The Office (British TV series)

Did You Know?

• A Comic Relief charity short was made in 2013 entitled The Return of Brent (also known as The Office Revisited).
• In 2013, Gervais developed a series of videos released on his YouTube channel entitled 'Learn Guitar with David Brent', which collected over 2 million views within three months.
• The series won a Peabody Award in 2003 and a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2004, the first British comedy to win one.

Cast and characters

Ricky Gervais plays David Brent, the general manager of the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg paper merchants. Immature and arrogant, Brent believes he is a lovable rogue and a Renaissance man talented in philosophy, music, and comedy, but others perceive him as annoying, insensitive, and embarrassing. His lack of awareness, constant need of approval, and shenanigans drive the plot. Martin Freeman portrays Tim Canterbury, a sales representative who is friendly and charming but at 30 still lives with his parents and is unhappy.

He fails to pursue a relationship with Dawn during the first two series, and at the end of Series Two he declines the role of David's successor, letting Gareth take it. Mackenzie Crook plays Gareth Keenan, Tim's vindictive desk mate and enemy, a cold-hearted jobsworth who takes pride in his meaningless 'Team Leader' title and imposes his little authority on others. After David is fired, Gareth becomes regional manager. Lucy Davis is Dawn Tinsley, the receptionist and Brent's dogsbody, who is in an unhappy engagement with warehouse worker Lee.

In the Christmas special, she leaves Lee for Tim after he encourages her dream of being a children's book illustrator. Stirling Gallacher appears as Jennifer Taylor-Clarke, Brent's immediate superior in Series One, who becomes a partner in the firm at the end of that series, with Neil Godwin becoming David's superior in Series Two.

Production

The Office began with a 20-minute film called Seedy Boss, made in June 1998 by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Merchant created it as part of his BBC TV producer training, and the two had met when Merchant worked as Gervais’s assistant at radio station Xfm. Neither had any television experience before this. Gervais’s character was based on a persona he used to entertain colleagues at the station.

Ash Atalla showed the tape to Jane Root, head of BBC Two, who ordered a series. The show was filmed in an office at Teddington Studios. Unlike typical British sitcoms, it used a single camera and had no laugh track, a style later seen in shows like Peep Show, Twenty Twelve, Fleabag, and Motherland. The theme song is “Handbags and Gladrags,” performed by Big George and based on Rod Stewart’s arrangement; it was originally written in the 1960s by Mike d’Abo.

Gervais and Merchant also considered “Sitting” by Cat Stevens. In Series 1, episode 4, a version sung by Gervais in character as David Brent plays over the end credits.

Legacy

The original series spawned a global franchise, with many countries producing their own versions based on its core premise. The most famous of these is the Emmy-winning American adaptation on NBC, where Steve Carell played Michael Scott, the counterpart to David Brent; Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant served as executive producers. A direct sequel, the 2016 film David Brent: Life on the Road, was also released. Critical acclaim has been widespread. The Telegraph ranked it among the ten greatest sitcoms ever. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America placed it 51st on its list of best-written series, sixteen spots ahead of the U.S. version. The Guardian ranked it sixth among the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century in 2019. Rolling Stone listed it 53rd on its 2022 all-time greatest shows list, and a 2021 BBC Culture poll named it the ninth greatest series ever.

Other media

Back in 2004, Microsoft UK hired the team behind The Office to create two corporate training films, each about twenty minutes long. These videos, called "The Office Values" and "Realising Potential," show David Brent being interviewed by a Microsoft employee named Jeff, played by Stephen Merchant. Jeff grows more and more frustrated with Brent's behavior. Brent clearly resents Microsoft's success and keeps hinting that he deserves to be the next managing director. Though never officially released to the public, these clips surfaced online in 2006, which Microsoft was not happy about, saying they were never meant for outside viewing. David Brent later popped up in two Season 7 episodes of the American version of The Office: "The Seminar" and "Search Committee."