A Night At The Office - Ricky Gervais

hi I'm Ricky J with me Steven merch hello creators writers directors star of the office if you're a fan of that show who isn't yeah then you've got a treat coming up because um it's the entire first series well if they're a fan Rick then they would have already bought the DVD and and already seen the shies I no no let me finish it's the entire first series but with extra bits we've got interviews of people we got it's a retrospective people talking about it aists talking about why um they think the office is genius not my words I'm not I do think it's it's brilliant do you know my favorite thing in the office go on you thought as much yeah yeah when I first saw the office uh I you know I was I was struck by how original it was on a bunch of different levels and I think upon first viewing I thought that's really great and then upon my 38th viewing realized how genius it was my first impression of the office was that it was a masterpiece and unfortunately as time passed by nothing interfered with that glow it was so fresh and new in terms of the style and for me it reminded me of a style of humor that I you know I I I think you know spinal tap Chris guest and those guys created I saw that show and I was like this is incredible when I first saw the office I thought finally there's something funny being done in the world I think the thing that I was most struck by is how original a character David Brent uh was Timothy all right have a quick word old office Walk This Way always start with a joke I've never seen a a character in a movie or in television who is that obsessed with what people think of him uh and I think a lot of the comedy comes from that he's got way too much selfawareness but way too little real self-awareness his self-image is I'm the boss but because I'm really funny and I'm a really funny blog I'm also immensely popular I can have a joke and a laugh with the people who you know I'm I'm supposed to have authority over and they love me for it and all that obviously is always wrong what up hey what's up I love that what's up Tim is the one that you hope you are in the office even though he's depressed and thinks his life is being pissed away in this place you love watching Brent but you don't want to be Brent you want to be Tim that didn't happen by actually it didn't happen because of my overwhelming Charisma do you know what I mean it happened because they wanted Tim to be the you know the kind of I suppose the emotional Focus or they they wanted him to be the audience yeah and he and he was you know hey dude give it back I'm just using it for a second it's got my name on it apparently they they had a completely different idea when they're writing it of the sort of person that that Gareth would be he was supposed to be a much much yeah bigger more Macho kind of guy and uh and and yeah so I've heard that when when I came in an auditioned they they changed their mind cuz if you're genuinely physically scared of somebody if it had like been Tim and Lee that kind of character then you just think I think he's going to hit Tim he's going to beat him up you know whereas it's kind of Tim and Gareth you think there's a man who thinks he's Napoleon but look at him that's the great way do you want to try that with me I'm fine well I'm supposed to witness you do it so I can take the box every single one of those characters is so perfectly cast and in a sort of new informal way hello ROM hog and Dawn just the perfect look the perfect pitch you know not so fabulous that of course everyone will be in love with her but you slowly fell in love with her while you watched her I've got kind of it's hot hand sorry right she don't touch my head with Dawn sometimes I wanted to give her a bit of a shake you know because she didn't pursue the guy that she really did want to she didn't even get out of a relationship she really should have done you can say something and she had Ambitions that she never really even attempted to pursue you changing your what's wrong with that I think the camera is like another character in the office it's a whole other member of our show um because it added so much depth I think to what people said and did obviously one of the key aspects of the show was the sort of documentary style and that had sort of been borne out of how we'd originally got it made and we shot something in a little documentary sty and we did that because it was a very quick way of filming you can get a lot done quickly in a documentary style you got to worry about the Finesse and then um and then over time we realized that the whole sort of documentary boom that was happening at the time the sort of docu soap things like driving school and the airport program were throwing up these amazing characters who suddenly were acting in a very specific way because of the fact they were being filmed I think the most extraordinary thing about the docum format obviously was Ricky's performance with the camera good well done well done again congrat than thank you because he was giving his own editorial version of how he thought he was doing so that you had his ghastly behavior and then on top of the fact that he thought that his ghastly Behavior was absolutely excellent and cool and interesting and complicated y finy finci comes in a ball of horrendous energy you know saying the crest things and Tim is able to go you getting this this is what I have every day of my life you know oh yeah speak to yourself we wanted the look and the feel of the of the office to