Top 10 Spaced Moments

Appearing twice in the series, Tyres is a bicycle courier prone to mood wings, with a rather unhealthy obsession for clubbing, to the point where any sound remotely resembling a beat, gets him dancing. Be it a ringing phone, boiling kettle or ticking clock. This scene sees Tyres spontaneously start busting moves, with Simon Pegg’s Tim looking on like he’s seen it a hundred times before. The guy’s got rhythm.

From “The Matrix” to “Pulp Fiction”, “Spaced” is stacked with film references. But this sequence paying homage to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” is genius. Working in a kitchen under horrible boss Tina, Daisy is sent downstairs to work on the dreaded tower of dirty dishes. And so follows a recreation of the lobotomy sequence from Miloš Forman’s film. As well as being bang on with its reference, the scene also has humour, terror and genuine sadness in spades.

It’s made pretty clear throughout “Spaced” that Tim doesn't like “Star Wars: Episode I”, with him frequently staging dramatic outbursts over the inadequacy of the prequel. But this scene is the best of the bunch. Angered by a customer, a young kid no less, who wants to buy Jar Jar Binks merchandise, Tim gives him both barrels. And he feels absolutely no remorse for it.

Aside from its pop-culture easter eggs, “Spaced” is a show with some seriously clever dialogue. Take this scene for example, the first of the series. An apparent break-up between Tim and Daisy is taking place, with the camera cutting back and forth between the two. As a viewer, we take this as one scene, but it’s actually two different scenes stitched together, with each line seamlessly responding to the other. It's only a short sequence, but it perfectly sets the tone for the stylised storytelling that follows.

It seems that just when “Spaced” has landed a silly joke, it hits us with a rather deep, intelligent critique of life and its intricacies. And this scene showcases that better than any other. Settled in for a "Star Wars" marathon, Tim, Brian and Daisy dissect the plot, and discuss chaos theory. Just when Brian starts to explore the pre-planned, predictability of life itself, Tim hits us with a game-changing announcement.

To the dark and dangerous world of bot fighting next, for what’s a mix between “Fight Club” and “Robot Wars”. Crammed with quotable dialogue, this sequence sees Tim and Mike’s robot, Private Iron, battle it out against War Bastard. With an excellent cameo from the moustachioed Reece Shearsmith, sparks fly, rockets blast, and the entire scene is nostalgic as hell.

Modern art often divides opinion. But I think we can all agree that this is just plain weird. Attending a show by his eccentric ex-partner Vulva, Brian drags Tim and Daisy along to experience, well, we’re not quite sure what it is, but it lasts a few hours. Brilliantly performed by David Walliams and Paul Kaye, it’s loud, lewd, wacky and weird, right up until the very end. Oops, sorry.

After consuming some cheap speed and playing a ludicrous amount of “Resident Evil 2”, Tim is starting to hallucinate, imagining himself gunning down zombies in his flat. The scene is gold, taking the form of a dark and eerie George A. Romero-esque “Dead” flick, with moonlight soaking the walls and slow-walking corpses closing in on Tim. What’s even cooler is that this scene was actually the driving force and inspiration behind “Shaun of the Dead”. Awesome, right?

Everyone goes a bit gung-ho when paintballing. But nobody takes it quite as seriously as Mike. During a hectic shootout, which sees Tim taking revenge on his girlfriend-stealing rival Duane, Mike takes a bullet for him. What follows is an action movie trope we’ve all seen before, with Mike dying in Tim’s arms - and paint dripping from his mouth, which makes no sense whatsoever. Not only is it hilarious, but Pegg seriously commits to the scene and shows us some proper acting chops.

According to Mike, men have an unspoken telepathy. In this episode, it manifests itself as slow-motion gunfighting. Getting on the wrong side of some pub-goers, Tim and Daisy come face-to-face with them in an alleyway. Threatened and running out of ideas, Daisy thinks on her feet and pulls a piece - and the showdown commences. Bodies hit the floor, dramatic music ensues and everyone is left for dead, sort of, with our heroes making a getaway. Never leave the house without your finger pistols. Have some of that.