The iconic BBC sitcom The Office is marking its 25th anniversary, a quarter-century since audiences were first introduced to the eccentric world of Wernham Hogg paper company and its unforgettable manager, David Brent. To commemorate this silver jubilee, a host of surprising facts and behind-the-scenes stories are emerging, celebrating the show’s enduring legacy.
To mark the occasion, actors Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Crook, who famously played Tim Canterbury and Gareth Keenan respectively, are set to reunite for a BBC documentary looking back at the series. Concurrently, co-creator Ricky Gervais will release his own retrospective special on his YouTube channel, offering further insights into the beloved mockumentary.
It’s now difficult to imagine, but Martin Freeman initially auditioned for Gareth Keenan’s role before being asked to read for Tim Canterbury, the self-deprecating sales rep. Similarly, Wernham Hogg’s receptionist, played by Lucy Davis, could have been a different familiar face. “Interestingly, we saw Ruth Jones for Dawn,” the casting director Rachel Freck told Esquire in 2021. “She’d just done East is East. I wrote nice comments about her in my notes and she was a possibility.” Even the mute caretaker, a recurring figure standing motionless and staring at the camera, was played by co-creator Stephen Merchant’s father, Ron, chosen because the creators “thought he had a funny face.” Mackenzie Crook, cast as the militarily-obsessed Gareth, was even asked to get “the worst haircut you can think of” for the pilot, as his own hair wasn’t deemed bad enough.
Despite its current status as a British comedy classic, The Office faced a rocky start. When it first aired in summer 2001, viewing figures were so low that its recommissioning was in doubt. Executive producer Jon Plowman noted that “audiences were rotten,” though a BBC repeat within months doubled its viewership. Ricky Gervais recalled the first series receiving the “lowest ever BBC focus group score,” sharing the bottom spot with a rained-off women’s bowls program.
The show, known for its naturalistic, spontaneous feel, was in fact “95%” scripted, according to Gervais and Merchant. One of the rare improvised moments, however, became one of its most famous: Brent’s cringe-inducing dance, described by Gervais as “fusing Flashdance with MC Hammer shit,” which required him to “go berserk for 30 seconds, then had to have a sit-down for 30 minutes.” Other scenes demanded numerous takes, such as Tim’s appraisal with David Brent, which took 74 tries due to Freeman and Gervais repeatedly “corpsing.” Freeman struggled particularly when Brent made finger guns at his chair while saying, “You could be in the hot seat like me.” The scene where Tim makes small talk with accountant Big Keith before he bites into a scotch egg also required many takes, with actor Ewen MacIntosh going through two multipacks of the snack. A subtle running gag involved a shot of a whirring photocopier making multiple copies of a document, filmed from the exact same angle in every episode.
The creators had initially planned to tour the UK to find “real people” for supporting roles, hoping to enhance the documentary style, but abandoned the idea when they found “real people are terrible actors.” For the theme music, Stephen Merchant wanted Cat Stevens’ “Sitting” or Supertramp’s “The Logical Song,” but they eventually settled on a version of the 1960s blue-eyed soul tune “Handbags and Gladrags,” performed by Big George. Speculative backstories that never made it into the show included big boss Jennifer Taylor-Clarke (Stirling Gallacher) being old college friends with Brent, explaining her tolerance for his foibles, and Brent having worked his way up through Wernham Hogg’s ranks, rather than arriving as manager, explaining his emotional attachment to the company.
Gervais revealed that Gareth Keenan was based on a school friend, explaining his adolescent characteristics. He had a list of 50 “ludicrous things” this 14-year-old told him, including a bizarre cannibal theory involving pornographic pictures for “more meat,” which he then put into an adult’s mouth for comedic effect. The show’s opening scene, where Brent hires a forklift driver (played by Neil Fitzmaurice), took several lines directly from a real-life temp agency interview Gervais attended at 17, including the recruiter’s “Pinocchio nose mime” when lying about Gervais’s age, a gesture Brent later replicated. When producer Jon Plowman questioned how a boss as ineffective as Brent could keep his job, Gervais simply suggested, “Let’s take a walk around the BBC, shall we?” implying enough “Brent types” existed within the corporation to make it believable.
Oscar-winner Olivia Colman made one of her earliest TV appearances as Helena, a journalist from Inside Paper trade magazine, predating Peep Show by a year. The show has been remade in 16 territories, with the boss character in the Mexican version named Jerónimo Ponce III and the Canadian French-language manager called David Gervais, in homage to Ricky. The song lyric Brent had pinned by his desk, “Money don’t make my world go round / I’m reaching up for the higher ground,” is from “Crazy Maze” by Slough-native pop-soul singer Des’ree. This is notably different from Des’ree’s hit “Life,” which features the line “I don’t want to see a ghost / It’s the sight that I fear most / I’d rather have a piece of toast / And watch the evening news,” voted the worst lyric ever in a BBC Radio 6 Music poll. The scene where Tim puts Gareth’s stapler in jelly required a different prop for each of the multiple takes. In a separate incident, stones were placed inside Tim’s shoes to add weight, allowing Finchy to throw them over the pub in the quiz episode.
In 2004, Germany’s ProSieben network produced a comedy called Stromberg, which the BBC deemed so similar to The Office that it threatened legal action for copyright infringement. An agreement was eventually reached, granting Gervais and Merchant an “inspired by” credit. Gervais remarked, “It’s not like the Germans to just march in and take something that isn’t theirs.” Tim’s frequent fourth-wall-breaking glances to the camera were inspired by Laurel and Hardy, with Stephen Merchant reportedly shouting “Do Oliver Hardy!” when Mackenzie Crook did something idiotic, prompting Martin Freeman’s exasperated look. The pilot episode was originally a more overt documentary pastiche, complete with a voiceover by John Nettles of Bergerac fame. The voice of the unseen BBC interviewer in the 2003 Christmas specials belonged to Ashley Jensen, who later co-starred with Gervais in Extras.
Both Gervais and Merchant agree on their favorite moment: Tim taking his microphone off at the end of series two. Gervais explained, “I like the bit where Tim takes his microphone off at the end of series two.” Merchant elaborated, “The moment when Tim unhooks his mic and tells Dawn how he feels but we never hear what is said. I thought it was a perfect way of using the fake documentary style to tell our story.” While Dawn initially said no, she eventually changed her mind.
The beloved BBC sitcom is now a quarter of a century old. Ahead of two TV celebrations, here are 25 things you didn’t know about television’s funniest workplace mockumentary
Fetch the acoustic guitar and twiddle your TM Lewin tie because it’s the 25th anniversary of The Office. Yes, it’s a quarter of a century since we were introduced to Wernham Hogg paper company’s David Brent – a friend first, boss second, probably an entertainer third.
