{"id":678811,"date":"2026-07-07T16:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/678811\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T16:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:32:11","slug":"the-office-martin-freeman-says-he-was-slightly-annoyed-by-ricky-gervais-bold-claim-about-bbc-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/678811\/","title":{"rendered":"The Office: Martin Freeman says he was \u2018slightly annoyed\u2019 by Ricky Gervais\u2019 bold claim about BBC series"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Martin Freeman<\/a> has said his recollection of making the hit show The Office<\/a> is different from that of creators Ricky Gervais<\/a> and Stephen Merchant<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Gervais and Merchant have long been adamant that the groundbreaking BBC sitcom<\/a> was entirely scripted, but Freeman, who played the self-deprecating Tim Canterbury, has a different recollection, saying it was \u201clooser\u201d than they suggested.<\/p>\n

Freeman said he was left particularly frustrated when a book of the show\u2019s scripts was released, filled with transcriptions of the lines that made it into the final episode, including his own improvisations.<\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin Freeman says that memories of ‘The Office’ being entirely scripted do not match his own recollections (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The actor sat down with Mackenzie Crook, who played Gareth, on the BBC Two special Remember… The Office, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show. In the one-off, Crook told Freeman: \u201cAnother thing people always ask you is how much was improvised \u2013 very little of it was because it was all there on the page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman responded: \u201cIt was all there on the page. However, I think my true feeling about it is that when it became the monster that it did, because it sounded improvised, understandably Ricky and Stephen went, \u2018No, none of it is improvised.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat slightly annoyed me at the time, but only slightly at the time, is that when the scripts were published, they weren\u2019t the scripts \u2013 they were the transcriptions of what had been on telly, so that annoyed me a little bit because anyone who knows any of us knows that line came from you in that moment, that line came from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cIt was loose, and that\u2019s to Ricky and Stephen\u2019s credit because the scripts were absolutely brilliant. It wasn\u2019t improvised, but it was what I would call loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman argued that he \u201ccan understand why there was a little bit of protection about that because otherwise people would have gone, \u2018Hey, you just rock up and just make it all up,\u2019 which is clearly not the case\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin Freeman played self-deprecating Tim on BBC sitcom \u2018The Office\u2019 (BBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe writing on it was brilliant \u2013\u00a0but you only need to know us a little bit or know the process of it, to know we\u2019re also in there. It doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s a co-credit, it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s improvised; it\u2019s nicely loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Gervais and Merchant for comment.<\/p>\n

Gervais, 65, was invited to take part in the BBC reunion episode, but told The Independent<\/a> that he \u201cwas not available\u201d. He stated that he nonetheless remains in contact with the broadcaster \u201call the time about The Office\u201d.<\/p>\n

The hit workplace mockumentary debuted in 2001 and aired for two six-episode series, with two additional Christmas specials.<\/p>\n

Extras and After Life creator Gervais has announced that he will be celebrating 25 years of The Office with his own documentary set to debut on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

While Gervais is keeping the full plan under wraps, he confirmed in his weekly livestream that the film will arrive on his YouTube channel around the exact date of The Office\u2019s anniversary, which falls on Thursday (9 July).<\/p>\n

Remember… The Office airs on BBC Two and iPlayer on Wednesday 8 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-678811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}