{"id":775683,"date":"2026-07-02T15:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/775683\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:07:16","slug":"i-told-ricky-gervais-to-fk-off-the-inside-story-of-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/775683\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I told Ricky Gervais to f**k off’: The inside story of The Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was neither fanfare nor much in the way of expectation to accompany a new television series called The Office<\/a> when it debuted on BBC Two on 9 July, 2001. Billed as a \u201cdocumentary-style sitcom\u201d, it was so deadpan, and its comedy so bleak, that few knew quite what to make of it. Was it supposed to be\u2026 funny?<\/p>\n

\u201cA summer stinker,\u201d decried the Evening Standard review. Of the ingratiating lead character, David Brent<\/a>, the newspaper wrote: \u201cA bore in homeopathic doses can be hilarious, but a bore in real time remains simply a bore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its focus was the people who worked at Wernham Hogg, a small paper merchant company in the commuter town of Slough, all of whom \u2013 bickering colleagues Tim and Gareth, wan receptionist Dawn, a vacant accountant called Keith \u2013 seemed either terminally bored or terminally frustrated. Any action that occurred revolved primarily around the photocopier. Only Brent himself brought actual incident, a man of exaggerated mannerisms, and who continually offered direct-to-camera witticisms he thought highly amusing.<\/p>\n

If the reviews weren\u2019t universally positive \u2013 and in the main they were determinedly lacklustre \u2013 then others were convinced they\u2019d just witnessed a generational game changer. Into this latter camp fell Kenton Allen, a successful producer of television comedy, with credits including The Royle Family, Rev and Mum. He\u2019d watched that first episode with his eyes on stalks.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe cast of The Office series two. When the show first debuted in 2001 opinions were divided (Photo: Adrian Rogers\/BBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like nothing less than a massive tectonic shift in the comedy firmament<\/a>,\u201d he says. \u201cHonestly, I couldn\u2019t believe it. Everything about it was new and fresh. It was shot documentary-style, its characters continually broke the fourth wall, and there was this purity to it that made I\u2019m Alan Partridge seem old-fashioned in comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Allen, this was problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe default setting for the comedy producer is to absolutely hate other comedy shows, and with this, I was the green-eyed monster. I knew what it was, but didn\u2019t want to admit it: a masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. Created by comparative newcomers Ricky Gervais<\/a> and Stephen Merchant<\/a>, who had written the pilot as part of a BBC training scheme encouraging new writers into television, it became not only the most successful comedy of its era, but also the most influential. Without it, shows like This Country and People Just Do Nothing would never have been commissioned, while the American actor Steve Carell \u2013 who appeared in the American remake, now among the most-beloved TV shows of all time \u2013 might still be awaiting his big break. The show\u2019s format sold into 15 territories around the world. There are now David Brent equivalents on screen in Chile, Israel and India.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t watched them all, no,\u201d Stephen Merchant told me in 2025. \u201cLots of people are doing cover versions of \u2018Wonderwall\u2019, but Noel Gallagher isn\u2019t listening to them all, is he?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office subverted everything we thought we knew about comedy, and remade it in its own image. In tone and language, it felt closer to an existential howl at the sheer misery of the 9-to-5 existence<\/a>. While in highlighting the difficulties of working with other people, it revealed a thread of misanthropy that would define much of Gervais\u2019s later work in Extras, After Life and his scathing Golden Globe Awards opening monologues.<\/p>\n

Despite its overarching bleakness, however, The Office was also sympathetic and humane. Every performance is pitch-perfect (Gervais certainly has never been better), while the central will-they-won\u2019t-they love<\/a> between Tim (Martin Freeman) and Dawn (Lucy Davis) constitutes, according to the film director Richard Curtis, \u201cone of the greatest romantic stories of all time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ThePatrick Baladi as Neil and Ricky Gervais as David. Neil was everything David Brent was not: popular, capable and handsome (Photo: Adrian Rogers\/BBC)<\/p>\n

We know, of course, what happened next for its principal actors, all of whom went quickly stratospheric \u2013 both Gervais and Merchant would go on to write independently (Merchant most recently with the BBC\u2019s The Outlaws); Freeman moved into drama (Sherlock, The Responder); and Mackenzie Crook<\/a> made a masterpiece of his own in Detectorists \u2013 but what of The Office\u2019s secondary characters, those who lurked in the background while Brent gurned, and Tim set a stapler in jelly? What was it like to be an extra in the defining show of its time? A full quarter of a century on, how do they look back?<\/p>\n

Robin Hooper was one of those extras, but his character, Malcolm, was a memorable one. Malcolm was a little older than his colleagues, and was consequently less prepared to tolerate Brent\u2019s preening immaturity. He stood up to him. He faced him down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d decided between us,\u201d Hooper, now 76, tells me, \u201cthat Malcolm was someone who took his job very seriously, and that he probably still lived at home with his mother. It felt important to me to know my character fully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooper had come from theatre, and hadn\u2019t done much television<\/a>. \u201cMy agent said it would be good for my CV. But it was a very different atmosphere. There was so much laughing on set, for starters, and Ricky has a particularly hideous laugh. For the first few episodes I did think, \u2018Do these two even know what they\u2019re doing?\u2019 Clearly, they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what did he make of his co-stars?<\/p>\n

