The Peter Principle is a sitcom from the BBC which ran for two series in 1997 and 2000, with a pilot intially airing in 1995. The show is set in the fictional Country and Provincial branch and stars Jim Broadbent as Peter Duffley, a Pointy-Haired Boss who continually digs himself into situations with his laziness and prosensity for lying. The other staff members include the constantly frustrated Hyper-Competent Sidekick Susan (Lesley Sharp in the pilot; Claire Skinner in the series), the dedicated Area Manager David (Stuart Mc Quarrie in the pilot; Daniel Flynn in the series), the Deadpan Snarker Chief Cashier Geoffrey (David Gant in the pilot; Stephen Moore in the series), Bumbling Sidekick Bradley (David Schneider), Ditzy Secretary Iris (Janette Legge), and the apathetic Brenda (Tracey Keating).
Series 2 drops Iris and Brenda in favour of introducing Barbara (Beverly Callard), who is a firm believer of Sleeping Their Way to the Top, and giving main character status to Nervous Wreck Evelyn (Wendy Nottingham), who had previously appeared in a minor role in Series 1 episode "Insecurity".
Tropes in this series:
- Alliterative Name: Hugo Hamilton in "Sex, Lies and Videotape".
- Ascended Extra: Evelyn goes from a One-Shot Character charity worker in the Series 1 episode "Insecurity" to one of the staff in Series 2.
- Bank Robbery: "Insecurity" seems to start when the bank is robbed by two people wearing animal masks... until it cuts to Susan and Peter talking to David, where Susan clarifies that Peter is being an Unreliable Narrator in that regard - in reality, Peter mistook two charity workers asking for money as bank robbers.
- Black Comedy Pet Death: Peter accidentally swallowing a pet goldfish in "Bank Holiday" whilst drinking from the fishbowl.
- Bumbling Sidekick: Sidekick Bradley manages to outclass Peter in the dumb department, to the point that Susan calls him an "amoeba in a nylon suit".
- Chained Heat: In "The Midas Touch", both Susan and Peter handcuff themselves to the same suitcase. Unfortunately for them, the keys to the handcuff are safe in the suitcase and Peter forgot the combination lock. Susan is thus forced to go to dinner with David whilst hiding Peter under a table.
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: In "Health Matters", the staff have given several gifts and some money for an old cleaner called Mrs. Moss who is leaving her job. Unfortunately, Peter has used it all to pay for dinner, so he and Bradley grab the nearest things they can find in his office, such as a plant and an ashtray, and give it to the cleaner. Making matters worse, one of the things picked up by accident is a bag of puke.
- Cool Chair: The Executive and Executive-Plus swivel chairs in "Bank Holiday" are rather classy swivel chairs, with the Executive Chair in particular having an ability to readjust itself.
- Cringe Comedy: The comedy of the show comes from watching Peter make stupider and stupider decisions until the whole thing collapses on him in the most embarrassing way possible.
- Death Faked for You: In the pilot, after Susan heads off to her aunt's, Peter is given a meeting from David, who informs him that a meeting he wanted to go to has been moved forward. So that he can join instead of Susan, he claims that her aunt has passed away. This leads to a One Dialogue, Two Conversations where Susan and David talk to each other, with David believing that she's talking about the funeral and Susan thinking that David is talking about her trip with the aunt.
- Deadpan Snarker: Geoffrey - you need it when you have a boss like Peter.Geoffrey: Well, if Brenda's off, I'm off.Peter: No Geoffrey, don't go! Think of all the favors I've done for you.Geoffrey: (Beat) Done that. See you tomorrow.
- Ditzy Secretary: Iris, whilst competent at her role as a secretary, is a bit dim nonetheless.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Whilst Bradley is dumb, sometimes, his solutions help clear up the plot. For instance, in "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", he's the one to suggest looking at the videotape of the car park to clear Peter's name, although Peter is quite embarrassed, considering the amount of lies he had already built up surrounding the incident, and ropes Bradley into faking the footage so that his story seems to be correct.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Aside from the different cast in the pilot episode, Peter's surname is Duff rather than Duffley.
