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The Office (UK TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Office is a British sitcom
television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two
on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais
and Stephen Merchant
, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office
employees in the Slough
branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. Gervais also stars in the series, playing the central character, David Brent
. Although fictional and scripted, the programme takes the form of a documentary
(a fictional documentary, i.e. a mockumentary
), with the presence of the camera often acknowledged.
Two six-episode series were made, along with a pair of 45-minute Christmas specials. When it was first shown on BBC Two it was nearly cancelled due to low ratings, but has since become one of the most successful British comedy exports of all time. As well as being shown internationally on BBC Worldwide
, channels such as BBC Prime
, BBC America
and BBC Canada
, the series has been sold to broadcasters in over 80 countries, including ABC1
in Australia, The Comedy Network
in Canada, TVNZ in New Zealand and the pan-Asian satellite channel
STAR World
, based in Hong Kong. The show began airing in The United States on Cartoon Network
's late night programing block, Adult Swim
on 18 September 2009.
The show shares themes with a later series around social satire created by Gervais and Merchant, Extras, namely social clumsiness, the trivialities of human behaviour, self-importance and conceit, frustration and desperation and fame.
Other national versions of The Office
have also been produced. During May 2004 a French version called Le Bureau
was made. A German version called Stromberg
premiered in October 2004 (albeit originally not crediting its inspiration, thus not being an official spin-off). During November 2004 a Brazil
ian show on the Globo
channel, Os Aspones
, was also heavily modelled on the series' format. Four years after the show's critical success an American version was initiated on NBC
on 24 March 2005. A fifth adaptation, the Quebec series, La Job
, had its TV debut in January 2007. The Office was adapted and broadcasted on the Chilean TV Network Canal 13 with the name La Ofis during 2008. On 10 August 2010 the Hebrew version
of the series had its premiere on a satellite channel in Israel.
There is also a Swedish version currently in development starring Henrik Dorsin (Solsidan, Grotesco) as the manager. It is predicted to premiere September 2011.
in England
. Slough
is a town immortalised for its lack of appeal by John Betjeman
in his poem "Slough
" ("Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough/It isn't fit for humans now..."). The show has no laugh track
and is in the mockumentary
style, devised at a time when documentaries such as Airport
and A Life of Grime
were popular.
The office is headed by regional manager David Brent
(Gervais) and his assistant (to the) regional manager, Gareth Keenan
(Mackenzie Crook
), who is also a lieutenant
in the Territorial Army. Much of the series' comedic success stems from Brent, who frequently makes attempts to win favour with his employees and peers with embarrassing or disastrous results. Brent's character flaws are used to comic effect, including numerous verbal gaffes, unconscious racism, sexism and other social faux-pas
.
The other main plot line of the series, and many of the more human elements found therein, come from the unassuming Tim Canterbury
(Martin Freeman
), whose relationship with bored receptionist Dawn Tinsley
(Lucy Davis
) is a major arc in the series. Their flirtation soon builds to a mutual romantic attraction, despite her engagement to the dour and laddish warehouse worker, Lee (Joel Beckett
).
The theme song for the show is "Handbags and Gladrags
" arranged by Big George and originally written in the 1960s by Mike D'Abo
, former vocalist for the pop group Manfred Mann
.
On 11 August 2009, it was announced that the cast would be reuniting for a retrospective, called "A Night at The Office", available on BBC Two and online.
The Office is essentially a character-based comedy, following around the people who work in the office environment. While being more of an ensemble piece than star-driven, four characters in particular are the primary focus of the show:
) is the general manager of the Slough
offices of the Wernham Hogg paper
merchant
s. He considers himself to be a successful maverick in the business world and a Renaissance man
, talented in philosophy
, music
and comedy
. Although he believes himself to be friendly, hilarious, and well-liked, he is in reality petty, pompous and snide. His immature behaviour comes across as he bumbles around the office — always hovering around the camera — telling unfunny jokes, performing hackneyed impressions and generally getting himself into trouble by talking before thinking. Brent considers himself to be a modern, politically correct
man but his preoccupation with this attitude and the discrepancy with his often patronising (and at times offensive) jokes gets him into trouble.
) is a sales rep at Wernham Hogg. Unlike David Brent, Tim is funny and unpretentious. His witticisms and friendliness make him one of the most likeable characters of the show. However, he leads an unsatisfying life — at 30, he still lives with his parents and works at a job he believes to be completely pointless. He maintains his sanity by pursuing an improbable romance with the receptionist, Dawn Tinsley, and by playing practical jokes on Gareth. Although he wishes to leave Wernham Hogg to study psychology, his insecurity prevents him from taking any significant action. During Series One and Two, he also fails to pursue his relationship with Dawn to a success. Chosen as David's successor at the end of Series Two, he declines and lets Gareth take the position, which however, doesn't keep him from playing pranks on him.
) is Tim's clueless deskmate and nemesis. Unlike Tim, Gareth is a humourless jobsworth
with few attractive personality traits. He is obsessed with his military service in the Territorial Army and perpetually annoys Tim with ridiculous, pretentious comments. He prides himself in being "Team Leader
", not realising his title is mostly meaningless, and "Assistant Regional Manager", which David constantly corrects as "Assistant to the Regional Manager". He imposes the little authority he has on his co-workers. Like David Brent, Gareth is arrogant and oblivious. Tim and Dawn exploit this last trait by repeatedly insinuating homosexuality through questions about his military experience. Apparently proud of his close connections with David and glossing over David's poor treatment of him, he later - during the Christmas special - gets back at his former boss by patronising and humiliating him in front of the cameras.
) is Wernham Hogg's receptionist, and David Brent's dogsbody
. She frequently has to put up with Brent's attempts at humour and social interaction. Like her friend and co-worker Tim, she is aware of the sad state of her unfulfilling life — she has been in a long, rocky engagement with her fiancé Lee, a surly warehouse worker, and gave up illustrating children's books to pursue her current fruitless career. During the Christmas special, Dawn and Lee return from their illegally prolonged U.S. vacation. At the Christmas party, Dawn realises her true feelings for Tim; she ends her relationship with Lee and returns to kiss Tim.
Keith Bishop ("Big Keith")
(Ewen MacIntosh): Keith works in the accounts department. Slow-talking, apparently emotionless and suffering from eczema
on his feet, he is a man of few words. When he does speak, his comments can be surprising and sometimes disturbing. He likes eating scotch egg
s and watching Peak Practice
, even if it is a "bloody repeat."
Chris Finch ("Finchy")
(Ralph Ineson
): A "bloody good" outside sales representative,
he is probably the only character in the series who is genuinely cruel. He is brashly confident, openly sexist, rasping-voiced with a natural flair for bullying others with swift, humiliating putdowns (with Brent being his usual target). He likes to dominate conversations and is successful with women, but shows a humourless vicious streak when he loses the staff quiz in Series One. David describes him as his "best friend" but actually acts more like a lackey, laughing at his jokes and attempting to ride his coat-tails into the limelight. Finch repays him with disdain.
