it are quite enthusiastic about it so even when not the peers stop trying to make peepers a thing and so I think yeah they were approaching they were quite that when even when it was a tiny minority of people who'd seen it they were probably quite statistically likely to make them themselves know yes and how has the right did the writing process change for you guys did it like you know did one of you start writing One Voice more than other or did it kind of always stayed as it was that first those writing a pilot in two halves I assume you allowed yourself to write an episode all one day it didn't really change I don't think we ever took on a character reach or anything I think that's the fun of writing actually you can sort of play all the roles yourself you have to choose we we just I think we got probably maybe a bit more confident obviously it was a huge head start writing for pair of actors and devising characters suit them we sort of early adopters of the Miss web that we know in love we were sort in there on the ground floor so that was a great treat to be able to sort of steal from their comic Persona ey that weren't that well known so right that was a head start and then as you cast people you obviously can write them for Liv colan and Izzy Sassi and all the other brilliant character actors we had in the show and that really helps give you that confidence do you like obviously you know now we're here 24 do you have moments where you still like a mark thing or a Jeremy line occurs to you on a day and you think oh I wish we had another season that I could just put that joke in there I do know uh and that wasn't a question for me but uh but what sprang to my mind and then I started talking was that I definitely whenever I put either white or brown toast in the to that was the trailer is just going to happen that was the trailer that they they did for season that's the first moment I've SE if I'm toasting BR bread I'm thinking to myself I'm the one who's laughing because I actually love there is there is not that will be true when I'm 86 if I'm still toasting my own bread when I'm 86 you know again I don't know why I made that about death did we sorry did we ever do the bit where Mark can't his get his key out of the door and then yeah you did we did why don't I get this fixed the pilot I don't think that was any episodes I I can anyone remember if he's an episode good I always wanted we always wanted to get that bit in and I think we kept on putting it in and never quite fitted so as long as we got that bit in I'm done it's in episode one oh is it I could have stopped much earlier I mean you clearly had I mean I know you had immense fun making it and it became a sort of you know a family really that you know each season you come back I mean it it's it must have been hard to say goodbye to that aspect of it of like these characters that you love these people that you love coming back to this this comedy writing that you can just be like oh Mark and Jeremy here we go is that was that hard or did it just feel like it was hard yeah it was really hard it was diff it was hard I think we like we like the sense of a challenge of like it gets I think it gets we always wanted every episode to be amazing and we always wanted every season to be amazing and it gets you know you you get tired and I think by the end it was almost like a way of being like let's let's do a really [ __ ] good one and it was a way of doing that and we were all getting a bit older and some of the stuff that was like the natural uh material for the show was becoming maybe a little bit further Out Of Reach and we didn't want to ever be o reaching for you know you know how it is when and we things we had no idea of about so but it was really sad the last day on set was very sad and yeah um it's it's it's always very uh uh emotionally um significant seeing everyone and there's lots of people from the show who are here who um aren't on stage and it's so nice to see them before and see them after I almost want them to stand up like winners like do away but I know they would not speak to me um we are going to show the episode then we're going to come back for more chat with some other people uh from the show as well so yeah don't run off and please give a round of applause please welcome to the stage Izzy Sati Rachel Blanchard and Phil Clark everybody make your way down here and welcome back Sam Jesse Rob and David who'll be joining us as well and we wanted so Olivia and Patterson as I call them uh were weren't able to to make it but sent their sincere apologies as well in case you thought that they'd been snubbed we they' been snubbed um yeah it was SC so nice towards that episode in with in a group setting as well so so lovely just super just oh very blissmas um Izzy um Dobby Izzy um do you remember were you already a fan of the show when you first got the audition um yes uh which kind of made it worse I think if I had heard of it I would have just been like oh this is a crazy name for a show but actually I was and it meant a lot um uh yeah but I I just from the beginning felt a a connection with the character that isn't always there when you go in for something so and I had a very uh odd feeling when I came out that I felt I'd given it my best shot which I don't know about you guys but it isn't that common for me to feel that it was oh I wish I'd done it in a scous accent or worn my Flintstone Costume or whatever but I I I kind of felt like well I've done it exactly how I would do it if I got it so it was a feeling of real satisfaction um when I came out of the recall um and at that point so nowadays actors it seemed to always we always I always feel like we have to be off book for castings but back then you could often relax yeah you could look down quite a lot but with this you really couldn't because it showed if you didn't know the lines because you're doing all down the lens so I learn learned all lines to the recall that's good of you thank you was the least I could do that's how you know you really want a job isn't it when you really bother you're like I'm actually bothering night yeah you don't I don't normally do this uh and Rachel you appeared in the first episode of Series 2 so that's right in the beginning of Peep Show's Journey had you were you aware of the show by that point no I I auditioned in Los Angeles I had actually never heard of the show it was before streaming so you didn't hear about shows um from abroad as much and I remember reading the sides I didn't know you were looking down the barrel until we were on set um reading the sides and I just remember the line now [ __ ] me and pretend I'm your mom who who would like to take ownership of that line would anyone like to talk there was there was quite a lot of love making in that series and U of course what we were always do in a way because of the POV style kind of saved you because uh you were just having uh the Nick Martin the cameraman who was the hardest working hardest working man in Show Business at the time just jumping up and down on top of you uh and he was very he was a gentleman and to me anyway and uh and and he was um so it was a lot less embarrassing than it than it could have been um so yeah I was looking at um Wikipedia today for research and the list of Jeremy's lovers like it's a really long list yeah of ladies and men as we know from my series that uh Joy worked his way through and I remember you saying that to me on the first like don't worry you're not going to have to touch me because you do have to just yeah it's it's POV how was that for you Rachel were you disappointed that with the sex or with the POV with no because it's such an unusual way of filming something and it's a very unusual way especially if you are playing love interests to somebody that you really don't spend a lot of time looking into their eyes connecting having that emotional relationship with them it was well there were two things that took a minute to get used to we did the helmet cam the the second season which I was particularly bad at you had a hard helmet and little camera yeah so we gave this up um after you left actually so to start with in the the the pilot for the first two series that there was uh we would we would film everything sort of twice and um the first time using a mini cam that was attached to a cycle helmet uh and then because the quality of that was so rubbish we film it properly with a normal camera uh and then yeah we eventually just uh got less interested in the POV thing and more interested in the sitcom uh and the um the mini cam sort of disappeared but at one point in the in the first series I was driving around and it wasn't it wasn't the kind of show that had a budget for putting a car on a truck where you pretend to drive we were driving and also I had the I had the camera on and I'm doing the scene with David and I I'm getting notes back going we keep missing David U could you could you look at him a bit more and I'm literally trying to trying to drive around central Cen while it's not crashing a car and remembering my lines and filming David so who says comedy actors can't multitask I'm glad they put safety um your safety eventually first it was incredibly incredibly dangerous yeah um Phil when you first when those scripts first landed on your desk for season one did you have the same feeling like oh this is this is something pretty special oh yeah for sure and I wasn't um I wasn't involved in the original pilot and it's not your fault that that pilot was filed separately no and I I came across the show because I bumped into Tony roach in do you remember borders the Bookshop borders bumped into Tony roach and he said oh you um you should read um Yours Truly Pier Stone Yours Truly which had written and uh so I read it I was in border so I bought it and I thought this is a really brilliant book and I sort of asked Sam to come in to talk back at the time and Sam came in and and sort of we spoke a bit and then you said you should meet my writing part partner Jesse and I remember thinking I'd be delighted to meet her and and so she is so she is and then both you guys came in and then you very kindly sent me the pilot and said do you want to produce the series um and and I had just done big train at the time I just finished big train and we were going to do a third series and there