All language subtitles for Comedy Connections - The Office

Life is about communication.

We live for threescore year and ten

and it's, "Did I communicate?"
"Yes, you did."

"Did I get something across?"
"Yes, you did."

"Are you going to pay me for it?"
"Yes, lots."

"Thanks very much,
not why I do it, but thank you."

NARRATOR: It's hard to believe now,
but back at the turn of the 21 st century

the world had barely
heard of Ricky Gervais,

or the multi-award winning,
record-breaking comedy phenomenon of

The Office.

This year's comedy award
goes to the brilliant Ricky Gervais.

And the BAFTA goes to

The Office Christmas Special.

And the Golden Globe goes to

The Office.

NARRATOR: 2003's Golden Globes saw
Ricky andThe Office

set an all-time record
for a British comedy show.

Two bookends. Excellent.

You need the set.
One looks, you know. Um...

NARRATOR: The Office became
the first British comedy,

and Ricky the first British actor,

ever to be honoured
at television's Oscars.

But how did the phenomenon come about?

From a crack team of writers
with a string of successes

under their belts?

Actually, no.

It grew out of a chance meeting

between an ex-band manager
who'd blagged himself a job

at the recently formed XFM Radio

and a graduate student

who was looking for
something interesting to do.

I'd always wanted to be
involved with radio

because I'd been doing that
when I was at university

and I really enjoyed the idea
of being a deejay and stuff.

And so I sent a tape
and a letter to XFM,

'cause I'd read about it in the NME,

and it must've landed
on the top of Ricky's pile

of different stuff on his desk,

because he certainly wouldn't have
looked beyond, what,

- the fifth or sixth letter from the top?
- I didn't.

And so he read it,

and obviously my CV was good enough
for him to call me up for an interview,

because he'd somehow immediately
persuaded everyone

that he needed an assistant,

even though he didn't appear
to be doing any work,

- and so...
- But when you blag a job,

in the interview they say,
"Have you done this?"

and I go, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
And then you've got to do it,

I said, "Oh, it's a lot more work
than I thought, I'd need an assistant.

"If you want this job done well,

"and I am the man for this job,
then I need an assistant."

GERVAIS: We arranged a meeting
and he came up to London.

I mean, he thought
he was going to meet some...

- A real player.
- (LAUGHS) Yeah.

But I met a fat chump who said,
"I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

He really genuinely laid these
cards on the table that quickly

and said, "I don't know what I'm doing
but if you can cover my back,

"and do the work for me,
then I'm sure we'll get on very well."

NARRATOR:
Working with XFM's Head of Speech

meant doing as little as possible
and having as many laughs

as you could get away with.

But within four weeks of joining Ricky,

Stephen got a tempting offer
from the BBC.

MERCHANT: Initially I turned it down,
because I was thinking,

"I'm really having great fun
with this guy,

"although he doesn't know what
he's doing, he's a fun guy to be with."

But then, I sort of sensed...

It suddenly occurred to me
that actually this guy

was probably going to get us both fired

and I probably ought to take this gig
with the BBC.

And they were offering

a sort of trainee
Assistant Producer scheme

where I would learn lots of the ropes
about making TV and radio and things.

It was going to be a great kind of
learning process for me.

So I phoned them back and said,
"Actually, maybe I will have that job."

NARRATOR: So in 1998,

Stephen joined the BBC training scheme
for fledgling producers.

As part of the course,

trainees were required
to make a short documentary feature.

Stephen decided to team up with Ricky
and spoof the format.

Their film centred around
a character Ricky had devised

called Seedy Boss.

...AKA, for you.

MERCHANT: Well, it never occurred
to us when we were doing it

that this would be anything
other than just a fun day

where we could film this character.

It was never thought of
as being a demo tape

to make a TV show or anything like that.

It was just something to do
because I had to do something.

And then when we looked at it,

we were just like, "Hang on, this is
kind of a bit good, a bit exciting."

INTERVIEWER: What upsets you
about your job?

Wasted talent.

GERVAIS: It was really more
to emulate this documentary feel,

and we'd come out of a spate...
Ten years of docusoaps, you know,

had been happening on British TV,
so we knew what we were aiming at.

Oh, man. Keep away from this guy.

NARRATOR: The tape was passed
around the BBC

and became cult viewing amongst staff.

Rookie producer Ash Atalla made it known
that he would like to be involved.

