| Jeremy Usborne | |
|---|---|
| |
Peep Show life
| |
| Job | Musician |
| Lives at | The Flat |
| Interests | Making music, relaxing, drugs, sex |
| Relationship | Toni, Nancy, Big Suze, Elena, Zahra |
Peep Show appearances
| |
| Actor | Robert Webb |
| First appearance | Warring Factions |
| Latest appearance | Quantocking II |
Jeremy Usborne, also known as "Jez" is one of the two protagonists in the television series Peep Show and he is portrayed by Robert Webb.
Characterization
A wannabe musician, Jez, is a "work-shy freeloader" who is unemployed for most of the series. He is naïve, immature and often selfish, but considers himself very talented and attractive. He tends to be more sociable than Mark, but can sometimes be quite malicious and spiteful. He has displayed no qualms about engaging in actions such as ganging up on Mark with a bully, poisoning Mark to save a party, kissing Sophie or relapsing Super Hans into drug addiction. Jeremy is hedonistic and enjoys recreational drugs as well as casual sex.
Character History
Jeremy is a charade of a musician, claiming it often but never practicing or gigging. He is largely financially supported by his best friend and flatmate, Mark Corrigan, though various loans and free rent, Jez also appears to have been given money on many occasion by his mother (His nest egg), including topping up his mobile phone regularly as well as small bouts of employment in various arrears including working as a Music Studio Reception Runner courtesy of Super Hans (Series 1), a call centre courtesy of Toni (Series 2), as a legal secretary thanks to Mark's sister Sarah (Series 3) in a gym and as a personal handy man (Series 4) as well as working for one day at JLB and with Super Hans removals business "men with ven" (Series 5).
He occasionally, usually because of influence from others, tries to get a proper job although he rarely passes the interview - let alone keeping the job. His life is very obviously going nowhere, as Mark often points out, although this rarely seems to upset him. He also receives some financial support from his family, despite him being very disrespectful and rude to them, although Mark gets on very well with all of them. He has been through numerous relationships, although most of them are with women who aren't directly interested in him. Jeremy has twice been diagnosed with Chlamydia (once, sometime before Series 3, with little surprise from Jeremy and again in series 5 with a great deal of perturbation from the character, potentially due to a continuity error) However, he also becomes emotionally involved in his relationships with Toni, Nancy, Big Suze and Elena. Although Jeremy primarily engages in heterosexual relationships, there are several instances of bi-sexual desires and experiences, a theme which is discussed by producer Phil Clarke and script editor Ian Morris in their commentary to episode 4 of series 4. In series 4, while discussing with Sophie, Jeremy reveals that he has had sex with more men than she has (four).
Like Mark, Jeremy comes from Kent, attended Dartmouth University, and qualified as a nurse but does not appear to have spent long in the post. He seems to have very little actual medical knowledge. When he is informed that he might have clamydia in series 5 he needs to be informed about the sideeffects of it.
Name
Though Webb himself confirms that the character's surname is spelled "Usborne" and this spelling appears written on a CD in the pilot episode, the spelling has been variously rendered as "Osborne", "Osbourne", "Usborne" and "Usbourne", with Channel 4's official website for the series using both of the latter two spellings.
The various misspelings of his name is lampshaded in series 8 when Mark gives him a fake life-coach degree and Jez remarks that Usborne is spelled correct "with a U and everything.