The entire first series of the award-winning spoof fly-on-the-wall docu-comedy set in the offices of Wernham Hogg, a Slough paper merchants. Ricky Gervais' excruciatingly funny... more
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superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, i...
superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, i...
OFFICE
A documentary film crew follows David Brent, regional manager of the Slough branch of
... more
Paper Merchants, Wernham Hogg as he and his 'team' go about their business. As David works he manages to alienate, belittle, embarrass and offend just about everyone ...
OFFICE - SERIES 1 AND 2
A documentary film crew follows David Brent, regional manager of the Slough branch of
... more
Paper Merchants, Wernham Hogg as he and his 'team' go about their business. As David works he manages to alienate, belittle, embarrass and offend just about everyone who works with him... Features the episodes 'Downsize', Work Experience', 'The Quiz', 'Training' 'New Girl' and 'Judgement'. In 'Series 2' David and his team are joined by employees from Swindon following the merger of the two branches. Much to David's dismay he has a new boss, Neil, who is very popular with the others. Features all the episodes from the second series of the popular television comedy.n
superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base that the programme acquired watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional Slough paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television programme. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth, a paradigm of Andy McNab's readership; the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch; and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim, whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Alan Partridge or Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character than either. Partridge and Fawlty are exaggerations of reality, and therefore safely comic figures. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller On the DVD: Series 1 is tastefully packaged as a two-disc set appropriately adorned with John Betjeman's poem "Slough". The special features occupy the second disc and consist of a laid-back 39-minute documentary entitled "How I Made The Office by Ricky Gervais", with cowriter Stephen Merchant and the cast contributing. Here we discover that Gervais spends his time on set "mucking around and annoying people", and that actress Lucy Davis (Dawn) is the daughter of Jasper Carrott; as well as seeing parts of the original short film and the original BBC pilot episode; plus we get to enjoy many examples of the cast corpsing throughout endless retakes. There are also a handful of deleted scenes, none of which were deleted because they weren't funny. Series 2 is a single-disc release, but the extra features are enjoyable nonetheless. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant feature in a gleefully shambolic video diary--highlights of which include Gervais flicking elastic bands at his cowriter and taping their editor to his swivel chair. The ubiquitous Gervais also mockingly introduces some outtakes (mostly of him corpsing throughout dozens of takes) and a series of deleted scenes, notably of Gareth arriving in his horrendous cycle shorts. --Mark Walker
superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base that the programme acquired watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional Slough paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television programme. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth, a paradigm of Andy McNab's readership; the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch; and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim, whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Alan Partridge or Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character than either. Partridge and Fawlty are exaggerations of reality, and therefore safely comic figures. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller On the DVD The Office, Series 1 is tastefully packaged as a two-disc set appropriately adorned with John Betjeman's poem "Slough". The special features occupy the second disc and consist of a laid-back 39-minute documentary entitled "How I Made The Office by Ricky Gervais", with co-writer Stephen Merchant and the cast contributing. Here we discover that Gervais spends his time on set "mucking around and annoying people", and that actress Lucy Davis (Dawn) is the daughter of Jasper Carrott; as well as seeing parts of the original short film and the original BBC pilot episode; plus we get to enjoy many examples of the cast corpsing throughout endless retakes. There are also a handful of deleted scenes, none of which were deleted because they weren't funny. --Mark Walker
superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base that the programme acquired watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional Slough paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television programme. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth, a paradigm of Andy McNab's readership; the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch; and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim, whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Alan Partridge or Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character than either. Partridge and Fawlty are exaggerations of reality, and therefore safely comic figures. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller On the DVD The Office, Series 1 is tastefully packaged as a two-disc set appropriately adorned with John Betjeman's poem "Slough". The special features occupy the second disc and consist of a laid-back 39-minute documentary entitled "How I Made The Office by Ricky Gervais", with co-writer Stephen Merchant and the cast contributing. Here we discover that Gervais spends his time on set "mucking around and annoying people", and that actress Lucy Davis (Dawn) is the daughter of Jasper Carrott; as well as seeing parts of the original short film and the original BBC pilot episode; plus we get to enjoy many examples of the cast corpsing throughout endless retakes. There are also a handful of deleted scenes, none of which were deleted because they weren't funny. --Mark Walker
