Mark Corrigan (Mitchell), who has steady employment for most of the series, and his lodger, Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne (Webb), an unemployed would-be musician, are the main characters of the show.
Mark is convinced that Jeremy's laziness, lack of logical rigour and indifference towards cultural pursuits are markers of low intellect, but often looks to him for social guidance.
In spite of his thoughtful and sensible exterior and his tendency to act as the moral centre of his surroundings, he has frequent bouts of selfishness, schadenfreude and impulsive behaviour.
He loathes many aspects of modern culture, such as drug use and openness of sexuality; Mark often simply endures activities that others around him enjoy, as “the price you pay to avoid loneliness”.
What could be misconstrued as socially conservative views on his part (such as his disdain for drug use and free love) are more likely motivated by a hatred and fear of other people than a rightward viewpoint.
In the final series – 9 – he has a fling with April, whom he knew briefly years earlier, who is now unhappily married to a middle-aged man, Angus.
Mark tries to poach her, but fails in the show's finale when he allows Jeremy and Super Hans to kidnap Angus and hold him captive in their flat, which she discovers.
His relationship with Mark, which is by far the most developed throughout the series, oscillates between mutual, albeit poorly timed demonstrations of unconditional loyalty and acts and thoughts of deep envy and petty vindictiveness.
Jeremy shows a tendency to sabotage Mark's romantic and professional life in ways that are sometimes the result of selfish opportunism, but other times appear to be the unwanted outcome of genuine kindness.
Portrayed by Matt King, Jeremy's bandmate and friend, ’Super’ Hans is an untrustworthy selfish fantasist who very frequently uses recreational drugs.
In spite of the damage he routinely causes to his brain, he is portrayed to be a fast thinker, and the drug-addled stream-of-consciousness that passes for his normal speech is occasionally insightful and indicative of a huge volume of pop-culture knowledge.
He seems to be unfazed and unaffected by things that would shock, scare or repel others, but he does appear to have his limits as well, as exemplified by a New Year's Eve party that is too disturbing even for him in the series 7 final episode.
He is of constant surprise to the others, including in the last episode of the seventh series in which he has apparently found the love of his life, a previously unseen young East Asian woman, who speaks no English, but a tiny bit of German.
His approach to life in general and business in particular is basically an aggressive, social Darwinian apology of the survival of the fittest and borderline fascistic, as seen in his eulogy for Gerard in series 8.
During series 6, after the termination of the UK JLB operation, he lives in a council house with Suze, referred to by Mark as his "recession residence" and shows delusions due to his fall from power.
At the start of the series Sophie is shown as nice and work-oriented,[5] but is portrayed almost exclusively through the eyes of Mark - arguably an unreliable narrator - preventing the audience from actually getting to know her.
He highly overvalues her and places her on a pedestal, in spite of her having few admirable or exceptional traits and her flakey and shallow behaviour towards him, and overthinks even the most mundane aspects of their friendship (such as their exchange of post-it notes with stupid drawings during work hours).
Mark routinely humiliates himself in futile attempts to remain close to Sophie, which include convincing her to take part in a charity bungee jump with him (in which he panics and has to be taken down), pretending to be gay, and hacking her email (which she eventually discovers).
Sophie eventually leaves Jeff due to his abusive nature, but moves to Bristol shortly afterward, complicating Mark’s lingering romantic interest in her.
As a result of the move to Bristol and her increasingly debauched behaviour, Mark becomes less and less infatuated with Sophie, but remains close to her out of his chronic fear of loneliness.
Mark uses the last of his Sunday Times mega-vouchers to take her to the Quantocks for a weekend in which he will propose to her; however, he lets Jez accompany him, who in turn brings along Super Hans to supervise him as he attempts (disastrously) to go cold turkey.
Sophie and Mark have nothing to say to one another, and she begins to behave erratically, such as stuffing his guide book into a postbox and getting stranded with a strange elderly couple out on the moors.
Completely in denial about their doomed relationship, Mark’s inner monologue shows his remarkable annoyance towards Sophie (“Why won’t that stupid bitch let me propose to her?”).
After getting lost and wandering all night, Mark arrives the next morning back at the hotel in a dishevelled state (his legs sodden after urinating on them “in an attempt to stay warm”) only to find that Sophie has found his engagement ring in his bag.
Despite his greatest efforts, Sophie is let down throughout series 6 and 7 by Mark concerning his responsibilities as a father, including unintentionally missing the christening of his son and therefore losing his rights to name his own baby as punishment.
Dobby works in the IT department of JLB and is a self-described misfit, much like Mark, although she exhibits much superior personal and emotional adjustment compared to the other characters in the series.
However, Mark's failure to act on those first overtures and ask her out properly from the beginning, coupled with his general emotional and social immaturity once they start dating, as well as negative circumstantial influence (including Sophie's pregnancy and a disastrous Christmas lunch), leads to an at-times difficult relationship, and she is strongly implied to gradually lose interest in it.
While Dobby wants to go interrailing across Europe with Mark, he decides the best way to keep her is to ask her to marry him in the Quantocks, as he did with Sophie in series 3.
Her attitude towards love and relationships is affected by her upbringing and her Christian beliefs clashing with her personality and desires, leading her to send her boyfriend Jez very mixed messages, from having adventurous, frequent sex to abstaining completely.
An emotionally volatile handyman whom Jez manages to befriend after Andy is tasked with repairing a bathroom door destroyed by Super Hans.