David Mitchell

With the Peep Show series into it’s 75th series David Mitchell has etched himself onto the collective comedy conscious of the UK. Mitchell’s comedy career started when he enrolled in the Cambridge Footlights, where he also met Robert Webb. 

 

We could say that the rest is history, but the pair took time to achieve the stratospheric heights they now enjoy. Mitchell’s first comedy foray outside the Footlights with Webb was a show about World War I titled ‘Innocent Millions Dead or Dying: A Wry Look at the Post-Apocalyptic Age’, Mitchell has since said that the show was ‘fucking terrible’ in an interview with Varsity Magazine. 

 

The pair worked as ushers at the Lyric in Hammersmith and at one point Mitchell had to drive a seven-and-a-half tonne truck to make a living yet they ultimately rose to fame through their writing partnership.

 

We forgave them for their brief stint of ads for Apple – which at the time saw them lambasted as ‘selling out’ - and have since seen Mitchell turn up on numerous panel shows including QI, Mock the Week, Have I Got News for You and more recently hosting The Ubelieveable Truth and forming part of the 10 O’Clock Live team alongside Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne and Charlie Brooker.

 

Mitchells character Mark Corrigan made his TV debut in Peep Show in 2003 and has since helped Mitchell to a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance in 2009 and 2009, and a British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor in 2007. We at SSP are not sure if he still has a HGV licence, but will one day find out.