Jennifer Taylor-Clarke
(Stirling Gallacher
) David's immediate supervisor in Series One, nicknamed Camilla Parker Bowles by him, Jennifer is a serious-minded professional, and David's behaviour and comedy-driven style of management are shown to be puerile and ineffectual by contrast. At the end of the Series One she is made a partner in the firm and, during Series Two, repeatedly reprimands David for inappropriate behaviour. In the last episode she supports Neil's decision to make David redundant.
Lee (Joel Beckett
): Dawn's fiancé who works in the company's warehouse. She met him in school and they have been together ever since. Whilst by no means a bad person, Lee is somewhat humourless, unromantic and casually dismissive of Dawn's ideas of being an illustrator. His idea of an amorous proposal was a four-word notice in the newspaper — "Lee love Dawn, marriage?" — possibly to save money. It is clear from an early stage that Dawn stays with him out of a fear of loneliness rather than real love — Lee is safe and dependable. Lee is also more physically imposing than Tim, Dawn's other potential interest, and for that reason Tim finds him intimidating.
Glynn aka 'Taffy' (David Schaal): The misogynistic, sexist warehouse manager at the Slough Trading Merchant and Lee's supervisor, who is seen as being very slack and has little respect for any one who works outside of the warehouse, particularly management.
Malcolm (Robin Hooper): An older staff member, he is naturally most worried about the prospect of redundancies and therefore often challenges David's handling of the situation, criticizing his relaxed attitude, his lack of management ability and several incidents, such as hiring a personal secretary when the office is facing redundancies. When David assures individual staff members of their jobs, he stops right before addressing Malcolm. When David claims that he turned down his promotion to save his branch, it is Malcolm who reveals that the real reason was a failed medical test. Malcolm does not appear in the second series, probably having been made redundant.
Ricky (Oliver Chris
): Introduced as David's new temp
in the pilot
, and is a recent graduate, having "just scraped a first." He was primarily featured in episode three, where he and Tim form a team for trivia night under the name "The Tits." The two end up winning, thanks to Ricky (holder of two Blockbusters Gold Runs) successfully answering a tie-breaker question on Shakespeare, against Chris Finch. Finch, angered, challenges him over the circumstances of the victory in a petty feud, where Ricky calls him and Brent "sad little men." It is announced by Brent in the Series One finale that Ricky is leaving.
Donna (Sally Bretton
): Donna is introduced in Series One, Episode Two as the daughter of David's best friends Ron and Elaine, who has come to work at the office, and is staying with David. Donna makes a quick impact in the office, and fails to reciprocate Gareth's romantic feelings towards her. Later, David confronts her for not returning home, and Donna angrily announces she stayed at her boyfriend's house, later revealed to be Ricky. She is almost always wearing a purple top.
Karen Roper (Nicola Cotter): David's personal secretary whom he hires towards the end of Series One. David insists that he needs an assistant so that he does not need to do his own filing. Several of the staff are apprehensive about David hiring new and unnecessary personnel while the branch is facing downsizing and redundancies. David chooses her over a male applicant solely because he found her attractive and later accidentally headbutts her, bruising her under the eye. He embarrasses himself in front of her further when she joins them at a club, called Chasers, after work. When Jennifer sees her standing behind the reception desk during one of her visits and questions David about her, he denies knowing her. She does not appear in the second series, having been made redundant.
Alex (Neil Fitzmaurice
): Hired by David in the first episode of Series One as a forklift driver to work in the warehouse, even though Alex does not have his forklift licence. In the last episode of the series his protests against being made redundant are turned around by David and Gareth who question him on the differences between midgets, dwarves, pixies, elves, and goblins.
Neil Godwin
(Patrick Baladi
): David's (mostly unseen) counterpart at the Swindon
branch during Series One, he is promoted ahead of him when David failed a medical examination and becomes his immediate superior in Series Two. Neil is young, charming, professional and energetic. He is a more competent manager than David, has a better relationship with the staff and even finds it easier to make the staff laugh. Brent is hugely resentful and jealous of him, and makes occasional (usually unsuccessful) and often childish attempts to either undermine or rival him. Neil grows increasingly exasperated with Brent's incompetence, poor judgement and failure to do his job properly, and along with Jennifer eventually decides to make David redundant.
Rachel (Stacey Roca
): Another of the Series Two intake from Swindon. Rachel is bubbly and considered attractive by both Gareth and Tim. She and Tim start a relationship, making Dawn somewhat melancholy. After a deluded Gareth reveals his plans to seduce Rachel, he is shocked to discover that Rachel and Tim are now an item. However, toward the end of the second series, as she begins to pressure Tim to make a greater commitment, Tim realizes that his ongoing love for Dawn is far greater than his feelings for Rachel and breaks off the relationship. Rachel is not seen again after Series Two.
Trudy (Rachel Isaac): Welsh Trudy is first introduced in Series Two as one of several of the new intake from the Swindon branch. Almost immediately, she establishes herself as something of a good time girl, blending in well with the rest of the staff and enjoying a booze-fueled birthday celebration in her honour at the office. Her casual, sexually charged nature does not go unnoticed by the male members of staff and both Gareth and Chris Finch take interest in her. She and Finch are seen having sex in the less than exotic surroundings of a car park. By the time of the Christmas Special, it initially seems that Trudy has mellowed somewhat, although she is seen in a passionate clinch with Oliver by the end of the Christmas party. Trudy is also quick to challenge Brent's style of management.
Oliver (Howard Saddler): One of the Series Two intake from Swindon. Oliver is good-natured, tolerant, easy-going and quiet, which is lucky for him as he is the only black person working in the office. As such he is the target for most of David's well-meaning but hideously misguided attempts to show what a politically correct
and racially tolerant man he is. In the Christmas Specials, we see Oliver's co-worker Sheila clearly attracted to him, although he actually ends up in a steamy clinch with the more confident Trudy.
Brenda (Julie Fernandez
): Another of the former employees of the Swindon branch, Brenda is a wheelchair
user, which naturally brings out the worst in David. During a fire drill, he and Gareth attempt to carry Brenda down a flight of stairs but ultimately, as they see it as being too much effort for a mere drill, they abandon her halfway down. Brenda is not impressed by David's patronising behaviour. She, like Oliver, is another character whose purpose is to highlight the gap between David's vision of himself as a modern enlightened man and the reality of his ignorance and thoughtlessness. Gareth, like Brent, is also seen to be incredibly awkward and uncomfortable around Brenda.
Rowan (Vincent Franklin
): A training facilitator in Series One, who is progressively frustrated by David's attempts to undermine and take control of a team training session, often forcing it to veer off track.
Simon (Matthew Holness
): Working in IT, he visits the office in Series Two to install firewall software on the computers while discussing his theories with Gareth about Bruce Lee
faking his own death so that he could go undercover and fight the Triads. Simon is also the record holder for the fastest lap down at 'SuperKarts'.