I phoned Stephen up and I said,

"Yeah, this is great.
I mean, the only thing is,

"I'm a very junior person
in the department,

"so I'm not sure how much
help I'm going to be to you."

Karen, this is Mr Brent.

ANIL GUPTA: One morning, Ash Atalla
came into my office with a tape.

And he stuck it on and I thought,

he's very... he being Ricky,
he's very funny

and quite a sort of startling talent.

And said, "Well, this is good,
what are you doing with it?"

And Ash said, "Well, I've taken it
to Jon," who was Jon Plowman,

who was our boss,

"but he's not very interested."

NARRATOR: At the BBC, Anil Gupta,

who had just had great success
producing Goodness Gracious Me,

had enough clout within the Beeb

to reapproach his boss
with Ricky and Stephen's tape.

So we all sat down and watched it again

and convinced Jon
that there was something in it,

and that maybe we ought to
try and get a pilot made.

Jon said,
and has subsequently denied this

but definitely at the time, said to me,

"Yeah, okay, we could do it,
but he can't be the lead."

"He" being Ricky.

Which, and we both said, "What?
You're mad! He's the show."

You have charmed me. You've got the job.

Great.

We got Ricky and Stephen in
and said, "We quite like this."

And, "What do you want to do with it?"

They were very...

wary, I think is probably
the best description.

Well done.

GERVAIS: Jon Plowman
called us in and said,

"Do you think there's a sitcom in this?"

We said, "Um, yeah, we think so.

"Yeah, we think so,
if we can do it like this."

And he sort of looked at us like,
"Who the fuck do you think you are?"

NARRATOR: In the meantime,
the tape had found its way to Channel 4

and earned Ricky a spot
on The 11 O'Clock Show.

Hello. What would you like
for Christmas?

Pokemon.

(GASPS) Pokemon?

- The complete set.
- The complete set.

The complete set of Pokemon would
cost hundreds of pounds.

So, I'm going to be honest with you.

The chances of you
getting that are slim to none,

and I'll tell you why.
I know your parents.

You live at Whitley Estate,
don't you? Yeah.

The little money your mother does earn

selling Polaroids of herself
to Readers' Wives

she blows on bingo and gin
down the Top Rank.

NARRATOR: Back at the BBC,

funding was approved for the team
to make a pilot episode of the show.

But Ricky and Stephen were once again
intent on raising the stakes.

The main sort of stumbling block
was that Ricky and Steve

announced, slightly unexpectedly,
that they wanted to direct.

Now, people didn't usually say that

and it sort of all caught us
a bit unawares.

One, really, we knew what we were doing,
we were cutting out the middleman.

We know how we wanted it to look

'cause we'd done it before
and we wanted it to look like that.

And, two, where's the fun
in someone else doing it?

Now, Jon said, "Well, you can't.
Because who are you?

"And we don't... Albeit this is a
cheap pilot, but it's not that cheap.

"We don't just give people access
to large amounts of BBC money

"and tell them to go away and play."

PILOT NARRATOR: This is Wernham Hogg,

the biggest supplier of paper,
card and wood pulp products

in the entire Thames Valley area.

GUPTA: We eventually resolved
the problem when I said,

"Well, I'll tell you what,
I'll direct the pilot.

"I know how to direct
single-camera stuff. "

So, the BBC are happy
that we're not going to make

a complete hash of it,

and the boys are happy
that there's not going to be

some other rampant ego running around
messing with their show.

PILOT NARRATOR: Ricky Howard
has just left university

and is one of the many temps

who pass through the doors
of Wernham Hogg.

NARRATOR: Rickey and Stephen
were insistent

that the spoof docusoap concept
should be integral

to every aspect of
the pilot show's production.

GUPTA: They had this
quite purist vision for the show,

which was that, to use that Seinfeldian
quote, "It's about nothing."

It's about what really
happens in an office

and the reality is nothing happens
most of the time, and it's boring

and tedious and repetitive
and that's what we want to capture.

And we were of the view that,
"That's all well and good

"but it's quite boring
and that's why people don't make films

"about offices very often."

GERVAIS: I remember us
fighting for this realism

and this sort of, like, almost this
anti-television way of doing things.

PILOT NARRATOR: Word has leaked out
that there may be redundancies.

So far it's only a rumour,
but already reactions are varied.

The pilot was great.
The one thing I didn't like about it

was that it had
a lot of voiceover in it.

It was overtly trying to mimic
the style of doc-soap,

so it had someone telling you the story

and I remember that's the one thing

any of us discussed
after seeing the pilot.

