ESCHEWING the virtues of Curb Your Enthusiasm on this blog a while ago, I said "by season six of anything in the UK, whatever it is that it is, it stinks". It was a generalism born of the trend for good shows to pack in after two series in a fit of creative pique. Enter the exception to the rule, Peep Show, which just finished up its fifth series, is heading for more, and is as genuinely funny now as it has ever been. To illustrate:

10 Jeremy goes shopping

Upset that ex-girlfriend Big Suze has shacked up with a virtuous, hunky monk, Jez goes to do the big shop while under the influence. "Hold your horses honey, I've got coupons for the Pringles!"

9. Superhans and the crack

Not especially hilarious, but somewhat iconic. Superhans's description of his drug of choice was ripped off by many a stand up.

8. Mark hides in the cupboard

Corrigan's feeling ashamed of himself again, and rather than face up to it takes to hiding in the stationary cupboard. Scouser Neil Fitzmaurice is on hand to expertly up the shame factor.

7. Terrorising Gog

Jez and Superhans's musical career suffers a setback when their track is rejected by old schoolfriend Gog. They proceed to take things out on his luxury breakfast cereal.

6. Going hunting

This shouldn't have really been quite so funny - it's from series 4 when they tried to up the slapstick a bit more and get Mark and Jez in more varied comedy capers.

5. Old style paedoing

No clip for this but it deserves a mention as the top gag of the last series. It's episode 2, and Mark is contemplating how to make use of his new found freedom - he's always fancied becoming a scout leader, for example. Jez has concerns about the kind of men who are attracted to that position, but Mark argues:
"I spent five happy years in the scouts and never once - alright, Layton was a bit of a paedo, but not in a bad way. Just boosting you over the climbing wall, making you run around the camp in your pants... it was old-style paedoing. Before it got such a bad name."

4 Cold feet

Mark starts to accept his lot, as Sophie takes him shopping for the wedding list and nearly buys him a trendy Chairman Mao t-shirt. "She's dragging me into the 20th century," he resigns himself, "with its meaningless logos and ironic veneration of tyrants."

3 Mark gets mugged

"If they rape and kill me, I hope they kill me first," he ponders, mid-robbery. "I sort of win."

2 "I'm doing excellent shopping"

"My depressed state of mind means I'm being even more frugal than usual."

1 And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid, like:

One of the earliest episodes but still one of the show's most memorable moments. Mark thinks up an excuse to call Sophie at home, but the self-conscious ramblings soon get out of hand:

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