be very oppressive and very drab and ordinary and boring they had such a definite idea of what it should be and it took 3 years to get it to to to the stage where they could actually make it that's what made his their success that they knew exactly what they were doing we didn't want anything sexy anything sexy or cool or rock and roll it was all anti that the opening titles uh they just blew me away I remember the first time I saw it [Music] the things you're seeing are so dull and gray but it's shot in this incredibly cinematic way and the slow pans and the low shot looking up at that horrible building it makes it look epic and the music is is very epic but what you're looking at is unimaginably dull there's no doubt about what this is about one of the first things that that Ricky ever did as the David Brent character he had a couple of scenarios in his head that used to play out for me when we work together one of which was his character his sort of CD boss character interviewing a woman and his slightly lascivious Lous manner which is actually something we downplayed in Brent Brent in the original form was a lot more sedy perhaps and he he later became but certainly that that scene where he's interviewing the girl it showed another side of David Brent because he didn't really know how to act right the interview see what we've got here H Karen rer curriculum V Brent doesn't think that that's creepy he thinks that's romantic he thinks he's a bit of a letharia he's thinking he's set in a mood for love he doesn't think this is SD or anything does he so uh he thinks he's going to go you're the most interesting man I've ever met and you're handsome with your little beard one of the things is it's a great physical performance by Ricky you know I mean obviously the gestures have now become slightly over well known the tie um and the again the looks to camera but he does a sometimes every so often he will do bigger stuff can you give us a no Dave can you give us a ring please go away good voke good laugh Dave it's Paul again I think I don't leave me alone it's fine it's fine that one there's loads and loads of moments just the way he'll be when a woman's around as opposed to the way he'll be when someone who he's frightened of will be around some higher status person will be around all that stuff yeah just like complete control of the body and it's all that now is it yeah I know it's all busy yeah just uh keeping up the morale can we have a chat yeah one of the things that we were exploring in the office is that cusp of Blue colar to White col caller regular guys working in an office instead of a factory or being a mechanic and what we did was we we showed the difference between the two worlds the world upstairs and the world um in the warehouse this is scary David uh don't tie any more cash up in stock unless you have to I'm sure you could lose more people from down here who's the foreman Taffy Taffy Glen what real Brom taic David Brent is caught between those two worlds because he wants to be a lad but he wants to mix with management as well and uh it comes to a head when he's down there with Jennifer Taylor Clark what you watching that's my dog shag and his dog oh Glenn I'm sure Dave's made it clear to you that you'll be losing Personnel it's the funny bit look at G's face he's trying to be cool and the lad but he knows it's wrong and he knows this thing sexism he's heard of that and he knows about misogyny he knows all those things he knows all the isms he just doesn't really fully understand them or go along with them all you take this upstairs we're a bit busy you don't look busy would you want me to get busy love sorry You' be next C and push I word with you now yeah that was out of order in a way no I'm not in trouble what in is is a good shagging I'm might bloody after to now see you later David Brent hates having a woman as a boss deep down he hates it and he hates being undermined Anyway by a woman he hates being under by anyone in front of the camera so it just his world just implodes in that episode one of the other themes in the office is comedy itself you know um uh you get a lot of things off your chest we had to go at uh people just shouting catchphrases Ricky leave it props just bringing in a funny thing brilliant oh God look at that pointing stuff out bad observation just pointing stuff out and expecting to get a laugh M Impressions uh Impressions particularly of other comedy characters Timothy right also the parameters of jokes you know good taste bad taste you what you think you can get away with what you should say what you shouldn't say I'd say uh at one time or another every bloke in the office is woking up at the crack ofor what people write good sense of humor as the thing they most want in their partners and very very few people actually have a good sense of humor and David Brent is a fabulously tragic and comic creation because he really thinks he's got a great sense of humor he thinks he's a great undiscovered comedian and he really isn't we were very careful that David Brent didn't say I want to be a comedian he'd say I'm a comedian he thought he was a comedian who just hadn't been discovered yet and now he's thinking that as this goes out this is his series Series this to him was like his own comedy show have you heard um oh have you heard uh Michael Jackson's new song he's doing he's teamed up with West down football team appar yeah doing on forever blowing bubbles I think Tim genuinely wants to be able to honestly laugh at stuff David says because