Andy Peacock is a personal trainer and he’s just as magnificent as the bird whose name he shares. The gym is his natural habitat, and the gym selfie is how he displays his remarkable physical prowess to the world. Except… well, we’re not going to say it’s all a façade, but when he misses out on a promotion, everything crumbles remarkably quickly and Andy has to figure out who he really is.

This new BBC Three sitcom comes with a great pedigree: its creators, Steve Stamp and Allan Mustafa, are two of the minds behind one of BBC Three’s best ever sitcoms, People Just Do Nothing. Mustafa – who played PJDN’s self-proclaimed genius and founder of Kurupt FM, MC Grindah – also stars as Peacock in Peacock, and he’s joined by a brilliant supporting cast including Lucien Laviscount (Emily In Paris), Susan Wokoma (Year Of The Rabbit), Mandeep Dhillon (After Life) and Sophia di Martino (Flowers).

There have been many TV characters who, like Andy Peacock, got seriously invested in exercise. We’ve picked some who you might enjoy training with, depending on your level of commitment – read on to find out which one suits you best…

Chris Traeger – Parks & Recreation

The perfect partner for… obsessive runners
 

Pawnee city manager Chris (Rob Lowe) has run 10 miles a day, every day, for 18 years. That’s 65,000 miles. A third of the way to the moon. His goal is to run to the moon. With his diet of vitamin supplements, foul-tasting teas and absolutely no red meat, Chris is literally the healthiest man who ever lived. Training with him is definitely not for the faint-hearted, as Anne Perkins (Rashida Jones) soon discovers.
 

Watch it on Netflix (Apps & Games > Netflix) or in On Demand

Jackson Marchetti – Sex Education

The perfect partner for… tunnel visioners
 

While the other students at Moordale are getting involved in all sorts of shenanigans, the virtuous and dedicated Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) is hitting the pool to train every day. It’s not that he’s uninterested in the usual hormonal teenage activities, but he can’t get involved in all that if he’s serious about his sport. There’s a lot to be said for Jackson’s method of using training as a distraction… until he realises he’s just doing what everyone expects, has an identity crisis, and starts exploring his sexuality with help from classmate Cal (Dua Saleh).
 

Watch it on Netflix (Apps & Games > Netflix)

Dwight Schrute – The Office (US)

The perfect partner for… developing devastating strike power
 

When Dwight (Rainn Wilson) mentions his martial arts training, boss Michael (Steve Carell) spots the perfect opportunity to (a) prove his dominance and virility to his staff and (b) put off doing any work. Cue an office outing to the local dojo and one of the least epic physical battles in TV history. As it turns out, Dwight is a pretty useful martial artist: he has a black belt in Goju-Ryu karate and is the self-proclaimed senpai (right-hand man) to the sensei at the dojo. Anyone would learn a lot from him. Including how to hide a variety of weapons around the office…

Watch it on Netflix (Apps & Games > Netflix) or Prime Video (Apps & Games > Prime Video) or in On Demand

Yoga Jones – Orange Is The New Black

The perfect partner for… finding peace amid the chaos
 

The inmates of Litchfield Correctional Facility deal with their incarceration in a variety of ways. The approach taken by Erica Jones (Constance Shulman) earns her the nickname “Yoga”, and a number of her fellow prisoners find that her calming exercise sessions and spiritual mindfulness are helpful to them. Jones has a lot of trauma to deal with, and yoga is a big part of her rehabilitation, so joining her classes is almost a guarantee of finding inner peace. Of course, she can be easily tempted by an illicit high-energy cell party, but hey, different approaches can work too…

Watch it on Netflix (Apps & Games > Netflix)

Sergeant Terry Jeffords – Brooklyn Nine-Nine

The perfect partner for… building muscles on your muscles
 

Terry (Terry Crews) overcame a difficult childhood by sculpting himself into a phenomenal man-mountain, described by fellow detective Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio) as looking like “eight circles with suspenders”. Jeffords would make an ideal gym training partner because he is as far from the stereotypical muscle-bound meathead as you could imagine: he loves his family, excels at his job and looks out for all his colleagues. Unless any of them messes with his yoghurt. Terry loves yoghurt!

Watch it on Netflix (Apps & Games > Netflix)

Randall Pearson – This Is Us

The perfect partner for… those looking to step up the intensity
 

This Is Us is all about family, and Randall (Sterling K Brown) has hit upon the perfect way of dealing with any family-related problems. Fighting with your brother? Go running. Stressed over your foster daughter? Go running. Traumatised by your own infant abandonment? GO RUNNING. If you’re concerned your training sessions aren’t hard enough, Randall is a workout partner who’ll bring new meaning to the word “intensity” when exercising, and – as his wife Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) discovers – woe betide anyone who stops his treadmill before the programme has ended…
 

Watch it On Prime Video (Apps & Games > Prime Video)

Abbi Abrams – Broad City

The perfect partner for… people who don’t really want to train
 

Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) is an aspiring artist, but in the meantime she’s happy to make some money as a personal trainer. Or she would be, if she was in fact a personal trainer, rather than a dogsbody employed to clear up the worst messes gym-goers at Soulstice can make. Every now and then, though, she gets an opportunity to don the official trainer’s vest… and make a huge mess, such as when she tries to swing a kettlebell and promptly smashes a mirror. Only book a session with Abbi if you’re more interested in comical high-jinks than getting fit.

Michael Scott – The Office (US)

The perfect partner for… dedicated charity fundraisers
 

As Michael (Steve Carell) explains, he didn’t just hit Meredith (Kate Flannery) with his car – he actually saved her life by sending her to hospital, where she received treatment for the rabies she was exposed to when a bat got loose in the office (Dunder Mifflin being a totally normal place to work). But those, um, heroics aren’t enough for Michael, who decides to stage a fun run to raise awareness of the horrors of rabies. If nothing else, running with him would demonstrate that fuelling your session with fettuccine Alfredo while not drinking any water isn’t the best nutrition plan…
 

Watch it on Netflix (Apps & Games > Netflix) or Prime Video (Apps & Games > Prime Video) or in On Demand

CJ Cregg – The West Wing

The perfect partner for… high-profile political staff
 

You’ll need to get up early to train with  CJ (Allison Janney), the President’s Press Secretary, but it’s quality time. “It’s all about budgeting your time,” she explains to the person on the neighbouring treadmill, in the very first episode of Aaron Sorkin’s political drama. “This time, this hour – this is my time. 5am to 6am. I can work out, as you see, I can think about personal matters, I can meet an interesting man…” The fact that she gets beeped by the White House (oh the 1990s!) and immediately falls off the treadmill undermines this approach only a little.

When is BBC Three’s Peacock on TV?

Peacock starts on BBC Three HD (CH 107/157) and BBC iPlayer (Apps & Games > BBC iPlayer) at 10pm on Monday 25 April.