Peep Show/Characters

Mark Corrigan (David Mitchell)
Awkward and socially inept, Mark often has trouble understanding the functions of the modern world. He is cynical and pessimistic, but still possesses a stronger moral character than Jeremy. This isn’t saying much.


 * Born in the Wrong Century
 * British Stuffiness
 * Butt Monkey
 * The Chew Toy: The first ever episode shows him being bullied by a smallish gang of pre-pubescent boys.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Mostly in his head, but sometimes in person.
 * Dirty Coward: Too many times to count, but most of all the way he ends up marrying the wrong woman because he hasn't got the guts to break it off.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Jeremy.
 * Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His father is a bigoted, bullying control freak who was instilling the fear of God in Mark when he wasn’t neglecting him. His time at school was.... not fun either.
 * Hidden Depths: When his love of history gets the chance to shine, you get the feeling he really should have pursued that instead of working for a finance company.
 * Manipulative Bastard: He certainly has his moments.
 * Not So Different: Will take any opportunity to stab Jeremy in the back if it benefits him.
 * Papa Wolf: Claims he'd even stab Jeremy to protect his baby.
 * Stalking Is Love: Is very good at temporarily deluding himself into thinking so.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Has this kind of complex regarding Johnson and Jeremy's stepfather, among others. Probably owing to the Hilariously Abusive Childhood above.

Jeremy ‘Jez’ Osborne (Robert Webb)
An unemployed musician with even less to brag about than Mark, but still manages to brag anyway. A whole lot.

"Sophie: And have I lived enough? I mean, I've only slept with four men. Is that enough? Jez: Four?... Oh... Yeah. Jesus. I've had sex with more men than that, and I basically only sleep with women."
 * Anything That Moves: Jeremy once told Mark that he was aroused by chairs.
 * Bi the Way: The 'bad thing' with Super Hans. And then there's this,

"Jez: I'm his one."
 * Crazy Jealous Guy: Jez sent dog shit in the post, peppersprayed, tried to punch and possibly subconsciously tried to murder the men - and in one case a woman - who he considered rivals for whatever woman - Toni, Nancy, Big Suze, Elena etc - he was currently infatuated with. In one episode he got so clingy he was threatened by his girlfriend showing kindness to a homeless man.
 * Casanova Wannabe
 * Comedic Sociopath: Oh so very much.
 * Deadpan Snarker: At times.
 * Dreadful Musician
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Refuses to have sex with Sarah on Christmas, given his love of the holiday.
 * Giftedly Bad
 * It's All About Me: "Can't I have everything I want, all the time? I mean, isn't that what Democracy is all about?".
 * Karma Houdini: From time to time. He does tend to get away with some pretty awful shit.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Mark.

"Mark: "Eventually he's gonna learn how sausages are made"."
 * Heroic Sociopath
 * Hypocritical Humour: We're talking World Amateur Champion level here.
 * Man Child: Even more so in the episode his mother comes to visit.
 * Never My Fault: He could market books and lectures on shifting blame and not taking responsibility for actions.
 * Pet the Dog: Fakes this a lot but does have some genuine moments of kindness.
 * The Slacker: Jeremy is intentionally a slacker, and rather proud of it, seeing it as being a cool, pop culture lifestyle choice. He does have moments of clarity on occasion.
 * Ted Baxter
 * Too Dumb to Live: "They wouldn't put a bad idea in a film, they'd get sued."
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist


 * Wrong Genre Savvy: He often tricks himself into thinking he’s in some kind of movie.

Sophie Chapman (Olivia Colman)
Mark’s love interest for much of the series. She starts off as a distant crush, then over the seasons they progress into a relationship, a marriage, a divorce and now have a child together.


 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: She goes for Jeff at first, even lampshading it with, 'I always go for arseholes'.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While viewer opinion varies as to who was more at fault in her relationship with Mark, we definitely see a less pleasant side of her from season 5 onwards.
 * Broken Pedestal: Mark's rose-tinted view of her doesn't long survive their actually getting together.
 * Inelegant Blubbering:  This is a speciality of Oliva Colman. Not many do it better.
 * My Biological Clock Is Ticking: In series 5.
 * Shallow Love Interest: How she started off, likely because we only ever saw her through Mark's limited viewpoint.
 * Took a Level In Jerkass: Started off as a fairly pleasant and bland love interest and straight woman to Mark until after a couple of series Olivia Colman made the writers realise that she wasn't really such a nice girl when you look at how she treats him. This led to her character being developed in other directions in series 3 and 4 and she really turns into a bitch after

Super Hans (Matt King)
A friend of Jeremy’s and a musician. He’s a slightly more successful (and psychotic) version of Jeremy, and influences him in a variety of negative ways.