superficial level, it disdains all the conventions of television sitcoms: there are no punch lines, no jokes, no laugh tracks and no cute happy endings. More profoundly, it's not what we're used to thinking of as funny. Most of the fervently devoted fan base that the programme acquired watched with a discomfortingly thrilling combination of identification and mortification. The paradox is that its best moments are almost physically unwatchable. Set in the offices of a fictional Slough paper merchant, The Office is filmed in the style of a reality television programme. The writing is subtle and deft, the acting wonderful and the characters beautifully drawn: the cadaverous team leader Gareth, a paradigm of Andy McNab's readership; the monstrous sales rep, Chris Finch; and the decent but long-suffering everyman Tim, whose ambition and imagination have been crushed out of him by the banality of the life he dreams uselessly of escaping. The show is stolen, as it was intended to be, by insufferable office manager David Brent, played by cowriter Ricky Gervais. Brent will become a name as emblematic for a particular kind of British grotesque as Alan Partridge or Basil Fawlty, but he is a deeper character than either. Partridge and Fawlty are exaggerations of reality, and therefore safely comic figures. Brent is as appalling as only reality can be. --Andrew Mueller On the DVD: Series 1 is tastefully packaged as a two-disc set appropriately adorned with John Betjeman's poem "Slough". The special features occupy the second disc and consist of a laid-back 39-minute documentary entitled "How I Made The Office by Ricky Gervais", with cowriter Stephen Merchant and the cast contributing. Here we discover that Gervais spends his time on set "mucking around and annoying people", and that actress Lucy Davis (Dawn) is the daughter of Jasper Carrott; as well as seeing parts of the original short film and the original BBC pilot episode; plus we get to enjoy many examples of the cast corpsing throughout endless retakes. There are also a handful of deleted scenes, none of which were deleted because they weren't funny. Series 2 is a single-disc release, but the extra features are enjoyable nonetheless. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant feature in a gleefully shambolic video diary--highlights of which include Gervais flicking elastic bands at his cowriter and taping their editor to his swivel chair. The ubiquitous Gervais also mockingly introduces some outtakes (mostly of him corpsing throughout dozens of takes) and a series of deleted scenes, notably of Gareth arriving in his horrendous cycle shorts. --Mark Walker
Advantages: extra footage, deleted scenes, interviews, seeing the man who wrote most of The Office in the flesh, and having all six episodes of the first series within easy reach! Disadvantages: You might spasm too much with laughing
The Office is the one of the first DVD's I rushed out to get - and one of the only things I am happy to watch time after time. Written in the style of a documentary, it's a comedy with no jokes. The Office is quite simply genius.
Anyone who has ever worked in an office will be able to identify with the characters and situation. Set in a fictional paper merchants in Slough, the whole thing is filmed with cameras constantly present, documentary style. ... ...It's just another day in the office ...
David Brent (Ricky Gervais) is the boss and a more noxious irritating smarmy man you couldn't hope to meet. Not only does he think he's a good boss, he also thinks he's the funniest, coolest, most in-touch boss there has ever been. He's actually such an appalling human being that you can find yourself watching the programme through your fingers. It makes you cringe. It's humiliating, embarrassing, and the ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: funny, different, great performances from cast Disadvantages: an acquired taste
...character when he was on the show, but my overall impression was "fat, racist git". I didn't find him particularly hilarious. When I heard about "The Office", the comedy set in the office of a Slough-based paper merchants, I wasn't particularly interested in ever watching it. Co-written by Gervais and Stephen Marchant, and co-starring Gervais, I just didn't expect much from it.
Then, one night, there was nothing else on tv apart from an episode ... ...that it is one of the funniest comedies to emerge in recent years. And most of its humour lies in the fact it is so damn TRUE, as anyone who has ever worked in an office can testify. Why do I think its so true to life? Well, I can take the various elements of "The Office" and apply them to my own experience . . .
~ REAL LIFE ELEMENT # 1 - THE BOSS WHO THINKS HE'S GREAT (BUT REALLY ISN'T)
David Brent (Gervais) thinks he is the bees knees. He does ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Very original script with good humour Disadvantages: Not many special features on the DVD
The Office is a situation comedy set mainly in the fictional Wernham Hogg Paper Merchant's Office of Slough. Although the program may look like a typical day in a typical office, the sort of things that happen there could not be more surreal or unusual!