Ray (Tom Goodman-Hill
) and Jude (Jennifer Hennessy
): The only two recurring characters in Series Two who do not work for Wernham Hogg. Ray and Jude work for a consultancy firm which organizes business management seminars which include guest speakers in the business world to discuss work practices. They approach David about being one of the speakers but are totally unimpressed with his unorthodox presentation on motivational techniques in a later episode. When David is made redundant he is hoping to fall back on doing more presentations, but is deprived the opportunity when Ray and Jude tell him sympathetically that they will not be calling on him again for future presentations.
Helena (Olivia Colman
): Appears in the last episode of Series Two as a reporter for the internal paper merchant newspaper, 'Inside Paper'. While interviewing David she vies to retain control of her article as David tries to dictate to her what she should write.
Anne (Elizabeth Berrington): Tim's pregnant deskmate in the Christmas Special, Anne annoys Tim even more than Gareth, as she speaks continuously about herself and other topics no one else is interested in. When David offers to take some of the office workers out for a drink, she coldly informs him that nobody is interested. Her very unpleasant remark, however, causes some discomfort amongst the other workers in the office, and the awkward silence that ensues is broken only when Tim decides to accept David's offer. She is eventually put in her place by Glynn at the Christmas party when she lectures him about smoking near her and he tells her to "fuck off home then" before he and the rest of the warehouse workers snigger at her letting "some useless tosser blow his beans up your muff". She is last seen walking away in tears.
Carol (Sandy Hendrickse): David's blind date at the Christmas party who he hits it off with and who seems to like him. When after her departure, Chris Finch calls her a "dog" David finally steps up to him and tells him to "fuck off".
The Ogg Monster (Stephen Merchant
) Gareth's friend. His real name is Nathan. He appears to be a very sensitive man when Brent insults him for his bug eyes and he runs out of the room.
commissioned two 20-minute corporate videos featuring David Brent
being interviewed by Jeff (Stephen Merchant), a Microsoft employee who becomes increasingly exasperated by Brent's antics. The ongoing theme is Brent's obvious resentment at the company's success. Brent also appears to believe he has what it takes to become the next managing director of Microsoft and continually drops hints to that effect. While not on general release, the videos emerged on the internet in 2006. They were posted on both YouTube
and Google Video
. The clips also appeared on certain peer-to-peer
networks. Microsoft was unhappy with the leak, stating that the videos "were never intended to be viewed by the public".
.
In 2004, The Office won the Golden Globe Award
for "Best Television Series: Musical Or Comedy", beating nominees Arrested Development, Monk, Sex and the City
and Will & Grace
. It was the only British comedy in 25 years to be nominated for a Golden Globe, and the first ever to win one. Ricky Gervais
was also awarded the Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series: Musical or Comedy" for his role.
Also in 2004, the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom
public poll voted the programme the 25th all-time favourite out of a preselected list of 100.
In 2005, the series' concluding two-part special was nominated for two Emmys in the categories of "Outstanding Made for Television Movie" and "Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special". Entertainment Weekly
put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "We love the Scranton crew. But Ricky Gervais
' mockumentary series about sadsack employees in Slough, England, is the undisputed champion of awesomely awkward cubicle hell."
", a song written by Mike d'Abo
, was specifically arranged by Big George as the theme song to The Office series. Three versions were recorded:
All vocal versions feature the vocal performance of Waysted
vocalist Fin.
In series one, episode four
, a version performed by Ricky Gervais
(in character as David Brent
) was featured over the end credits.
The first series also features Gervais performing "Free Love Freeway
" and the Christmas Special includes him performing "If You Don't Know Me by Now". Both of these songs are included in full on the DVD box set, with Noel Gallagher accompanying for "Free Love Freeway". Some copies sold at HMV stores also included a CD single of the two tracks. As Ricky and Steve mention on their Xfm show, it was a toss-up between the song they chose, and the song "Sitting" by Cat Stevens
.
{| class="wikitable"
!DVD Name!!Release Date!!Ep #!!Additional Information
|-
|Series One||7 October 2003|| style="text-align:center;"|6||This double disc DVD set includes all six episodes from the first series. Bonus features include the featurette How I Made The Office, deleted scenes, Wernham Hogg News, Slough
slang glossary, and Wernham Hogg personnel file.
|-
|Series Two||20 April 2004|| style="text-align:center;"|6||This one disc DVD set includes all six episodes from the second series. Bonus features include a video diary, deleted scenes, out-takes, and a Slough slang glossary.
|-
|Christmas Special||16 November 2004|| style="text-align:center;"|2||This one disc DVD set includes both hours of the Christmas Special. Bonus features include a documentary on the making of the specials, the full uncut music video of David Brent's cover of "If You Don't Know Me by Now", a featurette on the making of "Freelove Freeway", and a Golden Globes featurette.
|-
|Complete Collection||16 November 2004|| style="text-align:center;"|14||This four disc DVD set includes all 12 episodes from the first and second series, and both parts of the Christmas special. Bonus features include the How I Made The Office documentary, a documentary on the making of the specials titled The Office: Closed for Business, a commentary on the second part of the Christmas special, deleted scenes, out-takes, a video diary, the full uncut music video of David Brent's cover of "If You Don't Know Me by Now", a featurette on the making of "Freelove Freeway", and a Golden Globes featurette.
|}
British sitcom
A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...
television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
and Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...
, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
employees in the Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. Gervais also stars in the series, playing the central character, David Brent
David Brent
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series...
. Although fictional and scripted, the programme takes the form of a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
(a fictional documentary, i.e. a mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
), with the presence of the camera often acknowledged.
Two six-episode series were made, along with a pair of 45-minute Christmas specials. When it was first shown on BBC Two it was nearly cancelled due to low ratings, but has since become one of the most successful British comedy exports of all time. As well as being shown internationally on BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
, channels such as BBC Prime
BBC Prime
BBC Prime was the BBC's general entertainment TV channel in Europe and the Middle East from 30 January 1995 until 11 November 2009, when it was replaced by BBC Entertainment.-Launch:...
, BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
and BBC Canada
BBC Canada
BBC Canada is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel. It presents programming primarily from the BBC. BBC Canada is a joint venture between Shaw Media and BBC Worldwide.-Programming:Main article: List of programs broadcast by BBC Canada...
, the series has been sold to broadcasters in over 80 countries, including ABC1
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...
in Australia, The Comedy Network
The Comedy Network
The Comedy Network a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media specializing in comedy programming.The channel operates two time shifted feeds, East and West ....
in Canada, TVNZ in New Zealand and the pan-Asian satellite channel
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
STAR World
STAR World
STAR World is an Asian English language cable and satellite television network owned by Star TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation. The channel is the successor of STAR Plus, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, based in Hong Kong. The show began airing in The United States on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (United States)
Cartoon Network is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting which primarily airs animated programming. The channel was launched on October 1, 1992 after Turner purchased the animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1991...
's late night programing block, Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
on 18 September 2009.
The show shares themes with a later series around social satire created by Gervais and Merchant, Extras, namely social clumsiness, the trivialities of human behaviour, self-importance and conceit, frustration and desperation and fame.
