Absolutely
CULTURE
Webb Presence
West Hampstead resident and TV star Robert Webb comes clean to Stephen Milton about one of comedy’s longest-standing partnerships
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ometimes it can seem that David Mitchell and Robert Webb are destined always to play a part in each other’s success. Finding fame as a duo in cult Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show - which
Their professional lives being so frequently intertwined, you’d assume the pair would want to spend their leisure time apart – but it’s a little difficult to ignore each other given that they both live in the same corner of North London.
‘We’ve always said we’ll stay around for as long as people want us. And right now, that doesn’t seem to be changing so we’ll just keep on with it.” recently returned for a new season after a prolonged hiatus – the two continued their double act with skit series That Mitchell and Webb Look, and will soon appear together once again in the Beeb’s forthcoming political satire Our Men.
‘Oh believe me, we do try,’ Webb chuckles when we meet. ‘We try, but it’s such a small enclave in that pocket of London that even if I’m keeping my head down, David will sniff me out. I’ve given up trying to avoid him now, it’s such a
fruitless effort.’ Webb’s mischievous sense of humour is never far from the surface, even when talking about the place he calls home. West Hampstead’s appeal, he tells me, lies in its ‘effortless chic’ and ‘passive exuberance’; he came to live in the area post-Cambridge and ended up staying here. Now he has a wife (fellow comedian Abigail Burdess) and two young daughters, and no plans to move on, declaring, ‘We like it; it’s our manor.’ We talk about the diversity of the community and the huge variety of independent businesses – especially bookshops – that give the area its special spark, while Webb tells me how much he enjoys taking his daughters to the local parks and playgrounds. But it’s not all play and no work: this North London family man still takes care of business. After Peep Show’s acclaimed eighth 15
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19/07/2013 15:36