NARRATOR: The BBC hummed
and hawed for six months

about whether or not
to commission a series,

which gave Ricky and Stephen
time to make Meet Ricky Gervais,

a chat show for Channel 4.

It's been exactly one week
since Big Brother ended,

and I'm sorry it's over
because it was brilliant.

And well done Craig.
What a man, eh? Yeah?

I feel sorry for Anna, though,
10 weeks and then pipped at the post.

Lesbian nun, though, she's not going
to be short of film work, is she?

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

NARRATOR:
Despite other irons in the fire,

Ricky and Stephen were not
about to forgetThe Office.

We weren't commissioned
but we wrote the whole series in about,

I think, six months?

- Something like that.
- The first draft.

And then, by the time we'd actually
pretty much finished,

they came through and said,

"You've got a series.
When can you start filming?"

And we went, "Now."

NARRATOR: So in July 2001,

with Ricky and Stephen
as writers and directors,

The Office set sail
for fame and fortune.

Though you wouldn't know that
from the opening titles.

They went off to Slough and shot
this roundabout and this bus depot

and this office block and came back.

And we thought, "Is that it?"

NARRATOR: The series had virtually
the same cast and crew as the pilot,

and in the summer of 2001, at 9:30 p.m.,

the nation was introduced
to Mr David Brent.

Sammy, you old slag.

It's the Brentmeister General.

Have you advertised
the forklift driver's job?

No? Good. Don't bother.
I've got the man here. He's perfick.

Has he passed
his forklift driver's test?

He gives the tests.

We thought, we'll spend
the first 10 minutes

on him showing off.

And people would go,

"I get this, I know what he's doing.
He wants to be famous.

"He wants to be discovered."

Lovely Dawn.

- Dawn Tinsley. Receptionist.
- (LAUGHS)

- Been with us for ages, haven't you?
- Yeah.

I'd say, uh, at one time or another,

every bloke in the office has woken up
at the crack of Dawn! (LAUGHS)

What?

They were like, "Look, this is going to
be this sort of mock documentary,

"so it has to be as real
as it possibly can be

"so that, you know,
people who are watching it

"they're not going to really know
whether you're acting or not."

NARRATOR: Lucy Davis
had played Maria Lucas

in the celebrated 1995 version
of Pride and Prejudice.

Have you asked her, Charlotte?
Is she to come to Hunsford with us?

Lucy captured the hearts
of Archers listeners

as sweet Hayley Jordan

before repeating the trick
as Dawn Tinsley,

The Office's downtrodden receptionist.

- Wassup?
- Don't do that!

Gareth Keenan,
Assistant to the Regional Manager,

was embodied by Mackenzie Crook,

whose comedy life started
as stand-up character Mr Bagshaw.

Buckley, lad,
top of the class, as usual.

That's makes you a bum-lick.
What does it make you, Buckley?

- (AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
- A bum-lick, sir

Bum-lick, sir, that's right, sir.

NARRATOR:
He soon joined other future comedy stars

in the cast of
the Channel 4 sketch show Barking

and appeared in The 11 O'Clock Show
like his soon-to-be regional manager.

I'd already obviously seen and worked
with Ricky on The 11 O'Clock Show

and knew that I loved
his sense of humour,

I thought he was a very funny guy.

And so, I was keen to read it,
got the script,

and I knew immediately that this was
the one at least that I had to get.

Oh, no. Oh, God.

"Boss and team leader in drunken
night out shock horror," it says here.

It's looking like I'm out again
tonight with Oggy.

That'll be a quiet night
in at the library. Not!

Well, originally, we wanted him
to be like, you know,

sort of like a squaddie type,
quite an intimidating figure

who'd slap you on the back
and, you know,

be into loads of press-ups
and fighting and that.

And then when Mackenzie walked in
and did it with his frame,

that's rather like a baby bird
that hasn't quite hatched,

and he's talking about killing a man

and doing loads of press-ups,
it's hilarious.

NARRATOR: The long-suffering
office everyman Tim

was played to perfection
by Martin Freeman.

This is why the whole redundancy thing
doesn't bother me.

Because if I have to work with him
for another day,

I will slit my throat.

You won't do it like that, though.

You get the knife in
behind the windpipe,

pull it down like that.

NARRATOR: From the BBC drama This Life,

Martin was then seen
on the cult show Bruiser.