was a thing called I just remember this there's a thing called the Jane root 3 million club and Jane root was the controller of BBC 2 at the time and if you did a show for Jane root and you got an audience of three million or over you were invited to have a drink with Jane root what a club catchy name they there yeah and um I did the second series of big train and it got 2.8 million and I never got to have a drink with Jane R and um so and the series didn't come back and I was at talk back and I was literally feeling a bit embarrassed every time Peter Finch went past my office I S pretending to write something it's gone okay I don't want to do and then you guys sort of came to the resue and said do you want to come and do this uh Series so it's was like great this script's a fantastic I knew Robert and David from previous things we'd done so it was a it was a dream gig it was you know was fantastic luckiest thing that's ever happened to me it's amazing I find that amazing comedy fanwise that big train didn't do well enough therefore you moved on to Peep Show I'm I'm just well I'm glad that both those things exist um Izzy do you have a favorite moment from filming the show or like a favorite Dobby moment my favorite moment overall is um the episode I'm not in this series I don't think at all where you two go on the barge and you have to eat the chicken um I I just think it's so funny um and also at the wedding with you and Sophie where um you we and it all fls down and I think it's an extra I don't think this person has lines it goes on to someone's a woman's hat it wasn't real we yeah that's very disappointing actually I wanted it to be your we um but that they're my two favorite moments that I that I wasn't in in terms of stuff that I was in um I mean it was a really lovely show to work on genuinely and when I joined it I'd only done um a few small Telly jobs and I was sort of convinced I would get sacked all the time it was completely silent the first series I was in apart from when I said my lines um and then I slowly realized I'm back here and it's another series everything's all right um and I loved doing the paintballing I don't know if anyone remembers that episode but I remember sort of being there for days and days it was probably only one day um but I just remember that being really lovely because it was summer um and I hadn't been paintballing before you know TI things off it was exciting doubly for Dobby and for Izzy because you got to go paintballing absolutely that's a great thing about acting get to do all this stuff um my least favorite moment I'm sorry to say um is is the stationary covered scene um I I understand why it's necessary I understand why it exists um I find it very difficult because David and I didn't know each other at all um there was no bodily contact whatsoever it was you know lots of people including Nick Martin who was mentioned before the amazing cameraman who was the sole person at least when I from series five onwards when I was in it he filmed absolutely everything um and I remember a lot of us crammed into this cupboard and lots of discussion about logistics and how will we show both their faces at the same time then we decided that there was be a mirror in the stationary covered which is reasonably unusual station covered to be too for people just to check their reflection when they go get a stapler um but when I I can't watch that scene because I I find it too intense to watch um and that was my first episode I think and my mom and dad were very excited because I was going to be God they said we'll tell everyone at Bridge oh no you wait just wait until the one after that start with the next one start with the next one um Rachel do you have a favorite moment from filming the show um I to this day it's genuinely one of my most favorite jobs that I've had and one of the best experiences working I've had it was just every day uh was so much fun and everybody was so kind and genuinely you know you work in LA and there are a lot of um not as kind people [ __ ] uh and every everyone was so smart and such good writing and so kind and that was relatively unusual as an experience for me so it was kind of every day was great and then every time super hands was on set I thought that was really fun it was pretty unusual at that time right to get Rachel over like we we really wanted somebody to your Canadian but we wanted a somebody North American and play American and it was a pretty big deal was it was a big deal it was all sort of it felt touch and go and there was a funny we were talking about this earlier we weren't sure even to the final moment whether you were coming or not and there's sort of been some mixed messages I think from you something that got lost in translation so I had to go to airport and we think we thought we knew what flight you were on so I had to wait at arrivals and every young woman who walked through the thing I just went Rachel Rachel Rachel ages and ages you came through thank God so I said I'm kind of amazed there were no other Rachels that day he were like oh OB be Peep Show yeah I think it was just I think people so sad you know she's never coming uh this guy