 * Berserk Button: Does not like being locked in a room at all
 * Dreadful Musician
 * Going Cold Turkey: Has tried and failed several times.
 * Hipster
 * Immune to Drugs: Super Hans clearly thinks he is, although in many episodes he's reduced to an utter wreck by his excessive habits. However, someone who can survive taking four grams of cocaine in one go "to relax him" must be carrying at least a pint or two of tiger blood.
 * Insane Troll Logic
 * Junkie Prophet: Sometimes likes to pass himself off as one.
 * Manipulative Bastard: He’s not overly skilled at manipulation, but it doesn’t take much to trick Jeremy.
 * Stoners Are Funny
 * Ted Baxter: Even more so than Jeremy.
 * Wild Card: Can function as the episode's antagonist, single-scene comic relief, an unreliable backup party member for Jez and/or Mark, or just a drug-addled dead weight depending on the situation.

Alan Johnson (Paterson Joseph)
Mark’s highly charismatic boss who also happens to be utterly insane.


 * The Alcoholic: Recovered, then relapsed.
 * Bad Boss
 * Badass Moustache: In one episode Mark even tries to grow one to emulate him.
 * Broken Pedestal: Mark's view switches from Idolization to disdain in a few seasons
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Despite going semi-insane after his fall from power, he still manages to nail a contract for the management-consultant business him and Mark set up and by the end of Series 7 has enough money to buy another house.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Especially in later seasons.
 * Even the Guys Want Him
 * Large Ham
 * Jerkass
 * Jerk Jock: To a certain extent.
 * Pet the Dog: Mentoring and community work, according to Big Suze. Also, sticking up for Mark when
 * Pointy-Haired Boss: Debateable. He’s competent and doesn’t suffer fools, but he’s also highly aggressive, willing to throw innocent employees to the wolves to save himself, and Mark not inaccurately describes him as part of a group of, ‘literally the worst men in the world’.
 * Sanity Slippage: After JLB goes under, he hops off the edge of reason.
 * Stupid Sexy Flanders: Has this effect on Mark at least.
 * Villainous Breakdown: The recession is...not good for his sanity.
 * Neither is throwing a house party on the same night as him.

Jeff Heaney (Neil Fitzmaurice)
Mark’s rival for the affections of Sophie; he’s a cruel bully who believes that men are made to ‘kill and knob’.


 * The Bully: Takes every opportunity to tease, belittle and sneer at Mark.
 * Hidden Depths: In season six, he helps Sophie with her pregnancy and was very upset about the break up originally. Of course, even when helping Sophie he takes shots at Mark and is relieved to find out he isn't the child's father.
 * Jerkass
 * Jerk Jock: We only see him being good at a sport once (bowling), but it's very easy to imagine him being one of the football-playing, tougher lads at school who picked on nerds like Mark (although they didn't go to school together)
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At times, mostly when around Sophie.
 * Kick the Dog: He goes from an office bully into a full-fledged sadistic bastard when he gives Mark a nasty little speech about how he doesn't see him as a threat to his relationship. 'You could have your cock in her. You still wouldn't have the balls to fuck.'
 * Oop North: A Scouser.
 * Romantic False Lead
 * Smug Snake: Whenever he's going out with Sophie.

Toni Papadopoulopoulos (Elizabeth Marmur)
The unhinged next-door neighbour who serves as an unhealthy object of lust during the first and second season. She’s disappeared after getting remarried to her husband.


 * Berserk Button: Really likes her music. Do not criticise Peter Gabriel in front of her. Or try and take her Bhundu Boys album.
 * Broken Bird
 * Christmas Cake: Definitely on the wrong side of 30.
 * Freudian Excuse: Has some serious daddy issues owing to her father dying when she was 3.
 * Overly Long Name
 * The Vamp

Nancy (Rachel Blanchard)
A kooky, ‘liberated’ small-town American girl who Jeremy falls in love with. She later marries him for visa reasons, and is in general something of a hypocritical free-spirit.


