Original subtitles

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!