he's obviously uh she's been waiting for years this they they still talk at heo about the the the Rachel man what be of him what's better is that they were like oh she's not coming and then Rachel came through and they were like wow okay he was right to keep trying you it wasting you were you were lovely and then um that's it and then we got your car didn't he and well yes I remember there was a car waiting for me and you're like hi I'm Phil you know welcome I thought also I thought everyone knew I was coming um around and went back on the tube I on only one left and like I'll take the subway home no no I I thought well cuz you came from sort of LA and I thought that you would think it would be very unprofessional for me to get in the car with you so I thought it was really strange so you so sorry so I put you in the car then got the tube back to the office clearly delightfully English thing and then this poor Canadian actress being like where is he going very very cuz it was a really quick hello was a quick hello thank you hello just wanted to say hello thank you so much for coming by did I say thank God or I probably curtsy didn't I or something I just but I remember getting back to the office like she's here she's here thank God that's really funny um anyway sorry I just love that there was a time when actresses were hired but no one was sure they would turn up like was crossed because I remember you from being in the Clueless tv show which was like a very big part of my growing up and so when you again on the peep show adver it was very exciting and as you said it was unusual it felt like you had a sort of famous guest star which wasn't really that common in British sitcoms particularly no everyone agrees great um well Dave do you still have is it a stupid question to ask you what your favorite moments from filming are or is just too many I mean the first thing that's brings to mind is is the is that barge um just because it was uh i' had so much fun playing the the boyfriend that that runs over and then tries to bury and then Burns and then eats his girlfriend dog it's just so it's so extreme but it just gets there this s Jesse script as usual is just so brilliant it gets there in these small perfectly logical half steps I I I think perfectly logical um and I remember just being on that barge and it being quite difficult it it because filming days are long and you're always up against always up against the clock it's not always constantly hilarious and we're not always falling around going Jesus Christ I'm so glad uh that I'm an actor in peep show but sometimes we really were laughing and I I remember having trouble getting through that scene I certainly remember the after that scene um going away and I started picking my teeth and I thought that that's just so horrible but yeah but um um it was yeah it was it was all great but I can't and then I sort of see episodes and and it it's it kind of comes back but um that that Springs to mind I I think it was always the corpsing was always at its worst when Patterson was around and and I particularly remember the scene it wasn't a in some ways not a high point for me when I'm sitting on the L having having having diarrhea for you know and and the noises and the you know and you sort of feel like even though didn't really have diarrhea then you sort of feel that you are betraying more about yourself than you perhaps want to because in a sense much as I wanted it to be Mark Corgan it was also that's what I'm like when I have done the last thing you want you want someone going is that what you do yeah exactly yeah then that would be you know there an insight into those very private low moments we all have that most of you have probably not had to share you know on National Television um but it was definitely the experience was mitig ated by the difficulty that baton had saying is that normal [Music] poing he would he would quite often be his Own Worst Enemy because he he would put these extra vowels into I he's very an actor after my own heart actually and he would like if he had to say any German he would like suddenly it would be frank for and like suddenly there were these new syllables would appear and he caught himself yeah and yeah that's just fun yeah I mean you're you're a big fan time and Jesse of the kind of group dining scene and I was thinking that there like with that episode there must have been a lot of corpsing particular yes but how many how many times did you see actual food going into actual mouths because no none at all I don't think we did badly actually I saw there was quite a lot of actual eating happening there I saw Matt put a potato in so so that meant there were like 38 times he ate that potato absolutely I definitely went for a carrot at one point and it's I tell you what it's better than a lot of episodes of D and Abby you see them sitting all around there in their finery and I count one p in the whole scene yeah cu the group uh the scene in series 9 where you make your special dish your lettuce it's Moroccan actually and yeah I remember the only person uh eating it was the I've forgotten his name the actor played Joe who um ET the pasta every