he can see he's dying every day he sees that he's failing in all his uh attempts to be everyone's mate and to be funny and Tim sees he's failing you know and he wants to he would like to think he's going to really make me laugh now you know um what's white and slides down toilet walls I don't know Michael Jackson's like release George Michaels good oh the pregnant pauses that take place on on the office uh are just they're I I think that they're they're longer those comedic beats obviously have existed before and they're always sort of fun to play as long as there's a and feeling behind them uh but but the office takes those moments a little bit a little bit longer what nothing see you later see you later take care Finch was brought in to show people that Brent wasn't a bastard because like said oh um he was the boss from how he was awful he's not that awful he's a bit of a twist he wants to be loved he wants to be hugged he's like all of us he wants to be popular and his biggest mistake was um confusing uh respect with popularity okay whereas Finch is a nasty Man He's a Bully he's a narcissist he's spiteful speak to yourself it out as your boyfriend said last night I was just going to say that back to you yeah but I don't have a boyfriend you do can't get a bloody word eded mat oh was oh God did you by having talked about Finch for so long and to see Brent's excitement about this man to finally have him arrive and obviously be a crushing disappointment well what was fun about that is that whenever anyone says to you ah you love my brother he's just like you no he's not I'm going to hate him I don't want to meet him he's going to be a nightmare isn't he right and the other thing of course is that once again Brent's blind spot Finch doesn't love Brent like Brent loves Finch they're not a double act current champions this team here uh the dead parrots of life he sleeps if you un nail him to the perch he will be pushing up the daisies one of the main themes of the office was men as boys and women as adults so Boys Never Grow Up um their ego their um competitive Spirit their mom look at me never really goes away and nothing brings out that male ego like a quiz is which insect produces Gosa what is it I want you to answer finy what is it it's a spider the spider is an arachnid not an in yeah six legs or eight legs thank you we can't stand to lose a quiz men can't stand to lose if you're play triv Pursuits and I've heard myself say are you got a pie for who's Mickey Mouse's girlfriend I got Do's first three KN it's ridiculous and go right forget the P right just answer questions who knows the most you know we can't understand it um so we thought it was just a great way apart from being a good office observation it was to bring out um the absurdity of men my favorite episode staff training I think one of the things we did when we started writing was sit down and for ages we just talked about offices we'd worked in experiences we'd had and obviously all the same things kept coming up and one of those things that we both experienced in different places was training being taught things that you already knew um you know and how to work as a team and we just thought well that's kind of given as an episode the staff Training Day episode is is my favorite um and yeah it's because it's like a holiday it's only two doors down the corridor that everyone's gone on holiday but they're out of the office and it's like a day trip and you got a new face coming in to talk to them my name's Rowan and I'm going to be leading us through today's sessions under me go well as as David say actually has briefed me says that a lot of what we're covering I think you'll be familiar with but it's not necessarily a bad idea to recap anyway it's a breath of fresh air for for the people in the office but quite the opposite for David Brent who sees it as a real challenge to his authorities have this this guy coming in and telling them what he should be telling them I'm going to play a very bad Hotel manager who just doesn't care that and if it's a basil 4y type character then with their T maybe I should do it just for the comedy yeah well let me just you know just to kick things off okay I'll probably bring so much to this role anyway so right he couldn't stand it he couldn't stand competing with this guy I mean he bought him in to train him but then he wanted to be the boss and uh uh uh it was just so much fun to watch him squirm just to try and try and get in the front of the queue for attention right so well some some interesting points very interesting points up there it's not not not quite the point I was trying to make different points to be made uh I'm more really in customer care so am I it's Tim's opportunity I think just for a little sleep and to spend time at dawn and he can kind of you know nudge her and just just have little quiet ass signs with her you know that's perfect you know and I remember that sort of situation from school any any excuse just to spend time with a girl that you fancy is is the best thing ever you know the documentary style gave us a whole new element to that romance that I don't think people have been able to do before because suddenly they were under a microscope all the time and it meant that they couldn't Express themselves in the way that you can in a regular show in a regular show you can take someone behind the closed doors and you can declare your love and it's fine and it's between the two of you but in our documentary world that camera was always on them was always