What happened to the Peep Show cast? From terrifying health woes to marrying into royalty and winning an Oscar – how the stars have taken diverging paths after Channel 4 success

The Peep Show cast delighted fans when it was revealed they will reunite for the Great British Bake Off Christmas Special. 

The Channel 4 cult comedy classic debuted in 2003 and ran for 12 years before its final episode in 2015. 

And for the first time since the Noughties sitcom wrapped, the stars of Channel 4’s Peep Show have come back together.

Fan favourites David Mitchell, Olivia Colman, Isy Suttie, Matt King, and Sophie Winkleman will swap awkward encounters for icing sugar as they step into the iconic Bake Off tent for this year’s Christmas Special. 

Robert Webb, who has suffered terrifying health woes in recent years, was notably missing.

The series launched the career of now Oscar winner Olivia, while Sophie went on to marry into royalty – but the cast saw varied fates in the years after the show ended.

So, 10 years after its last episode, where did the beloved stars end up?

Robert Webb

Robert, 51, played Jeremy – the drug loving, freeloading best friend and housemate of the ever-dismayed Mark – for the entirety of the show. 

Following his stint on the show, in 2017 Robert collaborated with David to create Back, a sitcom starring them both as brothers hit by their father’s death. 

As they embarked on their sitcom endeavour, a routine medical check on set revealed Robert had a prolapse in his heart, which doctors said ‘would fail’ within two to six months, leading to his emergency open-heart surgery. 

He underwent surgery in October 2019, after he was diagnosed with a Mitral valve prolapse (MVP), which occurs when the small flap in the heart that stops blood flowing the wrong way becomes too floppy and does not close properly. 

He said: ‘Honestly, I’d been dreading the show’s medical, which isn’t the attitude of a healthy person. I’d assumed the pains I’d been experiencing were simply what it is to be 47 – and still caning the fags and booze, not doing any exercise and eating badly.’

Speaking about the surgery later on, the funnyman said: ‘[He said] I’m not saying you’re going to have a heart attack in the next fortnight. But if the problem isn’t addressed, then in the next two or four or six months… this heart will fail.’ 

On the prospect of losing his friend, David said: ‘It’s always easier to be nice about Rob to other people, so I can say to you that Rob’s heart operation has reminded me how grateful I am to have him in my life.’ 

Two years after his surgery, in 2021, Robert appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, yet withdrew from the show due to health concerns just three weeks in. 

He revealed: ‘I’m extremely sorry to have to announce that I’m withdrawing from Strictly Come Dancing … 

‘Two years ago I had open heart surgery and although I believed I was fit enough to take on Strictly and its demanding schedule, it became clear that I had bitten off way more than I could chew for this stage in my recovery.

‘I had begun to feel symptoms that led me to seek an urgent consultation with my heart specialist, and it was her view that it would be better for the sake of my health to step back from the show.’

He later admitted: ‘It is brutal. It is an absolutely weird show. It is not like it is an unpleasant environment, but they are long days and it is a long time to be nice.’

David Mitchell 

David, 49, meanwhile played the awkward, cripplingly anxious Mark, who spent much of the show pursuing Sophie before marrying and abandoning her. 

He soon turned his attention to Dobby, however she left for New York leaving him heartbroken and caught in yet more unrequited romances. 

Since the show came off screens, David is now a regular on TV quiz shows and a team captain on BBC series Would I Lie to You? 

After Peep Show’s success, David and Robert returned to sketch comedy with their BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound, which ran for five series.

The show was adapted for TV and became That Mitchell And Webb Look, which producer Gareth Edwards described it as ‘the shortest pitch [he had] ever written’. The show ran for four series.

In September 2023, David published Unruly: A History of England’s Kings and Queens, a non-fiction book about the history of the English monarchy up until Queen Elizabeth I.

In January 2024, David began filming the new BBC comedy detective drama series Ludwig. David plays the titular character of John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor, a man who assumes the identity of his missing identical twin brother to track him down.

He is married to journalist and comedian Victoria Coren, who he met at Jonathan Ross’ Halloween bash in 2007, despite believing he would never marry. 

In his autobiography, he penned: ‘I’d never really had a long, meaningful relationship. I’d had the odd one-night stand here and there… I thought maybe it wouldn’t work out for me. 

‘I had lots of friends who were serial monogamists and I’d had a few flings, none of which was perfect… I thought, that’s not for me. I don’t want to go out with someone who I’m not head-over-heels in love with. But then I met Victoria. It took us a while to get together… but I was ­smitten.’

The couple wed in November 2012, with Robert acting as Best Man, while they had their daughter Barbara in May 2015 and stunned fans in November, when they announced the secret arrival of their second child the previous month. 

David later said of his wife: ‘She’s clever, funny, beautiful. I think she’s amazing. She’s brilliant at what she does. For three years I thought about her all the time, and I still do but in a much happier way…

‘I didn’t know whether I was built to be in a couple and finding that I am is tremendous. Life is a lot less bewildering and stressful when there’s someone to talk to who you know will back you up whatever happens…

‘I feel self-conscious talking about it, but of course I had to put it in the book because the book’s a memoir and it’s one of the most important things that’s ever happened to me.’