single time B Bart Bart thank you Bart at plates and plates of it even though you specifically said don't no you gave a tip at the beginning of like don't eat it but Bart was like no no it's part of the character and that was I mean when you revealed your I mean that was just that was that was a lot of corpsing that day and Patterson was not around so I think you can't blame patter all those moments um Sam Jesse is there a particular moment that still stands out for both of you or is it too hard to pick I find that question so hard 15 years of the show yeah I don't you I mean yeah are you remember a few sort of days on set there was a would you shot that there was a picnic you know where superans reveals he has the twins yeah it was just an IT filming the show can often be you know delightful but it's you still got a lot to do and it's tough I just remember that being a nice summer day and Olivia was there and it was I think we had enough time and you just you those little bits you remember but but in in in terms of the the funny stuff I I'm very very fond of the Turkey um Exchange in that CU it's you know Rob was talking about when when you see that sweet side of Jeremy and it's very I find it verying he had bought the turkey I know that was I completely forgot that on the rewatch I completely forgot that bit of a continuity era though the turkey in the fridge is much bigger than the turkey that appears I don't know why we thought we were getting away with that I think there is one moment actually which stood out for me in the first season you're in the bathroom and Mark says to Jeremy in a very horrible way nothing you want is ever going to happen I just thought this is the kind of show I I like cuz like no one would like such so vicious but yeah you did it with such sort of both of you it SS true when you say it doesn't it it's so horrible I was like is this good yeah I think this is good this is terrible a kind of you know petti and Nightmare and that that was like yeah we've clicked into something here that's the strength of their relationship I think is that they do say awful things to each other quite a lot but then they also rescue each other quite a lot and I think that's what you know you relate to from watching a friend who will be honest with you sometimes I think that's such important part of them yeah I wouldn't overstate that I mean they I mean they kind of I I think they're given to moments of sentimentality about how long they've been hanging out together I think that's that's as high as I could put their love really yeah I know that's that's a thing though codependent absolutely and they only they their their Rock Bottom self-esteem is only lifted to a tiny extent by reflecting on the fact that they're not as bad as the other one so they have their they're fortunate enough to live with the one person they despise most in the world that keeps them that keeps them from despair uh I think but at the end it is I I watching that one Mark is just horrible and you sort of see his father and you think okay you can see but he's that he's horrible and and and I think I feel like he is less redeemed than Jeremy oh that's interesting I don't I mean his dad is really horrible marman doing that kind of like like three glasses of wine just immediately kind of the [Laughter] [Applause] mechanism it's a brilliant it's a brilliant performance but I think again it's the Fantastic writing of Peep Show that as soon as we see Mark's parents we do forgive Mark quite a lot of stuff because you do feel so sorry for him CU his parents are [ __ ] awful um is it is it still the thing that you get stopped by fans for do you think uh primarily yes um I remember being very near here when the first series that I was in was was on and being chased by approximately 30 people who were young about 20 or 21 and they were screaming about Peach and I thought oh my God this is the way my life's going to be do I like it I guess so um and that that's never happened again um but yes uh primarily and a bit like you were saying earlier still if I go out in East London um uh because it gets shown to a new generation as you say people will go you know on my mom or my dad is normally my dad likes likes Peep Show and I do too and then you think oh okay um that's I mean it's lovely it's always and I always say it's the writing I mean I think you know um you two are expertly casting you are brilliant um and it it's just the perfect combination I think of you four primarily of the Bedrock of it I really think that none of none of something something that hasn't been mentioned yet is that Sam and Jesse would work so hard on the story that David and I would just kind of and they would and their attitude to throwing things out if they didn't quite fit left me and David who were very into recycling um and very you know our attitude to rewriting at the time was a bit like the fs at the beginning of Happy Days who he's about to comb his hair and then and he just goes come and I think that that was kind of what how we felt when somebody asked for a second draft uh but s s Jesse just worked and worked and worked uh until the story was right and then it felt like