\u201cMartin was so clever and interesting, and Mackenzie was so strange.\u201d How? \u201cWell, he was so disciplined and focused, totally emerged in the character. Malcolm, my character, would just think he was psychotic, \u2018I\u2019ve got to keep away from him!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Hooper found the experience enervating. Theatre is a collective endeavour; in television, he felt like a spare part. \u201cIt was frustrating because you\u2019d be standing around all day just eating biscuits, and waiting for your bit. Occasionally, I\u2019d get to say something like \u2018huh\u2019, but not much else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheBefore Robin Hooper took on the role as Malcolm, he had come from theatre and hadn\u2019t done much television (Photo: Adrian Rogers\/BBC)<\/p>\n

And Gervais proved an acquired taste.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fascinating to watch Ricky<\/a> work, but I didn\u2019t particularly want to have lunch with him, and I don\u2019t think he wanted to have lunch with me.\u201d Why ever not? \u201cWell, I was a little bit shy, and Ricky does tend to command attention. He kept telling his stories, even over cod and chips. I wanted a break from all that. Perhaps I was a little too serious?\u201d<\/p>\n

Producers wanted him back for the second series, but warned that he might have even less to do. \u201cAll these new people were coming in\u201d \u2013 from the Swindon branch, as the company merged workforces. Hooper had just been offered a play, and took that instead. The right decision?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yes, definitely. But having said that, I do still wish I\u2019d done it. It was something special, wasn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those \u201cnew people coming in\u201d was Patrick Baladi. Then 31, Baladi would take centre stage in the second series, playing Neil Godwin, David Brent\u2019s superior and nemesis. Neil was everything David Brent was not: popular, capable, handsome. He wore a leather jacket better than Brent did, and was part of the managerial firmament in a way the other man could never be. In short: a grown-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been in the business for nine years by that point,\u201d Baladi says. \u201cI\u2019d been at drama school with Martin Freeman, I\u2019d loved the first series, and was very keen to be in the second.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he auditioned, he says, \u201cMartin helped keep Ricky in check<\/a>\u201d. In check? \u201cWell, Ricky laughs a lot during filming.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Neil\u2019s finesse as a dancer \u2013 he and a co-worker recreating Saturday Night Fever for charitable causes \u2013 that prompted one of the series\u2019 most memorable scenes: David Brent\u2019s own highly idiosyncratic dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d been rehearsing it a lot, and I was very nervous. Ricky kept coming in to laugh at us, and I had to tell him to f**k off!\u201d he says. \u201cYou know, I never saw Ricky rehearsing his dance because, well, it was very distinctive, wasn\u2019t it? It was the focus of it I admired most, I think. Where did it come from?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThePatrick Baladi joined the show\u2019s second series as Neil and would play the superior and nemesis to Ricky Gervais\u2019s character (Photo: Adrian Rogers\/BBC)<\/p>\n

By the time of the 2003 Christmas special, the show was a global sensation. For its final two episodes, another new face arrived, Elizabeth Berrington, playing Tim\u2019s co-worker, Anne. Anne was so self-obsessed that Tim, like the viewer, found himself missing deskmate Gareth, who\u2019d recently been promoted to boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWasn\u2019t she just vile?\u201d Berrington says, beaming. An experienced television actor, Berrington relished the role. \u201cBy that stage, The Office was a phenomenon, so we knew that everybody would be tuning in at Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did she, I wonder, have any issues playing such a thoroughly unlikeable character? Did she not crave nuance?<\/p>\n

She laughs at the suggestion. \u201cNo, I loved it. I thought it was such fun to play an absolute cow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office closed its doors for good after just 14 episodes. Its stars went off into their respective galaxies. Secondary characters like Ralph Ineson and Sally Bretton continue to appear across TV today (Game of Thrones; Death in Paradise) while Ewen MacIntosh, who played the lugubrious Keith, was in Miranda and Little Britain before he died in 2024, aged 50. Robin Hooper returned to the stage, Elizabeth Berrington can currently be seen in the new Russell T Davies TV drama Tip Toe. \u201cIf you look at my IMDb page, it looks like I\u2019ve done a shit ton of work, but I haven\u2019t had my big break yet, no,\u201d the 55-year-old confirms. \u201cStill waiting for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

During filming, Gervais would taunt Patrick Baladi that he\u2019d surely become the next James Bond. In the event, he was offered Holby City, which he turned down in favour of another medical drama, Jed Mercurio\u2019s Bodies, and then went to America to try his luck there. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t enjoy it at all, so I came home.\u201d Like Berrington, he has remained in steady, if intermittent, work ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cActing<\/a> is a muscle,\u201d he suggests, \u201cand you have to keep working to stay in shape. You need that childlike belief that something else is going to come along, and that\u2019s why confidence is so important in what we do. Not in that arrogant way, but in trusting yourself and your instincts. So it\u2019s nice to be reminded that I was in The Office, that I was in something that good, and that I can maybe do something else that is equal to it\u2026 or at least close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Office\u2019 is available on iPlayer. \u2018Remember\u2026The Office\u2019 will be broadcast on Wednesday 8 July at 10pm on BBC Two and iPlayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was neither fanfare nor much in the way of expectation to accompany a new television series called…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[13698,49,48,5864,75,63547,1788,105347,66129,348,141814],"class_list":["post-775683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bbc","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-comedy","tag-entertainment","tag-ricky-gervais","tag-television","tag-television-series","tag-television-shows","tag-tv","tag-tv-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}