The Office

Where does one start with The Office? I missed out on the start of this show, only being alerted to it by comments made in the office in which I worked. My boss, you see, did have more than a passing resemblance to the David Brent character. So, I started to watch, probably around episode 4 of the first series and the rest as they say...

The Office is a creation of the comedy writing duo Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It takes the form of a mock-documentary regarding the activities of a Slough based paper company, Wernham Hogg. Gervais takes the lead role of David Brent, the General Manager of the Slough office. He is in turns, funny, humourous, erudite, popular, friendly - in his dreams! He's actually just a git who gets himself into trouble by spouting off about homosexuality, ethnicity, women, disabilities - not necessarily in that order!

The first series of The Office was shown on BBC2 between 9 July 2001 and 20 August. The second series ran from 30 September 2002 until 4 November. Two Christmas Specials were shown on 26 & 27 December 2003.