- Epunymous Title: A play on the famous management title The Peter Principle starring a man named Peter Duffley.
- Fake Static: When Peter is faced with a threatening customer on the phone, he ends it by pretending that there's static, rubbing his hands against the receiver to emphasize the point.
- "Fawlty Towers" Plot: "The Midas Touch" begins with Peter trying to cover up the fact that he hadn't bought Iris a ticket and gets more and more ridiculous over time, including faking an investment into a company whose stocks then go up.
- Foreshadowing: At the start of "Bank Holiday", Iris recounts how she got trapped between the doors of the bank and was only saved by Susan. This sets up Peter getting locked there as well.
- The Ghost: Peter has a wife, Marjorie, and a son, Marty, but neither are ever seen. Even in a scene where he gets into bed with Marjorie, she is covered up by a duvet.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: In "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", Iris wants Bradley to deliver a Valentine's letter for her. Unfortunately, he has decided to put on some headphones and he hears nothing of what she tries to tell him, leading to a mix-up.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Susan to Peter - whilst Peter is an idiot, everyone is in agreement that Susan is the real intelligent boss of the bank.
- Line-of-Sight Name: In "Sex, Lies and Videotape", Peter goes on a radio show, hiding his voice so that no one recognises him. When asked his name, Peter catches glimpse of a man wearing Nike clothing and a woman with an Adidas backpack and uses the sight to give his name as "Nicky Adidas".
- Manchild: Bradley - in one episode, he shows excitement for a bouncy castle, whilst another has him going to a Laserquest for his birthday.
- Market-Based Title: Promoted as "The Boss" in the US.
- Mistaken for Flirting: Thanks to a mix-up in letters and a poor choice of words from Susan, Peter is led to believe that Susan wants to have a relationship with him.
- Mistaken for Gay: In "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", Peter is led to believe that Susan wants to get into a sexual relationship. He goes up to a car with a closed window and propositions what he thinks is her, only for the window to open to reveal a very unhappy Hugo. In the succeeding scenes, Peter is forced to argue that he is not in fact gay.
- Nervous Wreck: Evelyn spends most of her time freaking out and has horribly low self-confidence.
Fridge Horror may settle in if one considers the origin of her personality to come from the time Peter accused her of being a bank robber in Series 1 and got her thrown in jail. - Overworked Sleep: Peter in "Upwardly Mobile", courtesy of him taking on too much bank work with the handling of Hunter's Sport finances - by the time he gets to an important dinner, he's driven a guest off the road half-asleep, accidentally complements a woman, and comes in with the wrong suit. It culminates in him falling asleep and disrupting a piano performance.
- Pilot: Released in 1995, the pilot episode is notable for having an almost completely different cast from the final series, as well as a different title sequence.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: Peter is an idiot, lazy, and always screws up everything. He's also the boss of the bank.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: As shown in "Sex, Lies and Videotape", Peter has difficulty adjusting to the possibility of a gay couple like Hugo and Kim, to the point of refusing to take out a mortgage for them under the lie that the bank has run out of money.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title:
- "Truly Bradly Deeply" is a play on the film title Truly, Madly, Deeply.
- "There's Something About Geoffrey" is a play on There's Something About Mary.
- Sleeping Their Way to the Top: Barbara's belief is that one must get to the top by sleeping with others and suspects Susan of being in an affair with David for this purpose, although Susan wants to achieve her position in the workplace through merit alone.
- Swivel-Chair Antics: In "Bank Holiday", the bank gets new swivel chairs, and Peter has some difficulty adjusting his whilst a couple of people are trying to ask for a business loan from him.
- Valentine's Day Episode: "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" takes place on Valentine's Day and involves a mix-up of letters from Bradley, leading to Peter thinking he's got a secret lover.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: In "Health Matters", Peter pukes into a bin bag which ends up as a gift to Mrs. Moss, although thankfully, the most the audience sees is the faint silhouette of the puke.