Other national versions of The Office
The Office
The Office is a popular mockumentary/situation comedy TV show that was first made in the UK and has now been re-made in many other countries, with overall viewership in the hundreds of millions worldwide. The original version of The Office was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It...
have also been produced. During May 2004 a French version called Le Bureau
Le Bureau
Le Bureau was a 2006 French television show that aired on Canal+. It is a French version of the popular British television series The Office...
was made. A German version called Stromberg
Stromberg (TV series)
Stromberg is a German television series which is produced by Brainpool and broadcast on the commercial television channel ProSieben. The series was proclaimed as a copy of the BBC series The Office, although initially the producers claimed it was based on a character from a past ProSieben comedy,...
premiered in October 2004 (albeit originally not crediting its inspiration, thus not being an official spin-off). During November 2004 a Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian show on the Globo
Globo
Globo may refer to*Organizações Globo, media conglomerate*Rede Globo, a television network in Brazil*Radio Globo, a radio station in Honduras...
channel, Os Aspones
Os Aspones
Os Aspones is a Brazilian television Comedy series that aired in 2004. It was created by Alexandre Machado and Fernanda Young. The program, which portrayed a group of white-collar workers at a governmental department lost in Brazilian bureaucracy in Brasília which actually has no function at all,...
, was also heavily modelled on the series' format. Four years after the show's critical success an American version was initiated on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
on 24 March 2005. A fifth adaptation, the Quebec series, La Job
La Job
La Job is a French Canadian comedy television series set in Montreal. It is an adaptation of the British show The Office of the BBC. Produced by Anne-Marie Losique's Image Diffusion International, it has been broadcast for a limited number of viewers on Bell TV satellite television, beginning on...
, had its TV debut in January 2007. The Office was adapted and broadcasted on the Chilean TV Network Canal 13 with the name La Ofis during 2008. On 10 August 2010 the Hebrew version
HaMisrad
HaMisrad is an Israeli television sitcom, that began airing on August 10, 2010 on the Yes Comedy channel. It is a version of The Office, a 2001-2003 British sitcom that had already been remade in five other countries...
of the series had its premiere on a satellite channel in Israel.
There is also a Swedish version currently in development starring Henrik Dorsin (Solsidan, Grotesco) as the manager. It is predicted to premiere September 2011.
Background
The show is set in a small branch of the fictitious paper company Wernham Hogg (where "life is stationery"), in the Slough Trading EstateSlough Trading Estate
The Slough Trading Estate founded in Slough, Berkshire in 1920, was an early business park in the United Kingdom. According to the estate's owners and operators, SEGRO , Slough Trading Estate consists of of commercial property in Slough and provides of accommodation to 500 businesses and has...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
is a town immortalised for its lack of appeal by John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
in his poem "Slough
Slough (Poem)
"Slough" is a ten-stanza poem by Sir John Betjeman, first published in the 1937 collection Continual Dew. It was written in protest against 850 factories that were to be built in the English town of Slough. The poem caused an uproar when first published....
" ("Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough/It isn't fit for humans now..."). The show has no laugh track
Laugh track
A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...
and is in the mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
style, devised at a time when documentaries such as Airport
Airport (TV series)
Airport is a British documentary television series based at London Heathrow Airport, the world's busiest international airport, broadcast by the BBC and syndicated to Dave, part of the UKTV network....
and A Life of Grime
A Life of Grime
A Life of Grime is a BBC reality series following the work of environmental health inspectors...
were popular.
The office is headed by regional manager David Brent
David Brent
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series...
(Gervais) and his assistant (to the) regional manager, Gareth Keenan
Gareth Keenan
Gareth Keenan is a fictional paper salesman on BBC's comedy The Office. He is portrayed in the series by Mackenzie Crook as a gaunt, self-important team leader proud of his alleged lieutenant status in the Territorial Army...
(Mackenzie Crook
Mackenzie Crook
Paul Mackenzie Crook is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.-Life and career:...
), who is also a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in the Territorial Army. Much of the series' comedic success stems from Brent, who frequently makes attempts to win favour with his employees and peers with embarrassing or disastrous results. Brent's character flaws are used to comic effect, including numerous verbal gaffes, unconscious racism, sexism and other social faux-pas
Faux pas
A faux pas is a violation of accepted social norms . Faux pas vary widely from culture to culture, and what is considered good manners in one culture can be considered a faux pas in another...
.
The other main plot line of the series, and many of the more human elements found therein, come from the unassuming Tim Canterbury
Tim Canterbury
Tim Canterbury is a main character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Martin Freeman. He is a 30-year-old sales representative for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and lives with his parents. He spent one year at a university before dropping out, and one day hopes to return to get a psychology...
(Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman
Martin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
), whose relationship with bored receptionist Dawn Tinsley
Dawn Tinsley
Dawn Tinsley is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Lucy Davis. She is a receptionist for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and is engaged to warehouse worker Lee. Her American The Office equivalent is Pam Beesly...
(Lucy Davis
Lucy Davis
Lucy Clare Davis is an English actress. She is best known for playing the character Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy The Office and as Dianne in the horror-comedy movie Shaun of the Dead.-Career:...
) is a major arc in the series. Their flirtation soon builds to a mutual romantic attraction, despite her engagement to the dour and laddish warehouse worker, Lee (Joel Beckett
Joel Beckett
Joel Beckett is an English actor, best known for playing Jake Moon in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders from December 2004 to October 2006 and as Lee in the British comedy series The Office...
).
The theme song for the show is "Handbags and Gladrags
Handbags and Gladrags
"Handbags and Gladrags" is the name of a song written in 1967 by Mike d'Abo, who was then the lead singer of Manfred Mann. D'Abo describes the song as "saying to a teenage girl that the way to happiness is not through being trendy. There are deeper values."The original demo tape of the original...
" arranged by Big George and originally written in the 1960s by Mike D'Abo
Mike d'Abo
Michael David "Mike" d'Abo is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the former lead vocalist of Manfred Mann.-Biography:...
, former vocalist for the pop group Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann was a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band...
.
On 11 August 2009, it was announced that the cast would be reuniting for a retrospective, called "A Night at The Office", available on BBC Two and online.
Characters
Main characters
- A comparison between characters in different series is available here.
The Office is essentially a character-based comedy, following around the people who work in the office environment. While being more of an ensemble piece than star-driven, four characters in particular are the primary focus of the show:
David Brent
David Brent (Ricky GervaisRicky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
) is the general manager of the Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
offices of the Wernham Hogg paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s. He considers himself to be a successful maverick in the business world and a Renaissance man
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
, talented in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
. Although he believes himself to be friendly, hilarious, and well-liked, he is in reality petty, pompous and snide. His immature behaviour comes across as he bumbles around the office — always hovering around the camera — telling unfunny jokes, performing hackneyed impressions and generally getting himself into trouble by talking before thinking. Brent considers himself to be a modern, politically correct
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
man but his preoccupation with this attitude and the discrepancy with his often patronising (and at times offensive) jokes gets him into trouble.
