Jeremy Usbourne or more commonly known as Jez is one-half of the two protagonists in the television series Peep Show, and he is portrayed by Robert Webb.
Jez an unemployed aspiring musician and a "work-shy freeloader" who lives in the spare room of Mark's flat. He is cowardly, juvenile, and quite arrogant, also considering himself to be immensely talented and attractive. However, Jeremy is more socially skilled and confident than Mark.
Characterisation
A wannabe musician and later fake life coach, 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 and generally cares more about their friendship. However he can sometimes also 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 areas 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). In Series 8, he becomes a life coach after Mark gives him a forged diploma from a life-coaching board, giving assistance to almost anyone who can pay him. He tells Joe in Series 9 that he has life coached many famous people, including members of the royal family. In fact, the most famous person he has coached is his handyman, Big Mad Andy.
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, Elena, and Joe. Although Jeremy primarily engages in heterosexual relationships, there are several instances of bisexual 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). Having life-coached Megan in the series 9 episode Gregory's Beard, Jeremy has sex with Megan's boyfriend, Joe, which leads him to reevaluate his sexuality and question if he in fact loves Joe. He later begins to talk to Mark about his sexuality before finding out that Mark (as well as Dobby, Gregory, and Super Hans) already knew due to surveillance cameras in Mark and Jez's flat. In Threeism, he admits that he's neither gay nor straight, although refuses to define his sexuality outside of those broad terms. Arguably, his relationship with Joe is the healthiest he has throughout the show, as both partners are actually committed and do not display ulterior motives (a common feature of Jeremy's relationships with women).
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 side-effects of it. Jeremy is not a very cultured person; the only books he has ever read are "Mr Nice" and "The Book of Bunny Suicides". Technically, the latter is a compilation of cartoons, so "Mr Nice" is the only conventional book he has ever read. He claims to have read it four times. In the Pilot Episode of Series 9, Jez claims that he has been high each time he reads "Mr Nice" causing him to forget it and therefore enjoy the novelty of reading it again.
Surname Controversy
Though Webb himself confirms that the character's surname is spelled "Usbourne" 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 Usbourne is spelled correct "with a U and everything".