 * Brainless Beauty
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Depending on how you view her.
 * Citizenship Marriage
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Granola Girl: Very much so, but also (by her word anyway) a devout Christian.
 * Ms. Fanservice: In a DVD commentary, Mitchell & Webb and Armstrong & Bain comment about the novelty of a sexy Hollywood actress coming over to do a low-budget British sitcom in "shitty Croydon".
 * Hypocrite: Acts like a devout Christian...and is also too kinky for Jeremy. It's probably in keeping with her own, self-styled religion.
 * The Pollyanna: To an extent that gets rather creepy, given that she chirps about family crises and year-long spells of drug addiction as brightly as anything else.

Big Suze (Sophie Winkleman)
Posh, a little stupid, very attractive and very sweet, Big Suze is Jeremy’s ex-girlfriend. He’s still in love with her, and has an excellent plan to ‘get her high and put my hand up her jumper’.


 * English Rose: She's so posh, that even Mark Corrigan, who was privately educated until his dad's British Aerospace shares went kaput, could be her bit of rough.
 * Hello, Nurse!
 * Spoiled Sweet
 * Statuesque Stunner: Hence the name.

Gerard (Jim Howick)
Mark’s rival for Dobby’s affection. He’s a nice, nerdy fellow with ongoing health problems.


 * Adorkable
 * Ascended Extra
 * Dogged Nice Guy: Initially at least, but he doesn't hesitate to stab Mark in the back or abuse any power he can get once Dobby's there to play for.
 * Ignore the Disability: "Tube up his nose. Tube up his nose. He's a man with a tube up his nose."
 * Ill Boy
 * Not So Different: A mild-mannered nerd with a repressed nasty streak? Sound familiar, Mark?
 * Out-Gambitted: "Never go to war with Stalin, Gerard. Uncle Joe don't play by Your rules".

Dobby (Isy Suttie)
A nerdy co-worker who just might be the one girl that likes Mark for the neurotic mess that he is.


 * Adorkable
 * Genre Savvy: After a couple of seasons she knows how Mark's life works better than Mark does.
 * Nerds Are Sexy: Possibly a poster girl for this.
 * Ladette: Can definitely be a bit "foward" at times (see: store cupboard scene). And in her first scene we see her reading Viz.
 * Shout-Out: To a certain house elf?

Elena (Vera Filatova)
A bisexual, marijuana-dealing Russian émigré who lives in the same block of flats as Mark and Jeremy.


 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
 * Brainless Beauty
 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: in Jeremy's view.
 * Foreign People Are Sexy
 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Jeremy thinks this initially, but quickly grows jealous and angry. Elena hurts both Jeremy and her girlfriend, completely subverting this trope.
 * It's All About Me: "You love Me and Gail loves Me. Shit, everyone loves Me".
 * Sensual Slavs
 * The Unfair Sex: Averted. Elena is depicted as being just as selfish and shallow as Jez.
 * Your Cheating Heart: She just loooooves to cheat.

Ian Chapman (Paul Clayton)
Sophie's quietly bitter, self-loathing father.


 * The Alcoholic
 * Ax Crazy: Burns down his neighbour's barn when he suspects him of sleeping with his wife.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a homophobe but he's no badger baiter.
 * Grumpy Old Man
 * Papa Wolf
 * Happy Marriage Charade
 * Only Sane Man: He's very aware of the fact that he's in a loveless marriage and everyone around him acts in their own selfish interests.

Penny Chapman (Cheryl Campbell)
Sophie's friendly yet adulterous mother.

"Mark: "She's not out of Hollyoaks, Jeremy, she probably had a ration book!"."
 * Christmas Cake:


 * Mrs. Robinson
 * Your Cheating Heart

Zahra (Camilla Beeput)
A pretentious young woman who Jeremy constantly tries to get close to.


 * Feigning Intelligence: At first, she seems quite clever. With each passing episode, it becomes clearer that she bases intelligence on 'refined' subjects and is merely better at faking it than Jeremy.
 * Hipster
 * Meganekko: When she dons her specs.
 * Men Are Uncultured: Averted. She's just as uncultured as everyone else, merely better at hiding it.