spying so it meant that everything was much more illicit that the time they shared together was always being observed I remember uh Ricky and Steve saying that they were really fascinated by non uh verbal communication you know um and just how body language is however much percent of our communication you know but it's a big one it's a big percentage of it and it's kind of the most important telling stuff that feels nice actually doing little B with your nails sh when are you going out then end of the week drink you going out then well tonight hopefully I thought hi are I've got kind of hot hand sorry just don't touch my head oh that way oh yeah I know that yeah oh yeah all right thank you very much thanks he so lovely no I'm not lovely I I no you are snotty yes noty I'll marry you [Music] notot I think if I were a viewer I would have enjoyed watching um Tim and Dawn and their Journey because because it didn't seem implausible and it didn't seem unreachable um they made it feel as if you could have these little things inside you these little stories that can come out um rather than it being this glossy Hollywood love story where they all end up brilliantly happy but everyone's unbelievably rich and beautiful and in you know Sunny lands and and it doesn't feel like where we are you know what I mean and so I think I would have enjoyed seeing it play out for someone like me the romantic drama particularly of the great Christmas special you know is one of the great romantic comedies of all time one of the great romantic stories of all time I mean I think the very best sitcoms have had profound things at the bottom of them I suppose that's what makes them good all of my favorite shows have always had a sort of romantic strand in them whether it be uh Northern Exposure or Moonlighting or friends um and I think it's one of the reasons one of the things we liked is the kind of soap opera feel that the best of those shows have you know soap opera not being a a sort of um a damning phrase at all that actually there's something about watching from week to week and building an understanding of that world and caring about those characters that's very unique to television and a lot of British comedies don't seem to do that enough and it seems strange you know you're coming week after week so you can draw people in and so we were very keen to have that romantic thread because we knew if we just kept going it would just become the sort of Beating Heart of the show in a way The Supporting Cast were actors um but uh sometimes it just said in the script uh man one woman one and um we gave them all names anyway just in case it popped up because we wanted that realism they came in every day they were sat in their seats and they'd really be typing and then um one thing in the script said uh someone leaves a message on answer phone and it was it was Yan and he was just cracking us up hello you're through to Keith I will be at training all day today please call me or leave a message and I will call you tomorrow one of our pet hats was Exposition where someone walks into a room and goes Jonathan you know your sister the one that went to The Gambia who's a doctor yeah and but we found out that we could do that with Keith because of his strange laconic tone he could remind the audience what had happened and what was embarrassing so it was funny anyway but for people who'd forgotten oh yeah so have you resigned then yeah I just got handing my notice make it official you embarrassed yourself and all didn't you asking dor out no I didn't ask her that was why does everyone think it was as a friend okay it was just as a friend ended with me taking a bite into the Scotch egg talking about watching peig practice boring isn't it just staying in watching Peak practice with your life yeah not for me I like it I just stay that was so good that was so good something would put us off or something would go and one of us would always kind of crack and lose it and it just we just couldn't get it right we got through three or four Scotch eggs and eventually they had to they had to give me ones back that had a bite taken out of them cuz they didn't have enough B for the number of takes it took so a couple of times I had to disguise a bite that had already been taken out and go in again boring isn't it just staying in watching Peete practice with your life yeah it is not for me I like it yeah I just stayed in at a big it was one of the 400,000 scenes that we couldn't do in under 4 hours cuz it was just a lot of laughing you know I was the worst corpser of all yeah I mean it's strange cuz my job is to try and make people laugh for my own Amusement but sometimes that goes wrong and I can see fear in their face or I found myself funny and I'd laugh and ruin a tech also even if you've written the lines if they're funny I still laugh what's the difference a dwarf is someone who has disproportionately short arms and life I'm so sorry what's the difference a dwarf is someone hell you can't help corpsing you can't help you can help put putting people off and making them C but if someone's finds something funny you know um I um how you celebrate that really I thought I found a a lump I exam myself regularly I Che that it's fine but terrifying just taking the cancer cancer with them old testicles what was that oh God that was a great one we do it again please we do it again damn Steve came over once and the office said Rick it's like making your own TV show isn't interesting enough for you you've got have other things going on