Tim Canterbury
Tim Canterbury (Martin FreemanMartin Freeman
Martin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
) is a sales rep at Wernham Hogg. Unlike David Brent, Tim is funny and unpretentious. His witticisms and friendliness make him one of the most likeable characters of the show. However, he leads an unsatisfying life — at 30, he still lives with his parents and works at a job he believes to be completely pointless. He maintains his sanity by pursuing an improbable romance with the receptionist, Dawn Tinsley, and by playing practical jokes on Gareth. Although he wishes to leave Wernham Hogg to study psychology, his insecurity prevents him from taking any significant action. During Series One and Two, he also fails to pursue his relationship with Dawn to a success. Chosen as David's successor at the end of Series Two, he declines and lets Gareth take the position, which however, doesn't keep him from playing pranks on him.
Gareth Keenan
Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie CrookMackenzie Crook
Paul Mackenzie Crook is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.-Life and career:...
) is Tim's clueless deskmate and nemesis. Unlike Tim, Gareth is a humourless jobsworth
Jobsworth
A jobsworth is a person who uses their job description in a deliberately uncooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner....
with few attractive personality traits. He is obsessed with his military service in the Territorial Army and perpetually annoys Tim with ridiculous, pretentious comments. He prides himself in being "Team Leader
Team leader
A team leader or team lead is someone who provides guidance, instruction, direction, leadership to a group of other individuals for the purpose of achieving a key result or group of aligned results. The team lead reports to a project manager...
", not realising his title is mostly meaningless, and "Assistant Regional Manager", which David constantly corrects as "Assistant to the Regional Manager". He imposes the little authority he has on his co-workers. Like David Brent, Gareth is arrogant and oblivious. Tim and Dawn exploit this last trait by repeatedly insinuating homosexuality through questions about his military experience. Apparently proud of his close connections with David and glossing over David's poor treatment of him, he later - during the Christmas special - gets back at his former boss by patronising and humiliating him in front of the cameras.
Dawn Tinsley
Dawn Tinsley (Lucy DavisLucy Davis
Lucy Clare Davis is an English actress. She is best known for playing the character Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy The Office and as Dianne in the horror-comedy movie Shaun of the Dead.-Career:...
) is Wernham Hogg's receptionist, and David Brent's dogsbody
Dogsbody
A dogsbody, or less commonly dog robber in the Royal Navy, is a junior officer, or more generally someone who does drudge work. A rough American equivalent would be a "gofer" or a "grunt", a "lackey", or "toady".-History:...
. She frequently has to put up with Brent's attempts at humour and social interaction. Like her friend and co-worker Tim, she is aware of the sad state of her unfulfilling life — she has been in a long, rocky engagement with her fiancé Lee, a surly warehouse worker, and gave up illustrating children's books to pursue her current fruitless career. During the Christmas special, Dawn and Lee return from their illegally prolonged U.S. vacation. At the Christmas party, Dawn realises her true feelings for Tim; she ends her relationship with Lee and returns to kiss Tim.
Secondary characters
Several other recurring characters, although not central to the episodes, have made their mark on office life. These include:Keith Bishop ("Big Keith")
Keith Bishop (The Office)
Keith Bishop is a fictional character in BBC's The Office, played by Ewen MacIntosh. He works as an accountant for the fictional paper merchants Wernham Hogg, as run by David Brent. An overweight man, his nickname is appropriately 'Big Keith'....
(Ewen MacIntosh): Keith works in the accounts department. Slow-talking, apparently emotionless and suffering from eczema
Eczema
Eczema is a form of dermatitis, or inflammation of the epidermis . In England, an estimated 5.7 million or about one in every nine people have been diagnosed with the disease by a clinician at some point in their lives.The term eczema is broadly applied to a range of persistent skin conditions...
on his feet, he is a man of few words. When he does speak, his comments can be surprising and sometimes disturbing. He likes eating scotch egg
Scotch egg
A Scotch egg consists of a hard-boiled egg wrapped in a sausage meat mixture, coated in breadcrumbs or rolled oats, and deep-fried...
s and watching Peak Practice
Peak Practice
Peak Practice is a British drama series about a GP surgery in Cardale — a small fictional town in the Derbyshire Peak District — and the doctors who worked there. It ran on ITV from 10 May 1993 to 30 January 2002 and was one of their most successful series at the time...
, even if it is a "bloody repeat."
Chris Finch ("Finchy")
Chris Finch
Chris Finch is a character in the BBC comedy show, The Office. He is played by Ralph Ineson.Finch is an outside sales representative for the paper merchant Wernham Hogg, in whose Slough office the show is set, and as such is frequently on the road...
(Ralph Ineson
Ralph Ineson
Ralph Ineson is an English actor best known for playing the character of Chris Finch on the BBC television programme The Office. He has a rich Yorkshire accent and is an avid supporter of Leeds United A.F.C. Ralph Ineson was educated at Woodleigh School, North Yorkshire...
): A "bloody good" outside sales representative,
he is probably the only character in the series who is genuinely cruel. He is brashly confident, openly sexist, rasping-voiced with a natural flair for bullying others with swift, humiliating putdowns (with Brent being his usual target). He likes to dominate conversations and is successful with women, but shows a humourless vicious streak when he loses the staff quiz in Series One. David describes him as his "best friend" but actually acts more like a lackey, laughing at his jokes and attempting to ride his coat-tails into the limelight. Finch repays him with disdain.
Jennifer Taylor-Clarke
Jennifer Taylor-Clarke
Jennifer Taylor-Clarke is a fictional character on the BBC2 comedy television series The Office. She is the corporate manager overseeing at least the Slough and Swindon branches of the fictitious paper merchant, Wernham-Hogg. She is portrayed by Stirling Gallacher.Jennifer, like Neil Godwin, is...
(Stirling Gallacher
Stirling Gallacher
Stirling Gallacher is an English actress.-Career:Gallacher is possibly best-known for her role as Dr. Georgina Woodson in the British TV drama Doctors from which she left on Friday, 27 March 2009 after 6 years...
) David's immediate supervisor in Series One, nicknamed Camilla Parker Bowles by him, Jennifer is a serious-minded professional, and David's behaviour and comedy-driven style of management are shown to be puerile and ineffectual by contrast. At the end of the Series One she is made a partner in the firm and, during Series Two, repeatedly reprimands David for inappropriate behaviour. In the last episode she supports Neil's decision to make David redundant.
Lee (Joel Beckett
Joel Beckett
Joel Beckett is an English actor, best known for playing Jake Moon in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders from December 2004 to October 2006 and as Lee in the British comedy series The Office...
): Dawn's fiancé who works in the company's warehouse. She met him in school and they have been together ever since. Whilst by no means a bad person, Lee is somewhat humourless, unromantic and casually dismissive of Dawn's ideas of being an illustrator. His idea of an amorous proposal was a four-word notice in the newspaper — "Lee love Dawn, marriage?" — possibly to save money. It is clear from an early stage that Dawn stays with him out of a fear of loneliness rather than real love — Lee is safe and dependable. Lee is also more physically imposing than Tim, Dawn's other potential interest, and for that reason Tim finds him intimidating.
Glynn aka 'Taffy' (David Schaal): The misogynistic, sexist warehouse manager at the Slough Trading Merchant and Lee's supervisor, who is seen as being very slack and has little respect for any one who works outside of the warehouse, particularly management.