Ricky was one of a team of writers.

- How much for everything?
- 50.

- For everything?
- For anything.

'Cept kissin' on the mouth.

(LAUGHING) Kissing? Stop it.

Don't worry, darling,
I won't waste a girl's mouth on kissing.

And you... Oh! (BABBLING)

NARRATOR: In Bruiser, Martin played
alongside Mitchell and Webb,

who would go on to make
the acclaimed Peep Show.

Right, that is it.

Slow down, you move too fast.
Solomon's here.

All part of the job. What's going on?

He put my stapler inside a jelly again.

Once you get the actors,

and you cast someone like
Martin Freeman or Mackenzie Crook,

and you see them at work,
then, of course,

you get a sense of what they can do
and what they're particularly good at.

- Give him an official warning.
- How do you know it was me?

So, then,
when we're working on the series

we can kind of tailor things
to their particular talents.

Alan and the board have decided

that we can't justify
a Swindon branch and a Slough branch.

- Oh! Okay, go on.
- No, now listen, David. Don't panic.

DAVID: Should be good.
This is it. Go on.

- There are alarm bells.
- No, listen to me. No, don't panic.

- We haven't made any deci...
- Don't panic?

- We haven't made any decisions yet.
- Good.

The story arcs,
which we'd been very keen on,

and encouraging,
and they sort of come up with,

the whole Sword of Damocles
redundancy thing,

were there from the start

and absolutely mapped out
through the six episodes.

Head Office

have deemed it appropriate
to enforce an ultimatum upon me,

and Jennifer is talking of either

downsizing Swindon branch
or this branch.

(ALL MUTTERING)

So that gave you a kind of
spine to the show,

which you could then
hang the little sort of,

uh, you know, vignette,
things about nothing, around.

What are you doing?

What are you doing? That's ridiculous.

Every week you get figures
where members of the public rank

every show from nought to 100
on what they think of it.

And you get these figures
for every single programme.

The first few weeks of The Office
were just terrible.

I was on a train the day after
the first episode had been on.

And I heard two people talking about it.
There were two women,

and one said to her, she said,
"Did you see that documentary last night

"on BBC Two about an office?"

"It was hysterical, I was in hysterics.

"The main boss,
oh, he's comical, he's comical!"

And her friend said,

"I don't think that was a documentary,
I think that was a comedy."

And her friend went, "What?
Oh, it wasn't very funny, then."

And I thought, "Well, that's not fair,
is it, what are the rules there?"

NARRATOR: But as the series went on,
viewing figures started creeping up

as audiences got the hang
of the docusoap sitcom concept.

- And it's all that now, isn't it?
- Yeah, it's all...

- Busy?
- Yeah, just, uh,

keeping up the morale.

- Can we have a chat?
- Yeah.

(CHUCKLES)

Ooh!

Why we had to film this character
in the documentary style

is because he knows he's being filmed.

So, he's trying to present
a version of himself to the world.

And, of course,
the world sees him for what he really is

because he constantly shows himself up.

I've just spent two days
in Swindon with Neil

and he's made some big changes.

Now, when we spoke on Friday,

you said you were going to instigate
some changes of your own.

I just wondered how that was going?

- Great.
- Good. What have you done?

Changed many things, really.

In a global sense,

streamlining the whole ongoing
enterprise of it.

I'm sorry, David, that sounds like
management-speak to me,

- and I know you hate that.
- Yeah, I do. So...

It was integral.
It was absolutely fundamental

that people had to know
these people were acting like this

because they knew
they were being filmed.

- So there have been redundancies?
- Yeah.

- Well, have you let anyone go?
- Yeah.

Who?

Julie.

NARRATOR: Vital to The Office's format
was Brent's constant awareness

of the documentary team's camera.

Always performing for the audience,
he revealed himself

using a vast palette of expressions.

There's the "I'm lying".
There's the "I'm pleased with myself."

So, put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Yeah, two. I've got two...

You've got two, two acting techniques.

If someone's unlucky, you go,
"I'm not saying he's unlucky,

"but if he fell in
a barrel full of tits,

"he'd come up sucking his own thumb."

Suck tits? I thought you sucked knobs.

Do you? (LAUGHS)

NARRATOR: Rather than address the issue
of looming redundancies,

Brent saw his chief role in the office
as entertainer.

They're cracking up.

He didn't say "I want to be a comedian"

or "I'm like a comedian."

He said things like, "As a comedian..."
And he meant it!