um and so uh I yeah I do you know I multitask I try and get something in the can and I try and ruin the tap for my own Amusement action $9.99 pure silk so I had to snap it up okay he can't stand to do the same take twice and so he would change something about it every time action and uh Wally Burton two for 10 quid so I went yes please something would have to be different and that was the thing that would crack you up action and you know de knobby Burton comes around with a case two for why are you making it hard okay okay I'm sorry okay I just say I just say noie Burton who comes down with a case two for 10 i' got four do never I think sometimes we'll improvise an idea that will amuse him and that will amuse someone else and now Ricky thinks right okay got them now and then he will just keep going he just thinks well this for my own Amusement even though we're making a TV show the clock's ticking we're losing money we got to get it on BBC 2 he's thinking no that probably contributed to making it so funny as well because because it was so fresh each one of those takes that that finally got got into this the series was unique I've only just reached a point where I can watch it now and enjoy it and not really be thinking about how it was made or what what he was doing that day that was terribly annoying now I start to see it I think for the first time as audiences do and I can't remember some of the episodes I can't remember some of the scripts jokes amuse me now for the first time and so I've just got to a point where I can sort of see it and enjoy it and um and now I feel more proud perhaps than I did then because I really feel excited when I see a little clip of it somewhere because it just feels such a such a three dimensional world I think that's the thing you're always trying to chase as a writer is is a world in which people believe those characters exist and somewhere they're out there and that I think you know is is it sort of greatest for me at least our greatest achievement yeah I mean um I've only got fond memories of um everything from meeting Steve to um thanks winning the Golden Globes you know what I think really uh you know has changed American television is that by bringing over an American version of the office and really staying true to the tone of the original and then it becoming a success in America has totally revitalized comedy on television in the states I keep it on in my house sometimes just for Comfort just I just keep it on I'm not even necessarily watching it I'm just sort of listening to it because I I find it comforting to that's gonna that sounds weird yeah I I keep my pants [Music] on we've always been a bit staggered at how um successful the office has been worldwide and I think that um uh what I love about it the most is that the characters are essentially the same in the remade shows they rent is still Brent and Tim and Dawn still Tim and Dawn Gareth still Gareth even though the names aren't the same the characters essentially are one time or another every BL in the office is woken up with the crack ofor what reist [Music] put my ster inside a jelly again that's the third time he's done it wasn't even funny the first time I thought I found a lump this just a Qui it's a bit Brie walk down there see there I look back and there was a you know that Romance of we're writing our first sitcom you know um but uh I I couldn't be proud of the office I I honestly couldn't be proud of the office even if if it hadn't won any awards and had done and I I um I I think that uh I was proud when we'd finished writing it I I I knew that we'd done our best and it's the first time I've ever tried my hardest to end as well there was no nothing really about that job the entire job that was not very enjoyable especially in hindsight because you come away and you do Lots you know lots of other jobs I've done lots of jobs before and lots of jobs since and as always you don't fully appreciate things when they're going on you know you kind of you forget that oh yeah no this isn't all going to be as much fun as this you know I haven't worked on anything that was such a joy to work on since I've worked on some great stuff and and and had a great time but there was something very special about that um about working on that and and we knew it that particular job was full of nice people funny people smart people and people that I was glad to see every day um and sorry when that ended I'm still proud of it to this day and you know people ask me about it the whole time and I'm always happy to to answer their questions cuz it's uh it's it was a very important part of my life and still is my biggest ambition from a young age was to write honestly was to write and be involved with a sitcom that would be thought of you know fondly and possibly even amongst you know uh much loved sitcoms and and I feel like to some degree we've achieved that and so now I I don't know what I'm doing with the rest of my life now I've got to sort of recalibrate my expectations now I'm just filling up the hours before I die that's why I'm here today that's not that's not gloomy is it we got you got voice over though you got some voice over work yeah I got some got some voice over work bar pleas set [Music] [Music] out this is the worst part of my job

Channel: TheFbiFilesRepeat

Views: 2,013,344

Keywords: Night, At, The, Office, ricky, gervais, steve, golden, globes, 2010, Ricky Gervais (Author)

Id: akNwLopEda0

Length: 31min 30sec (1890 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 23 2011