Olivia Colman 

Olivia is undoubtedly the show’s biggest success story and has gone on to be one of Britain’s best loved actresses.

She first met Robert and David at Cambridge’s famed drama society Footlights while training to be a teacher – yet David insisted he saw huge potential in the star. 

David wrote in his autobiography Backstory: ‘Suddenly she was shining with talent – working the audience, timing her lines, drawing out new laughs without ever seeming hammy.

‘There were many talented actors at Cambridge while I was there, very few were as good as Collie – certainly no one better.’

Since starring on Peep Show, she has enjoyed stints in acclaimed dramas Broadchurch, The Night Manager and The Crown – and an Oscar-winning turn as Queen Anne in feature film The Favourite.

Olivia was overjoyed as she accepted the gong, during which she reached out to little girls everywhere in an inspiring and sweet speech. 

She said: ‘Any little girl who’s practising your speech on the telly, you never know! I used to work as a cleaner and I spent quite a lot of my time imagining this.’

In the heartwarming speech, she graciously gave a nod to her colleagues: ‘I have to thank lots of people. 

‘Yorgos [Lanthimos], my best director and the best film with Emma [Stone] and Rachel [Weisz], the two loveliest women to fall in love with and go to work with every day. You can imagine it wasn’t a hardship.’ 

Sophie Winkleman

Big Suze is Jeremy’s former girlfriend, known for being ‘posh’ and the long-time object of his affections, before she moves on to Mark’s boss Johnson. 

While Suze’s posh status is a joke throughout the series, it is a case of life imitating art as the sister of Claudia Winkleman has married into the Royal family. 

Sophie Winkelman married King Charles’ second cousin Lord Frederick Windsor in 2009 and the couple have two children – Maud, ten, and Isabella, seven. 

Speaking about the close relationships she has with the royals since marrying into the Windsor family, she said: ‘[I’m] really good friends with all of them – that’s a really daft thing to say, but behind the camera they’re really fun, clever, kind people.

‘I love Sophie Edinburgh, Sarah Chatto, Zara, the York girls, Tim and Princess Anne, Fergie, all the Kents and Gloucesters.

‘I love Kate and William, but they’re so busy and don’t live in London, so I don’t see them much.’

Giving special credit to King Charles, the daughter-in-law to Prince Michael of Kent said: ‘I spend a bit of time with him. You see how he works all day long, has a quick supper and then disappears until about 4am to write letters.

‘He cares about so many things and he comes up with brilliant solutions.’

But in 2017, Sophie’s new life turned upside down after she was involved in a car crash which left her fearing she was in her final moments. She was a back-seat passenger in a chauffeur-driven car when another vehicle struck it after swerving to avoid a deer. The car she was riding in was thrown up into the air before crashing down and causing life-threatening injuries.

She said: ‘I was completely lucid throughout. I assumed I was a goner and you just go into a strangely un-romantic mode of thinking, ‘Right, this is my last few minutes. I’ve got to do something practical.’

‘So I was thinking things like, ‘Hope my parents stay well to help Freddie take care of the children, hope he meets someone nice.”

Paramedics managed to rescue her from the vehicle and rush her to hospital, where they discovered she had sustained a broken foot and two broken bones in her back.

It was three days before it was confirmed that she wouldn’t be left paralysed.

Sophie said the rehabilitation period, which lasted over a year, was ‘miserable’ and left her unable to pick up her daughters.

Isy Suttie

She joined Peep Show in 2008 as Dobby, IT geek and love interest of Mark – who she played until its wrap in 2015. 

But Isy Suttie is now better known as a stand-up comedian and she makes regular comedy panel show appearances on the likes of Would I Lie To You and Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Isy has also enjoyed a consistent resume of TV work in the years since, acting in series such as Man Down, Damned and White Van Man. 

Adding another notch to her belt, Isy started her own radio show called Pearl And Dave – which won her the gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2013.

Elsewhere Isy has worked as a writer, with the star working as a comedy consultant on two series of Skins, writing her own series Isy Suttie’s Love Letters and a short film called The Best Night of Roxy’s Life. 

Matt King

Matt, who plays the erratic but lovable Super Hans, portrayed the character for the duration of the show’s run, from 2003 to 2015. 

Super Hans was a fan-favourite character, known for his hilariously wacky and drug-addled one-liners and destructive behaviour.

Before landing the part, Matt worked as a chef in Australia, where he met comedian Jimeoin McKeown, who encouraged him to become a stand-up.

After 15 years of working as a comic, he was discovered by the Peep Show creators at Edinburgh Fringe, who deemed him perfect for the role of Super Hans.

Though back in 2018, it was previously revealed by creator Sam that the part was originally written with Danny Dyer in mind.

The role shot Matt into fame, with him going on to land roles in  Skins, Doctor Who, Spirited, Paddington and The End of the F***ing World, and writing his own sitcom starring Alan Davies, Whites.

In 2019, he also starred in Sam Fender’s music video for his single Saturday, showing him doing an interpretative dance routine.

But despite being most recognised for his work on Peep Show, Matt revealed he often doesn’t remember many of his famous lines, that fans like to reference to him.

In 2023, he shocked followers when he took to Twitter to confess he had never watched the critically acclaimed show.