He thought, "I'm a comedian,

"you just haven't discovered me yet."

Is it an intro? What I'm saying is...

Hey! Finchy!

Tell me, man. When's it due?

Ah, here we go. Fasten your seatbelts.

There's not a seatbelt big enough
for you, you fat bastard.

NARRATOR: And David Brent
saw himself as a double-act

with odious sales rep Chris Finch,
played by Ralph Ineson.

Together, they were partners in crime,
against comedy.

He was there to show
that Brent wasn't actually a bastard.

Brent was a bit of a twit,

a bit of a loser.
But Finchy was a nasty piece of work.

Um, you know,
Finch was there to remind you

you shouldn't really laugh at bullies.

Because on the face of it
is this guy who comes in,

he's the life and soul,
but then he starts being nasty

and you might laugh
but soon it's your turn.

When we had the question,

"Name the Cuban leader who's been
in power since the revolution in 1959."

- Fidel Castro.
- You know it now. But what did you say?

- It's in that situation...
- Tell them. What did you say then?

What did you say then? Go on.

Who's the Cuban leader?

- Fray Bentos.
- (MAN LAUGHS)

No wonder this place is going down
the pan. You're a waste of bloody space.

Everybody's come across people like that
and just wanted to kind of out them.

And it felt a bit like outing all these
gobby, show-off bullies

that exist in everybody's life.

And it was quite kind of
cathartic to do it like that.

Which sounds terribly poncy, I know.

But it felt different
to play that character

because I really hated him
and I enjoyed making him

a complete tosser, because it's like
calling those people a tosser yourself.

Your university education
didn't help you there, did it?

Now, let that be a lesson to you.

Respect your elders
and do not fuck with the big boys.

- Life! Life!
- Chuck his hat over.

ATALLA: When you think
about some of the things

that Ricky and Stephen
did in The Office,

the show took on some
big issues that people were kind of,

would often shy away from
in quite a fearless way.

It's like when you see someone look
at a little handicapped and go,

"Oh, look at him. He's not
able-bodied. I am. I'm prejudiced."

Yeah?

Well, at least the little
handicapped fella is able-minded.

Unless he's not. It's difficult
to tell with the wheelchair ones.

So just give generously to all of them.

Ricky and Steve like to
challenge taboos, or, you know,

that's where they like to play,
in that kind of area.

This guy does the best
Ali G impersonation.

Aiiight? I can't. You do it.

- Go on.
- I don't.

- You're thinking of someone else.
- Oh! Sorry.

- No, it's not you, it's the other one.
- The other what?

- Um...
- Paki?

Ah.

That's racist.

Ricky sort of has odd
little obsessions with certain areas.

Things like disability and race,
where sometimes we'd sort of go,

"I really think that's a bit too much.
I think you might have to not do that."

Um, which they reacted to,
their automatic reaction was to say,

"Well, you know,
we're absolutely going to do it, then."

Do you like a drink
at the end of a week?

NARRATOR:
Besides the redundancy subplot,

another key story strand
was the romantic triangle

between Dawn, Tim
and Dawn's bit of rough

from the Wernham Hogg warehouse, Lee,
played by Joel Beckett.

Hi, sweetheart.

- Are you ready, yeah?
- Yeah.

Would you mind me going out
for a drink with this lot?

No, no, no.
Come on, let's go home, yeah?

The romantic element
was always a really important factor

in the whole show.

And I think
had I made the show on my own,

I'd have probably made it
much more significant.

I think it really was Ricky
that suggested that the beauty of it

is to let it be very subtle
and downplay it.

And because of that documentary world,
they can't express the way they feel.

So it becomes a lot more charged
and consequently more romantic.

It's a tiny bit loud.

- Sorry.
- Can I have this when you've finished?

Yeah, you can have it.

Lucy and Martin, you know,
just take that to another level.

They have something
which is beyond our control,

which is just a chemistry together.

DAVIS: All these flirtatious moments
aren't really just to do with

"Oh, is my blouse is undone?
The top button or..."

It's to do with them...
Just look at them getting on.

Everyone goes,
"Oh, they should be together."

And the reason is because
look at them always having fun.

There's good news and bad news.

The bad news is Neil will be
taking over both branches

and some of you will lose your jobs.

(ALL GASP)

Those of you who are kept on
will have to relocate to Swindon

if you want to stay.

I know. I know. Gutting. Gutting.

You didn't see me.