The series is done in an unusual style: a fictional documentary crew are filming the so-called typical day-to-day workings of the office to give the inside story of the Paper Merchant trade, and ... ...Brent (Ricky Gervais)- Brent is the manager of the Wernham Hogg Paper Merchant's in Slough. He attempts to be a good manager by cracking bad jokes and generally trying to be funny around the workplace, whilst motivating the staff as best as he can. It never works properly, as he is mainly putting on a show for the documentary crew!
Gareth (Mackenzie Crook)- Gareth is an ex-Territorial Army member and he fully respects Brent's authority and believes ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Following hot on the heels of the repeat series on BBC2 comes this fantastic 2 DVD set. If you have not sampled the genius that is David Brent, or are part of the ever dwindling group of people who have only seen one episode, where have you been?
David Brent is the utterly hapless branch manager of a paper merchants in Slough. He attempts to laugh his way through the day, but his humour invariably falls upon deaf ears - watching him try to be 'one ... ...first DVD takes us through the first series, as the title suggests, with only a couple of add ons, which I'll come back to later. Episode 1 introduces us all to the unhappy paper workers, most notably David Brent, his assistant Gareth - who is obsessed with his territorial army training, and a couple of other characters who, at this stage, appear to be only 'bit parts'. It quickly becomes apparent that all is not well at The Office and David is fighting ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Brent is dead Disadvantages: Long live the Brent
The first series of The Office was an enormous cult hit originally and soon became THE comedy show of the time, getting a rerun which hoisted it right up there. In fact, so enormous was the show's popularity that the pressure came on for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to create a follow up series, and there were significant questions around whether the pair could possibly repeat the success, so quirky and unusual was the concept, and so wonderful ... ...Series 2 could possibly match the shock value and uniqueness of the original, as there is only so much that can be achieved with that format and those characters. And lo and behold, it was but a shallow retread of its predecessor, struggling to achieve much more than parody the first in the line.
That said, it was still probably 100% better than most of the other stuff which passes for TV comedy these days and will still be treasured by those who ...
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Actor(s): Ricky Gervais, Martin Freeman, Mackenzie Crook, Lucy Davis, Robin Hooper, Sally Bretton, Joel Beckett, Oliver Chris, Ralph Ineson
Director(s): Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Genre: Comedy
Classification: 15 years and over
Production Year: 2001
Running Time: 2 hours 56 minutes
Video Category: Television
Plot: A documentary film crew follows David Brent, regional manager of the Slough branch of Paper Merchants, Wernham Hogg as he and his 'team' go about their business. As David works he manages to alienate, belittle, embarrass and offend just about everyone who works with him... Features the episodes 'Downsize', Work Experience', 'The Quiz', 'Training' 'New Girl' and 'Judgement'.
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): 2 ENTERTAIN VIDEO; SONY DADC
Release date: 14/10/2002
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: BBCDVD 1115
Barcode: 5014503111526
Languages
Main Language: English
Subtitle Language: English
Hearing Impaired Language: English
DVD Description
The entire first series of the award-winning spoof fly-on-the-wall docu-comedy set in the offices of Wernham Hogg, a Slough paper merchants. Ricky Gervais' excruciatingly funny portrayal of the tragically inept manager David Brent drew favourable comparisons with John Cleese's role in Fawlty Towers, and THE OFFICE is assured a similar place in the hall of fame of UK comedy. Whether dealing with his overly officious sidekick Gareth, the engaged yet lovelorn receptionist Dawn or Tim the disillusioned sales rep, handling the opposite sex, the potential redundancies as the imminent merging of two branches looms or the ultimate office cliche--the training day--Brent never fails to demonstrate his desperate inadequacies. All six fantastic episodes: 1. Downsize - David Brent learns that his staff are threatened with redundancy but he's been promoted. 2. Work Experience - Donna arrives at Wernham Hogg for work experience. 3. The Quiz - It's the Annual Quiz night but it's also Tim's birthday too. Will the young Tim and Gareth beat Brent and Finchy
Technical information
Special Features: Exclusive Documentary, Deleted Scenes
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo English
Award information
BAFTA: Best Comedy Performance 2001 (Ricky Gervais)
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Listed on Ciao since : 26/10/2002
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