Copyright Screen Rant
When we think of precursors to HBO’s masterful political satire Succession, the cult British sitcom Peep Show isn’t something that naturally springs to mind. In fact, it’d be one of the last TV series we’d think of comparing to Succession. Yet, both shows somehow originated from the same creator, 15 years apart. There aren’t many TV shows around like Succession, which combines lightning-quick wit with mind-blowing plot twists to tell the cataclysmic story of a falling business empire. The same could be said for Peep Show, which presents the tale of two thirty-something single men failing at life through a first-person camera lens. Earlier in 2025, Jesse Armstrong’s movie Mountainhead proved pretty similar to Succession, as the multi-talented writer, director and producer decided to continue in the same vein as his award-winning TV show. Nevertheless, Armstrong’s first screen creation in the early 2000s is so radically different from Succession that their connection still boggles the mind. Jesse Armstrong Created Both The Sitcom Peep Show & HBO’s Succession Peep Show is the ultimate anti-sitcom, focusing as it does on the situationless mundanity of Mark Corrigan and Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne’s live together in a South London apartment, via an innovative first-person camera format and despairing interior monologues. Jesse Armstrong created the show for Britain’s Channel 4 with his longtime writing partner Sam Bain, alongside TV producer Andrew O'Connor. 15 years later, Armstrong’s big-budget American creation Succession, a satire about the family of a billionaire media tycoon nearing the end of his life while his business is beset by scandal upon scandal, debuted on HBO. At least on the face of it, this series has nothing to do with Peep Show, and you’d never imagine they share a creator. Succession & Peep Show Couldn’t Be More Different As TV Comedies Peep Show and Succession are outwardly nothing alike as TV series. One is an anarchic and wickedly self-deprecating sitcom about two unremarkable men living unfulfilled lives, which thrives on the mundane and minimal while taking on a brilliantly inventive shooting format. The other is a larger-than-life but razor-sharp political drama about a billionaire’s family jostling for position. As well as their thematic differences, visually, stylistically, and tonally, the two shows are worlds apart. You have to look very, very closely to notice that, in reality, they do share certain hallmarks of Jesse Armstrong’s oeuvre. Both series have an almost nihilistically cynical outlook on society, expressed in the callous thoughts and actions of their characters. Succession begins with Roman Roy’s hideous baseball game prank on a little boy, while Peep Show’s first episode depicts Mark and Jez each using underhand methods to try and woo their married next-door neighbor. These examples also highlight the fast-paced one-liners and moments of gut-wrenching cringe that the series have in common. Beyond these comedic elements, though, there’s little else to link them. Armstrong’s Work On Veep & The Thick Of It Clearly Informed Succession Despite the world of difference between Peep Show and Succession, there are other projects that Jesse Armstrong worked on in between which explain how he got from one to the other. Along with two of his writing team, the Succession creator was involved in the show Veep, another acclaimed political satire created by his longtime collaborator Armando Iannucci. Veep is actually an American approximation of Ianucci’s British sitcom The Thick of It, which counted Jesse Armstrong among its lead writers. Both shows have obvious similarities to Succession. So does Babylon, a comedy-drama about London’s police force which Armstrong co-created with Danny Boyle and his Peep Show collaborator Sam Bain. Still, there’s no question that his versatility as a series developer, from his first British sitcom all the way up to Succession, is almost unrivaled in modern television.