On a more positive note,
the good news is I've been promoted.

So, every cloud...

NARRATOR: But there's
no silver lining for David Brent

when he fails his medical
and doesn't get his promotion.

At the end of the series,
he announces he turned down the position

just to save the Slough branch.

So, three cheers for David Brent!

Just come from a meeting at Head Office,

where I was officially offered
the job as UKManager.

Um, and as you know,
taking that job will mean

a lot of you will lose your jobs,

and I'd just like to say...

that's why I told them
to shove their job up their arses!

ROOT: I think that
in the professional world,

a lot of Ricky
and Stephen's contemporaries

had regarded them
perhaps as a bit of the new guys.

And they'd been working at this game
for a very, very long time.

Suddenly, they changed
in their estimation.

And it went from being
this little summertime show

to being something that everybody
claimed to have spotted first.

NARRATOR: Faith in the show
was rewarded at the end of season one

with a South Bank Show Award,

followed by a comedy award
and two BAFTAs.

Lavished with critical applause,

commissioning a second series
was a no-brainer,

and expectations were high.

(BRENT SCATTING)

(ALL SINGING MAH-NA MAH-NA)

CROOK: I remember waiting
for the scripts for the second series.

And that was infuriating,
just waiting for them,

I couldn't wait to read them.

And of course, I wasn't disappointed.

For those of you that don't know me,
my name's Neil Godwin.

- ALL: Hello, Neil.
- Hello.

For those of you that do know me,
keep shtum.

NARRATOR: Series 2 opens
with the merger

of the Wernham Hogg branches.

This means The Office has new characters
and Brent has a new boss.

The younger, more dynamic,

and worst of all,
more popular Neil Godwin,

played by Patrick Baladi,

soon to become
the ultimate thorn in Brent's side.

There will be perks for him.

I'm sure he's looking forward to having
a whole new group of men underneath him.

ALL: Whoo!

Anyways, here's the man
at the top of the pile, David Brent.

Thanks, wait.

You know what he was saying there

about me being the top of the pile
of men, saying I'm gay?

Right, I'm not gay. In fact,
I can honestly say

I've never come over a little queer!

(SCATTERED GROANING)

NARRATOR: Another significant threat
to the status quo was Stacy Roca,

as the vivacious
and flirtatious Rachel.

Her arrival further complicates
the dynamics ofThe Office's romance.

GERVAIS: Series 2 of anything
is a joy.

'Cause you're not
writing blind any more.

You're not only coming up
with lines for characters you know,

you know who's playing them,
so you play to their strengths.

And a very good case in point
is Big Keith, Ewen Maclntosh.

Now, he was, effectively
an extra in the first series.

Under strengths,

you've just put "accounts".

Yeah.

- That's your job, though. That's just...
- Mmm.

It was kind of the one scene
in the whole of the series

that was just me and Ricky,

and I'll tell you,
it was good fun to do.

Okay, um...

Under weaknesses, you've put "eczema".

I think it brought out
the real heart and soul of Keith,

and it also showed
another side to Brent,

his sort of exasperation,

and him actually being
the brains in the conversation for once.

- What are you doing?
- Got to hop everywhere.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the most
significant day in the second series,

Red Nose Day, which should be
one of Brent's happiest days,

in fact, turns out to be his bleakest.

Tim's donation of a quid
in return for a kiss from Dawn

tells him the dalliance
with Rachel was a sham.

And when Neil and Rachel perform
a polished dance routine for charity,

Brent reacts badly
and things start getting ugly.

Really ugly.

I think the second series is,
in many ways,

a better sitcom than the first series.

I think we got into the romance
a bit heavier and more definitely,

and we really turned the screws
on this man's breakdown.

(BRENT GRUNTING RHYTHMICALLY)

We wanted people to realise
he was a real bloke,

he wasn't just this comical buffoon.

He was a bloke who was affected by this.

So what he wasn't very good at his job?
So what?

We had to drag Brent down,
we had to take him

sort of to hell and back.

We'd like to offer you
a very generous redundancy package.

Are you offering me it or are you
telling me I've got to take it?

Um, we're telling you
you've got to take it.

Personally, I think the favourite thing
I've ever done

is beg for my job back, as an actor,

with Jennifer and Neil.

I will try twice as hard.
I really will.

I know I've been complacent,
and I will turn this place around

if we just say
that it's not definite now.

And then we can...

Um, you're not going until,
starting from now,

starting from now.

