Is this the end of the El Dude brothers?
Peep Show - Channel 4's longest-running sitcom - is about to wrap with one last, suitably deranged series - bringing the exploits of Mark (David Mitchell) and Jeremy (Robert Webb) to a close.
"It may be foolish [ending the series] and we may really regret it," co-creator Jesse Armstrong told press including Digital Spy. "But we felt like it was a good way to motivate ourselves to make a really good series."
"After a while, we did worry that we might run out of ideas," added fellow Peep Show creator Sam Bain. "Someone pointed out we'd given Jeremy chlamydia twice, in two different series. Because we'd forgotten. Which, after 12 years, becomes a hazard of the job."
After 12 years and nine series, flatmates and frenemies Mark and Jez have "grown older without growing up", said co-lead Webb.
"The premise was changing..." he said. "It was a show about two young men sharing a flat and it has become two middle-aged men sharing a flat, which is a different level of sadness. I think it was getting too sad.
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"I for one was quite relieved that has been acknowledged and marked. Jeremy turns 40 in this series. I'm pleased that nobody thinks I'm pretending that I'm still 28."
But while Mark and Jeremy's advancing years may be the root cause of Peep Show's demise, that doesn't mean the team are adverse to revisiting the characters at an even later date.
"I could imagine coming to David and Robert in 10 years and saying, 'This is sort of a different show, but what do you think might have happened to them?' - in fact, I'd really quite like to do that," Armstrong admitted.
"In my head, if we did that, it would be a different programme," Mitchell agreed of the proposed Peep Show 2.0. "But I think we'd all love to do that at some point."
Perhaps we haven't seen the last of the El Dude brothers after all...
The final series of Peep Show begins on Wednesday, November 11 at 10pm on Channel 4.
Watch the trailer for the new series of Peep Show below:
