Peeping into the book: ­David ­Mitchell and Robert Webb

You’re both big TV stars. Why write a book?

We’re basically comedy writers at heart. That’s how we earn a living and doing a book meant we could do jokes you can’t do in a sketch, like parodies of newspapers and film posters. Then there are the longer pieces about how to cope with certain things that are slightly more considered. Although I certainly wouldn’t call any of it sensible.

When you’re writing ­together, do you and David Mitchell have ­different strengths?

Not really. That’s the key to why we’ve been working together for so long, really. The same sort of thing makes us laugh. But when we’re writing a sketch, we’re aware that one is the junior writing partner, and then the next day the other one is in the driving seat.

Which joke in the book are you proudest of?

It was quite fun getting our own back on Heat and its Circle of Shame because it’s so cruel. [Their version includes a picture of Sylvia Plath, saying that her suicide is understandable considering “the state of her god-awful barnet”]. And I’m quite pleased with the Flat-share Fridge Note Discourse between Martin Amis and Paul Daniels. And David Caruso’s guide to life. And the Lazy Writer’s Guide to Writing Short Stories. Actually, you know, I’m tremendously proud of everything in it. We wanted it to be a big, decent book, not just a script book or pictures of us taken on tour. Not all comedians’ books are that good, really, mentioning no names...

One of your sections a­dvises on how to cope with being dumped. Can you summarise?

Well, the sensible way is just get over it and move on, but that’s not necessarily very funny. So avoid writing the bitter letter of recrimination and make sure that people who dumped you eventually see you with someone who makes them feel insecure.

You also ­imagine that there’s a newspaper archive where they store great headline puns, waiting for reality to catch up. Which is your favourite?

I think my favourite is “You’re The Wan That I Won’t” – to be used in the event of Gok Wan being turned down for sex by someone deemed promiscuous.

"It was quite fun getting our own back on Heat and its Circle of Shame because it’s so cruel"

There’s a very funny send-up of The Mighty Boosh. Is the world ­divided into Mitchell and Webb fans and Boosh fans?

I think the world is divided into people who think that the world is divided into two sets of people! No, really, the joke is on us because we say in the book that we don’t really “get” them. But I’m sure there are people who like all four of us. I just haven’t met them yet.

There’s also a dig at ­criticism of you two ­doing the Mac and PC ads, ‘betraying our well-publicised communist principles in order, as they put it, to earn money’

Yeah, that was having a bit of fun and cocking a snoop because it was a bit irritating that people were saying: “These people are getting paid to do a job – outrageous!” I hope it’ll all be taken in good sport.

What’s happening with Peep Show?

The sixth series is going out in September, and they’re writing the seventh. [Writers] Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain work deeply on the script. It takes them six months a series, which is why the quality has stayed so high. I think it gets better every time. If I had to say which are my favourite series in order, I’d say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We’ll do it for as long as they want us to, but they may want a break at some point.

Can you give us some clues about series six?

Well, I can’t say too much. I mustn’t say who the father of Sophie’s baby is, and one other big development. But a new woman enters Jeremy’s life. He falls hopelessly in love with an eastern European called Elena, which doesn’t run smoothly at all. All the regulars are there and lots of the usual mishaps and disasters, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Pretty much all the cast and the writers of Peep Show are on Twitter. Have you discovered ­anything surprising about them through their tweets?

Not really, no, because I know them all relatively well. David plays his cards fairly close to his chest and uses it more as a marketing tool, which is probably more sensible than my nocturnal rants.

This Mitchell and Webb Book, published by Fourth Estate, £18.99