We wanted people to go,
"Ah, I've been laughing at David Brent

"for all these weeks,
and he's... Oh, he's crying now.

"He's human. He's all right."

I wanted another series immediately,
and then I wanted more and more.

And like any channel controller,

you've got this wonderful thing
and you just think,

"This could be 20 of them.
This could be on all year.

"This could be lots and lots."

And Ricky and Stephen were always,

"We can't do that many,
we can't do that many.

"It's just a special, special thing."

NARRATOR: And everybody else
thought so as well.

Series 2 picked up British Comedy
and Royal Television Society awards,

and two BAFTAs.

For a year, the cast would be kept busy

on other projects,
notably Mackenzie Crook,

who sailed straight to Hollywood
for Pirates of the Caribbean.

But in December 2003,

The Office returned
by overwhelming public demand,

for two Christmas specials.

We rejoin David Brent
in reduced circumstances,

trying to keep up appearances
as a door-to-door salesman.

Hello.

Um...

Right.

I've got a meeting with a Ray Howles,

who's the building manager here,
at the Park Conference Centre.

INTERVIEWER: Are you
a door-to-door salesman?

No.

I don't go cold-calling,

trying to sell people
clothes pegs and dusters.

I do sell dusters, but that's about
5% of what we do.

Well, the exciting thing
about doing the specials was

there'd been a bit of a gap,
I think it'd been like a year and a bit.

And we treated that like
it was a different documentary team

going back and doing one
of those revisited-type programmes.

Well, he's the star of that
BBC Two documentary series The Office.

He's the boss from hell.
He's looking for love and a job.

He's all the way from Slough.
Give it up, everybody, for David Brent!

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)

So, now Brent had become
a bit of a minor local celebrity.

He was trying to become,
you know, a performer.

So it gave it a new injection.

NARRATOR:
Despite his ignominious departure,

he still makes regular visits
to the old office,

where Gareth now occupies his desk.

- Well, I bought that from Halfords.
- Oh!

Here he is.

- The fellow who nicked me job.
- Didn't nick it.

- Nah, didn't want it any more.
- He did. He begged for it back.

No, I didn't. Shut up.
What are you talking about?

He's here more often
now that he doesn't work here

than he was when he did work here.

Exaggerating.

CROOK: Gareth's eyes have been opened
a little bit about Brent.

And perhaps he's discovered that
the job wasn't as difficult

as Brent sometimes made out,
something like that.

He's fallen from his pedestal a bit.

But like you remember your first love
or a crush you had in school,

he's still fond of him.

Someone, who shall remain nameless,

has persuaded yours truly to, uh...
It's a bit of a laugh, really...

Dating service. Online dating.

I'm going along with it,
but you know, try anything once.

NARRATOR: We catch up with Lee and Dawn,

who are babysitting
for Lee's sister in Florida.

And for the first time,
the production team

making the documentary
have a say in what happens next.

INTERVIEWER: Will you get a chance
to get back to Slough this year

to see your friends and workmates?

Uh, this year? No, definitely not.

Why is that?

Um, well, for a start,

it costs three months' wages
to go over there on what we earn.

What if we were able to
arrange for you to go back?

There's like a million reasons
we can't go. So...

What do you mean, arrange it?

If we were able to take care
of everything,

- would you want to go back?
- Yeah, of course.

- Let's talk about it first.
- Was that a genuine offer?

I think, am I right
in saying in the specials,

that's the first time
we hear the interviewer's voice?

And, of course,
it's great in the fact that

the documentary people
have actually had a hand

in getting Dawn and Tim together.

NARRATOR: Brent's online dates
have so far all been disasters,

but he's determined not to turn up alone
at the office party.

So he pins all his hopes
on another blind date.

Brought you the long way around.

This is Chris. Neil. This is Carol.

- Hi, Carol.
- Hi.

- My date for this evening.
- Hi.

CROOK: I'm kind of in awe of the way

they wrote David Brent's date
for that final episode.

It was so well done,

that they picked a woman
that could quite possibly,

you know, give him a chance.

She wasn't a caricature
and she was attractive

and they did that so brilliantly.

INTERVIEWER:
Would you want to see him again?

Yeah, I think so.

And you're left
with such a great feeling

that perhaps it's going to
be all right for David Brent.

Definitely. (LAUGHS)

MERCHANT: People often accused us
of being kind of cynical

and, you know, sort of a little bit
mean-spirited or something.