they would just treat themselves to some hilarious dialogue at the end of the process but the hard work was getting those stories right and that was we w we learned a lot from from them uh in that way because it it worked emotionally even if it even if it hadn't been full of brilliant jokes I makes I I totally agree i' never worked with any writers who'd worked so hard before you guys just kept going in a way that you know a lot of writers understanding we like this is great and we've done enough now and you would continually question it and say is it good enough is it good enough it's incredibly impressive I think it was you pH saying is it good enough is it but also right right through the edit because the fact that you there's an internal monologue scenes could always be cut and um the the I monologues could always be Rewritten so the polishing and the adding of jokes and the sort of making the plot smoother carried on all the way through the process and I think that's it was a a benefit of certainly the being able to cut a bit that wasn't working and then do a voiceover that covered that was just made the episodes tighter than they would have been without the that format but your willingness to come up with great gags that we didn't know on set we just come in and record it the end of the process was sort of amazing that's absolutely true I'm sure you remember this thing where you'd get a cut and it would just be uh every now and then there' be a line where someone it was usually Becky Martin the director would just put funny joke here funny line now now it's just like there you go guys back to you again um so I don't know how you did that you always came in and just nailed it completely and you used to have a terrifying phrase which was could this be funnier about about you know those lines we'd write 10 and like come up with the one we thought or a couple we'd often record right you'd come record a few and see which seem to fit best and then Phil would say that Dreadful phrase could could this be funnier we're gonna have uh another episode um does anyone want to explain why this episode is being shown now why it's been chosen David or Rob is there a reason it's probably the best one it's the best one uh from season 4 it's weddings um please give them a huge round of [Applause] applause I think one thing uh I guess it's sort of um cheesy but it it we I think we really really enjoyed writing a show that we thought was really really funny and that would make you know Phil and especially David and Robert laugh and the confidence that the thing that you think is really good even if it seems a bit odd there like there's weird there's a Kenneth hell and Joe Orton Jing there it's like what the [ __ ] did that come from I mean that's not the high point of the episode but being able to but think doing peculiar things that and discovering they might appeal to people is like a very comforting uh thing that's just my thought who calls a new character in a new sitcom super hands and thinks you probably in the same flat having the same arguments um I really wondered how did they coope with the pandemic that's what I kept thinking like how did Mark coope with that I mean Mark I think Mark would have loved the it so many rules and you know that just and bleaching the shopping yeah essentially Mark and Jeremy would both have enjoyed having different views about the Lockdown from each other um but the thing is um one of the reasons I think we stopped doing the show is it's we were too old and it's about young men yeah and uh and the thing about sitcom and and the thing about I think the thing that makes sitcoms brilliant as an art form is that they're about life not changing and most of the other art forms are about change and change isn't necessarily the overwhelming experience of being human so Mark and Jeremy they only exist in that place and that time The Simpsons does it brilliantly in that it's been going for 20 years but nothing has changed the baby is still sucking a dummy and that's the same with Mark and J they don't get older and when we were getting older the show had to stop um so they're exactly where they were and if we ever did anything about old Mark and Jeremy it's almost like that's a that would almost that would be different almost different people then you can call it peepers peepers we'd watch it we'd watch it oh things got thrown away WR a whole draft When Johnson killed himself yeah [Laughter] it wasn't that funny it did it happened off screen right it wasn't like oh yeah it was fine off screen but it still was something of a downer you did Kill Gerard didn't you you killed Gerard got rid of Gerard we got one good luck and yeah I do think make yourself laugh and you know you don't know where it's going to go from there but you know do trust your instinct to write what you think is funny ways in which it's changed we we're we're we're quite far from I don't know whether Phil might have a better sense than us in some ways it's sort of yeah television has changed we you know Society changes and expectations change I think some people in comedy sort of go oh well you can't say you know things now that you could say I