Malcolm (Robin Hooper): An older staff member, he is naturally most worried about the prospect of redundancies and therefore often challenges David's handling of the situation, criticizing his relaxed attitude, his lack of management ability and several incidents, such as hiring a personal secretary when the office is facing redundancies. When David assures individual staff members of their jobs, he stops right before addressing Malcolm. When David claims that he turned down his promotion to save his branch, it is Malcolm who reveals that the real reason was a failed medical test. Malcolm does not appear in the second series, probably having been made redundant.
Ricky (Oliver Chris
Oliver Chris
Oliver Chris is an English actor from Tunbridge Wells.-Early life:He passed his Eleven plus exam and attended Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys before moving to the Michael Hall Steiner School in his fourth year. He later attended the Central School of Speech and Drama...
): Introduced as David's new temp
Temporary work
Temporary work or temporary employment refers to a situation where the employee is expected to leave the employer within a certain period of time. Temporary employees are sometimes called "contractual", "seasonal", "interim", "casual staff", "freelance", or "part-time"; or the word may be shortened...
in the pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
, and is a recent graduate, having "just scraped a first." He was primarily featured in episode three, where he and Tim form a team for trivia night under the name "The Tits." The two end up winning, thanks to Ricky (holder of two Blockbusters Gold Runs) successfully answering a tie-breaker question on Shakespeare, against Chris Finch. Finch, angered, challenges him over the circumstances of the victory in a petty feud, where Ricky calls him and Brent "sad little men." It is announced by Brent in the Series One finale that Ricky is leaving.
Donna (Sally Bretton
Sally Bretton
Sally Bretton is an English actress best known for appearing in television sitcoms including the BBC's Absolute Power, Channel 4's Green Wing, the BBC's The Office, and, most recently, the BBC's Not Going Out....
): Donna is introduced in Series One, Episode Two as the daughter of David's best friends Ron and Elaine, who has come to work at the office, and is staying with David. Donna makes a quick impact in the office, and fails to reciprocate Gareth's romantic feelings towards her. Later, David confronts her for not returning home, and Donna angrily announces she stayed at her boyfriend's house, later revealed to be Ricky. She is almost always wearing a purple top.
Karen Roper (Nicola Cotter): David's personal secretary whom he hires towards the end of Series One. David insists that he needs an assistant so that he does not need to do his own filing. Several of the staff are apprehensive about David hiring new and unnecessary personnel while the branch is facing downsizing and redundancies. David chooses her over a male applicant solely because he found her attractive and later accidentally headbutts her, bruising her under the eye. He embarrasses himself in front of her further when she joins them at a club, called Chasers, after work. When Jennifer sees her standing behind the reception desk during one of her visits and questions David about her, he denies knowing her. She does not appear in the second series, having been made redundant.
Alex (Neil Fitzmaurice
Neil Fitzmaurice
Neil Fitzmaurice is an English actor, comedian and writer.-Writing:Fitzmaurice's writing projects include That Peter Kay Thing, for which he received a British Comedy Award, and the critically acclaimed Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, in which he also appeared as "Ray-Von".Neil has also written two...
): Hired by David in the first episode of Series One as a forklift driver to work in the warehouse, even though Alex does not have his forklift licence. In the last episode of the series his protests against being made redundant are turned around by David and Gareth who question him on the differences between midgets, dwarves, pixies, elves, and goblins.
Neil Godwin
Neil Godwin
Neil Godwin is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom, The Office, played by Patrick Baladi. Neil first appeared in the second series of the show as the UK Manager of Wernham Hogg, newly promoted from manager of the Swindon branch, thus making him David Brent's new boss...
(Patrick Baladi
Patrick Baladi
Patrick Baladi was born on 25 December 1971 and is an English actor.Baladi was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. His father is a gynaecologist from Libya, and his mother was a midwife...
): David's (mostly unseen) counterpart at the Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
branch during Series One, he is promoted ahead of him when David failed a medical examination and becomes his immediate superior in Series Two. Neil is young, charming, professional and energetic. He is a more competent manager than David, has a better relationship with the staff and even finds it easier to make the staff laugh. Brent is hugely resentful and jealous of him, and makes occasional (usually unsuccessful) and often childish attempts to either undermine or rival him. Neil grows increasingly exasperated with Brent's incompetence, poor judgement and failure to do his job properly, and along with Jennifer eventually decides to make David redundant.
Rachel (Stacey Roca
Stacey Roca
Stacey Roca is a British actress, known for portraying Rachel in The Office and Claudie Stephenson in Strictly Confidential.-Background:Originally from South Africa, Roca moved to Formby at the age of twelve...
): Another of the Series Two intake from Swindon. Rachel is bubbly and considered attractive by both Gareth and Tim. She and Tim start a relationship, making Dawn somewhat melancholy. After a deluded Gareth reveals his plans to seduce Rachel, he is shocked to discover that Rachel and Tim are now an item. However, toward the end of the second series, as she begins to pressure Tim to make a greater commitment, Tim realizes that his ongoing love for Dawn is far greater than his feelings for Rachel and breaks off the relationship. Rachel is not seen again after Series Two.
Trudy (Rachel Isaac): Welsh Trudy is first introduced in Series Two as one of several of the new intake from the Swindon branch. Almost immediately, she establishes herself as something of a good time girl, blending in well with the rest of the staff and enjoying a booze-fueled birthday celebration in her honour at the office. Her casual, sexually charged nature does not go unnoticed by the male members of staff and both Gareth and Chris Finch take interest in her. She and Finch are seen having sex in the less than exotic surroundings of a car park. By the time of the Christmas Special, it initially seems that Trudy has mellowed somewhat, although she is seen in a passionate clinch with Oliver by the end of the Christmas party. Trudy is also quick to challenge Brent's style of management.
Oliver (Howard Saddler): One of the Series Two intake from Swindon. Oliver is good-natured, tolerant, easy-going and quiet, which is lucky for him as he is the only black person working in the office. As such he is the target for most of David's well-meaning but hideously misguided attempts to show what a politically correct
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
and racially tolerant man he is. In the Christmas Specials, we see Oliver's co-worker Sheila clearly attracted to him, although he actually ends up in a steamy clinch with the more confident Trudy.
Brenda (Julie Fernandez
Julie Fernandez
Julie Fernandez is a British actress, best known as Brenda, her award-winning role on the BBC comedy The Office. She is also a model....
): Another of the former employees of the Swindon branch, Brenda is a wheelchair
Wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
user, which naturally brings out the worst in David. During a fire drill, he and Gareth attempt to carry Brenda down a flight of stairs but ultimately, as they see it as being too much effort for a mere drill, they abandon her halfway down. Brenda is not impressed by David's patronising behaviour. She, like Oliver, is another character whose purpose is to highlight the gap between David's vision of himself as a modern enlightened man and the reality of his ignorance and thoughtlessness. Gareth, like Brent, is also seen to be incredibly awkward and uncomfortable around Brenda.