And to us, that was never the case.

We always had great warmth
and love for these characters.

And, so,
we knew people would be expecting

yet another downbeat ending,
which is why we end the first special

in as kind of grim a place as we can,

so that we can redeem everyone
by the end of the second.

No dog with you today, David?

Oh, did you not see her? She just left.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

Chris, why don't you fuck off?

I think people were
so much looking forward

to seeing how it was going to work out.

And I know people were really rooting
for Tim and Dawn to get together.

And I hadn't told a soul,
I hadn't told a soul

of what was going to happen. I refused.

Most people didn't want to know anyway,
they wanted to watch it for themselves.

But even, like, my boyfriend
or my mum, I was like,

"Nope, not telling you,
not telling you."

I was like, "No, you can
bloody watch it."

Careful, she's got a fiancé.

Um, not any more.

GERVAIS: We didn't want it
to be too neat

because it wasn't our style,

it wasn't what the programme
was trying to do.

But we did want to leave, you know,
a taste in the mouth,

this flavour of what
they might be doing now.

So, are Tim and Dawn together?
Don't know.

Is Brent with his date?

Don't know. Has he got a job?
Don't know.

But it doesn't matter
because he told Finchy to fuck off,

she said, "Call me,"
and Tim and Dawn kissed.

That's all you need to know.

NARRATOR: For the original cast,

being in The Office continues
to be the perfect reference.

Martin Freeman got
his own sitcom, Hardware,

then moved into films
like Love Actually

and in 2005, starred in
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Mackenzie Crook is now a fixture

in the Pirates
of the Caribbean franchise.

Lucy Davis helped bring
Simon Pegg's zombie movie,

Shaun of the Dead, to life,

and is carving out a career
on American TVin the series

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
and Ugly Betty.

As for Ricky and Stephen,

they rested briefly before coming up
with hit number two, Extras.

We saw loads and loads of interviews
of all these A-listers from America

because in those few years The Office
had become very big in America,

saying, "Oh, my favourite thing
is The Office, "you know.

"I'd love to work with that Ricky
Gervais and Stephen Merchant."

We went, "Right. Okay, then.
Money where your mouth is."

I like you, for example.
I think you're great.

Thank you.

And I don't normally
watch films more than once,

but I thought The Matrix... I loved it.

It was amazing.

- Yeah, it's a good film.
- Good film. That's all she's saying.

- And you were brilliant in it.
- Oh...

I bumped into Sam Jackson. He said,
"I've just bought your DVD. I love it."

Right. I'll remember that.

And that's how we got all these people.

All from The Office.

NARRATOR:
After the first series of Extras,

Ricky was awarded the ultimate
comedy accolade,

being invited to write and star
in an episode ofThe Simpsons.

And now he's returning the favour
to the stars who appeared in Extras,

popping up alongside Ben Stiller
in Night at the Museum

and Stardust with Robert De Niro.

Recently, Ricky and Stephen
have returned to their roots,

and with their new chum
Karl Pilkington,

are embracing
new broadcasting technology.

The trio's philosophical musings
are officially and lucratively

the world's most popular
downloadable podcast.

PILKINGTON: Have you ever used
a Y-front properly?

(BOTH LAUGHING)

GERVAIS: What do you mean?

Just, you know, do you use the Y-front?

Or do you just, like,
tuck it over the top?

They've sort of got this
Midas thing going on right now.

Everything they do
suddenly is bang, the right moment.

You know, the podcasts, perfect.

Going to America, BBC America,
just the right timing.

Obviously it helps
if you've got a fantastic show.

But they just seem to just
plug into social moments

at the right moment and the sort of
snowball effect grew and grew.

(GROANS)

Probably write a song
about this one day.

NARRATOR: Ricky and Stephen
seem in no immediate danger

of losing their Midas touch.

But it was the show
that put Slough on the comedy map

and made a mega-star of Ricky Gervais

that reveals the duo's approach,

trust in your own vision,
believe in your own talent

and stick to your guns.

Oh, and, uh, one other thing...

- We ripped off the best.
- Oh, yeah.

It's not new at all.

There's not a new idea
in that goddamn show.

No, we ripped off Laurel and Hardy,
The Simpsons, Spinal Tap...

What was the other one you said?

- Woody Allen.
- Woody Allen, Larry Sanders.

Larry Sanders, yeah.
We ripped 'em all off.

- Ha! Ha-ha!
- Ha! And we got away with it!