don't think actually that's really true I think it's um it's like it's like all of us really we all change and yet we don't and I think that is like comedy um so although there are certain you know probably some things you rid back then in possibly the '90s that you wouldn't do now um I don't think fundamentally anything is really really different because we're not really fundamentally different even though we have you know Society has slightly different attitudes so um you know I think the fundamental rules all the same it was really interesting when earlier on we were talking about you know um Mark and Jeremy and I was thinking it goes all the way back their relationship to Laurel and Hardy who you know they bicker they sort of you know argue and then an outside force comes and they both unite and they're again you know against that force and in a way Mark and Jeremy bicker and argue and hate each other in a way that only two people who love each other really can so and I think that's really true so that you know the world has changed so much since the 1920s and yet nothing has changed so I think that's it really yeah we're convinced they love each other whatever you say I'm that's fine I'm going to let that go Jim hock isn't here is he he was we invited but he didn't make it he make it um I don't remember it being that big a deal I think maybe we'd learned from our mistake with Johnson suicide it's like there's a way of deing a funny death hopefully which is that it's kind of random and yet somehow predictable because you'd been quite sickly so Gerald yeah it's all played off your very funny reaction the think yeah I think what's it's great in a way that Gerard's death is just the punchline to all the annoying ailments that he's been exhibiting for ages just kind of he sort of had to die because that's it's the only way of finishing that you know that and the Mark's irritation at Gerard's illnesses um and then fundamentally irritation at his death you know it's it's I think it's a a side of people dealing with death that isn't much dramatized uh I I I had to phone Jim to to warn him that he was going to die and it was one of the worst phone calls I've ever had to make it really was it sort of like telling him you're going to die see you later you're waiting at heathway for him well well you have to say where the idea came from idea certainly didn't come from me and we were talking about the I think one impulse was like in a way super hands is the version of Jeremy that he sort of almost that's his sort of dream version of how a great man might be yeah yeah and I guess Johnson is that for Mark and and and then I guess the the sort of homoerotic confusion sort of flowed naturally out of his very the very high esteem that he held him in that was Patterson's note you know in the first reader he was saying there wasn't much homerotic stuff in the first draft P was like well clearly he crush on it was like maybe we should do that maybe we should push that I the bit I enjoyed most episode was the mustache that was never mentioned growing on his face I was cl and it was a lot of bother that there would cuz the mustache there were at least three maybe four um because and in each scene we had to wear our we on because nothing gets shot in order where are we on Mark's mustache growing graph now um and it's and and it's yes it's never mentioned in dialogue or anything but it's just yeah that's his but so essentially you're saying Mark it's as much narcissism from Mark's homoeroticism he sees himself in Johnson and and which is the opposite of what he also says in another episode this he's watching TV and a woman on the television says I'm on a dating show I'm kind of looking for someone just like myself and Mark goes that's the opposite of what I'm doing come on Jeremy's not a very nice man I'm so sorry that that was the paintballing day yes yeah yeah yes that was when I had to face the fact that Dobby wasn't 100% nice actually she changed yeah well that's because she' been going out with Mark I think it's a beautiful example of how everyone is a little bit flawed and people make unusual decisions and if they' made the normal decision you wouldn't watch it and I think we've as all as peepers watch those it's going to work there we've watched those episode and that's the joy of the shows every time they start doing something you are screaming inside being please don't [ __ ] do that but you also desperately want them to piss themselves in a church um you have been such an amazing audience thank you so much for being with us such a a long night we really hugely appreciate it please give a massive Round of Applause for Izzy Bill Sam Jesse Ral and David [Music] [Applause] thank

Channel: BFI

Views: 214,247

Keywords: British Film Institute (Publisher), British, film, institute, films, movie, movies, cinema, BFI, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Jesse Armstrong, Peep Show, comedy, Channel 4, Issy Suttie, sitcom, Mitchell and Webb, writing, directing, 2000s, screenwriting, UK, TV, Television, Griefcast, Cariad Lloyd

Id: DwO1HP7ZS-c

Length: 61min 27sec (3687 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2024