Rowan (Vincent Franklin
Vincent Franklin
Vincent Franklin is an English actor best known for his roles in comedy television programmes. Recent roles included PR guru Stewart Pearson in The Thick of It and blunt manager Nick Jowitt in Twenty Twelve. He has appeared in a number of feature films including Vera Drake and the 2006 films...
): A training facilitator in Series One, who is progressively frustrated by David's attempts to undermine and take control of a team training session, often forcing it to veer off track.
Simon (Matthew Holness
Matthew Holness
Matthew Holness is an English comedian and actor from Whitstable in Kent. He attended Chaucer Technology School in Canterbury and read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was vice-president of the Cambridge Footlights...
): Working in IT, he visits the office in Series Two to install firewall software on the computers while discussing his theories with Gareth about Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
faking his own death so that he could go undercover and fight the Triads. Simon is also the record holder for the fastest lap down at 'SuperKarts'.
Ray (Tom Goodman-Hill
Tom Goodman-Hill
Tom Goodman-Hill is an English actor of radio, film, stage and television.Born as Tom Hill and raised near Newcastle upon Tyne, he qualified as a teacher before turning to acting. During his time in Newcastle, he regularly acted in amateur performances at the People's Theatre...
) and Jude (Jennifer Hennessy
Jennifer Hennessy
Jennifer Hennessy is a British actress best known for playing Mrs Brazendale in the BBC TV series Lilies.She trained for three years at the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1992...
): The only two recurring characters in Series Two who do not work for Wernham Hogg. Ray and Jude work for a consultancy firm which organizes business management seminars which include guest speakers in the business world to discuss work practices. They approach David about being one of the speakers but are totally unimpressed with his unorthodox presentation on motivational techniques in a later episode. When David is made redundant he is hoping to fall back on doing more presentations, but is deprived the opportunity when Ray and Jude tell him sympathetically that they will not be calling on him again for future presentations.
Helena (Olivia Colman
Olivia Colman
Olivia Colman is an English actress, best known for her supporting roles in various comedy shows, such as Sophie Chapman in Peep Show and Harriet Schulenburg in Green Wing. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and has appeared in radio, television and theatre.-Personal life:Colman...
): Appears in the last episode of Series Two as a reporter for the internal paper merchant newspaper, 'Inside Paper'. While interviewing David she vies to retain control of her article as David tries to dictate to her what she should write.
Anne (Elizabeth Berrington): Tim's pregnant deskmate in the Christmas Special, Anne annoys Tim even more than Gareth, as she speaks continuously about herself and other topics no one else is interested in. When David offers to take some of the office workers out for a drink, she coldly informs him that nobody is interested. Her very unpleasant remark, however, causes some discomfort amongst the other workers in the office, and the awkward silence that ensues is broken only when Tim decides to accept David's offer. She is eventually put in her place by Glynn at the Christmas party when she lectures him about smoking near her and he tells her to "fuck off home then" before he and the rest of the warehouse workers snigger at her letting "some useless tosser blow his beans up your muff". She is last seen walking away in tears.
Carol (Sandy Hendrickse): David's blind date at the Christmas party who he hits it off with and who seems to like him. When after her departure, Chris Finch calls her a "dog" David finally steps up to him and tells him to "fuck off".
The Ogg Monster (Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...
) Gareth's friend. His real name is Nathan. He appears to be a very sensitive man when Brent insults him for his bug eyes and he runs out of the room.
Episodes
In total there are fourteen episodes of The Office, six in each series and two 45-minute Christmas special episodes."The Office Values" and "Realising Potential"
In 2004, Microsoft UKMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
commissioned two 20-minute corporate videos featuring David Brent
David Brent
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series...
being interviewed by Jeff (Stephen Merchant), a Microsoft employee who becomes increasingly exasperated by Brent's antics. The ongoing theme is Brent's obvious resentment at the company's success. Brent also appears to believe he has what it takes to become the next managing director of Microsoft and continually drops hints to that effect. While not on general release, the videos emerged on the internet in 2006. They were posted on both YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and Google Video
Google Video
Google Videos is a video search engine, and formerly a free video sharing website, from Google Inc. Before removing user-uploaded content, the service allowed selected videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provided the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube...
. The clips also appeared on certain peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
networks. Microsoft was unhappy with the leak, stating that the videos "were never intended to be viewed by the public".
Awards
In 2002, the series won the Best TV Comedy award, and Gervais the Best TV Comedy Actor award, at the British Comedy AwardsBritish Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...
.
In 2004, The Office won the Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for "Best Television Series: Musical Or Comedy", beating nominees Arrested Development, Monk, Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
and Will & Grace
Will & Grace
Will & Grace was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 21, 1998 to May 18, 2006 for a total of eight seasons. Will & Grace remains the most successful television series with gay principal characters...
. It was the only British comedy in 25 years to be nominated for a Golden Globe, and the first ever to win one. Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
was also awarded the Golden Globe for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series: Musical or Comedy" for his role.
Also in 2004, the BBC's Britain's Best Sitcom
Britain's Best Sitcom
Britain's Best Sitcom was a poll conducted in 2004 by the BBC, to identify the United Kingdom's best situation comedy. Viewers were asked to vote for their favourite by phone, text message and on the web. The top ten went forward to a final round of voting...
public poll voted the programme the 25th all-time favourite out of a preselected list of 100.
In 2005, the series' concluding two-part special was nominated for two Emmys in the categories of "Outstanding Made for Television Movie" and "Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "We love the Scranton crew. But Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
' mockumentary series about sadsack employees in Slough, England, is the undisputed champion of awesomely awkward cubicle hell."
Main cast
- Ricky GervaisRicky GervaisRicky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
as David BrentDavid BrentDavid Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series... - Martin FreemanMartin FreemanMartin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
as Tim CanterburyTim CanterburyTim Canterbury is a main character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Martin Freeman. He is a 30-year-old sales representative for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and lives with his parents. He spent one year at a university before dropping out, and one day hopes to return to get a psychology... - Mackenzie CrookMackenzie CrookPaul Mackenzie Crook is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.-Life and career:...
as Gareth KeenanGareth KeenanGareth Keenan is a fictional paper salesman on BBC's comedy The Office. He is portrayed in the series by Mackenzie Crook as a gaunt, self-important team leader proud of his alleged lieutenant status in the Territorial Army... - Lucy DavisLucy DavisLucy Clare Davis is an English actress. She is best known for playing the character Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy The Office and as Dianne in the horror-comedy movie Shaun of the Dead.-Career:...
as Dawn TinsleyDawn TinsleyDawn Tinsley is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Lucy Davis. She is a receptionist for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and is engaged to warehouse worker Lee. Her American The Office equivalent is Pam Beesly... - Patrick BaladiPatrick BaladiPatrick Baladi was born on 25 December 1971 and is an English actor.Baladi was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. His father is a gynaecologist from Libya, and his mother was a midwife...
as Neil GodwinNeil GodwinNeil Godwin is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom, The Office, played by Patrick Baladi. Neil first appeared in the second series of the show as the UK Manager of Wernham Hogg, newly promoted from manager of the Swindon branch, thus making him David Brent's new boss... - Ralph InesonRalph InesonRalph Ineson is an English actor best known for playing the character of Chris Finch on the BBC television programme The Office. He has a rich Yorkshire accent and is an avid supporter of Leeds United A.F.C. Ralph Ineson was educated at Woodleigh School, North Yorkshire...
as Chris FinchChris FinchChris Finch is a character in the BBC comedy show, The Office. He is played by Ralph Ineson.Finch is an outside sales representative for the paper merchant Wernham Hogg, in whose Slough office the show is set, and as such is frequently on the road... - Stirling GallacherStirling GallacherStirling Gallacher is an English actress.-Career:Gallacher is possibly best-known for her role as Dr. Georgina Woodson in the British TV drama Doctors from which she left on Friday, 27 March 2009 after 6 years...
as Jennifer Taylor-ClarkeJennifer Taylor-ClarkeJennifer Taylor-Clarke is a fictional character on the BBC2 comedy television series The Office. She is the corporate manager overseeing at least the Slough and Swindon branches of the fictitious paper merchant, Wernham-Hogg. She is portrayed by Stirling Gallacher.Jennifer, like Neil Godwin, is...
Series one and two
- Joel BeckettJoel BeckettJoel Beckett is an English actor, best known for playing Jake Moon in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders from December 2004 to October 2006 and as Lee in the British comedy series The Office...
as Lee - Ben Bradshaw as Ben
- Jamie Deeks as Jamie
- Jane Lucas as Sheila
- Ewen Macintosh as Keith
- Emma Manton as Emma
- Ron Merchant as Gordon
- Alexander Perkins as Ralph
- Phillip Pickard as Phillip
- David Schaal as Glynn
Series one only
- Sally BrettonSally BrettonSally Bretton is an English actress best known for appearing in television sitcoms including the BBC's Absolute Power, Channel 4's Green Wing, the BBC's The Office, and, most recently, the BBC's Not Going Out....
as Donna - Oliver ChrisOliver ChrisOliver Chris is an English actor from Tunbridge Wells.-Early life:He passed his Eleven plus exam and attended Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys before moving to the Michael Hall Steiner School in his fourth year. He later attended the Central School of Speech and Drama...
as Ricky Howard - Angela Clerkin as Jackie
- Yvonne D'Alpra as Joan
- Robin Hooper as Malcolm
- Vincent Franklin as Rowan (training facilitator)
- Nicola Cotter as Karen Roper
Series two only
- Julie FernandezJulie FernandezJulie Fernandez is a British actress, best known as Brenda, her award-winning role on the BBC comedy The Office. She is also a model....
as Brenda - Tom Goodman-Hill as Ray
- Jennifer Hennessy as Jude
- Matthew HolnessMatthew HolnessMatthew Holness is an English comedian and actor from Whitstable in Kent. He attended Chaucer Technology School in Canterbury and read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was vice-president of the Cambridge Footlights...
as Simon (the computer geek) - Rachel Isaac as Trudy
- Stephen MerchantStephen MerchantStephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...
as Oggie - Tony MacMurray as Tony
- Stacey RocaStacey RocaStacey Roca is a British actress, known for portraying Rachel in The Office and Claudie Stephenson in Strictly Confidential.-Background:Originally from South Africa, Roca moved to Formby at the age of twelve...
as Rachel - Howard Saddler as Oliver
Music and theme song
In 2000, a version of "Handbags and GladragsHandbags and Gladrags
"Handbags and Gladrags" is the name of a song written in 1967 by Mike d'Abo, who was then the lead singer of Manfred Mann. D'Abo describes the song as "saying to a teenage girl that the way to happiness is not through being trendy. There are deeper values."The original demo tape of the original...
", a song written by Mike d'Abo
Mike d'Abo
Michael David "Mike" d'Abo is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the former lead vocalist of Manfred Mann.-Biography:...
, was specifically arranged by Big George as the theme song to The Office series. Three versions were recorded:
- a short, instrumental piece as the opening titles theme
- a short, vocal piece as the closing titles theme
- an alternative full studio version
All vocal versions feature the vocal performance of Waysted
Waysted
Waysted are a heavy metal band formed by UFO bassist Pete Way and Scottish rocker Fin Muir in 1983. Recruiting Frank Noon , Ronnie Kayfield and Paul Raymond, Waysted signed to Chrysalis Records and released Vices in 1983....
vocalist Fin.
In series one, episode four
Episode Four (The Office, Series One)
Episode Four is the fourth episode of the first series of The Office. "Training" is an alternative title for the episode. It was originally broadcast on 30 July 2001...
, a version performed by Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
(in character as David Brent
David Brent
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series...
) was featured over the end credits.
The first series also features Gervais performing "Free Love Freeway
Free Love Freeway
"Free Love Freeway" is a song written by Ricky Gervais, who starred as David Brent in the British comedy series The Office. Gervais first performed the song as Brent in Series 1, Episode 4 of the show. During an employee training seminar, Brent's singing/songwriting in rock band Foregone...
" and the Christmas Special includes him performing "If You Don't Know Me by Now". Both of these songs are included in full on the DVD box set, with Noel Gallagher accompanying for "Free Love Freeway". Some copies sold at HMV stores also included a CD single of the two tracks. As Ricky and Steve mention on their Xfm show, it was a toss-up between the song they chose, and the song "Sitting" by Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
.
DVDs
Region One{| class="wikitable"
!DVD Name!!Release Date!!Ep #!!Additional Information
|-
|Series One||7 October 2003|| style="text-align:center;"|6||This double disc DVD set includes all six episodes from the first series. Bonus features include the featurette How I Made The Office, deleted scenes, Wernham Hogg News, Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
slang glossary, and Wernham Hogg personnel file.
|-
|Series Two||20 April 2004|| style="text-align:center;"|6||This one disc DVD set includes all six episodes from the second series. Bonus features include a video diary, deleted scenes, out-takes, and a Slough slang glossary.
|-
|Christmas Special||16 November 2004|| style="text-align:center;"|2||This one disc DVD set includes both hours of the Christmas Special. Bonus features include a documentary on the making of the specials, the full uncut music video of David Brent's cover of "If You Don't Know Me by Now", a featurette on the making of "Freelove Freeway", and a Golden Globes featurette.
|-
|Complete Collection||16 November 2004|| style="text-align:center;"|14||This four disc DVD set includes all 12 episodes from the first and second series, and both parts of the Christmas special. Bonus features include the How I Made The Office documentary, a documentary on the making of the specials titled The Office: Closed for Business, a commentary on the second part of the Christmas special, deleted scenes, out-takes, a video diary, the full uncut music video of David Brent's cover of "If You Don't Know Me by Now", a featurette on the making of "Freelove Freeway", and a Golden Globes featurette.
|}
External links
- Ricky Gervais' Website
- Pilkipedia Online encyclopedia based around Karl PilkingtonKarl PilkingtonKarl Pilkington is a British podcaster, author, television personality and former radio producer. He is best known for the Sky travel series, An Idiot Abroad, which was also presented in the United States on the Science Channel, in Canada on Discovery Channel and in Australia on One HD, and The...
, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais - Behind the scenes of The Office on BBC