Welcome to the World, Neil-lar 

Like The Office before it, the first series sneaked onto the schedules with no so much a fanfare as a whisper; word of mouth and critical recommendation followed and the soon-to-be cult viewership began to fall in love with this cast of wierd and wonderful characters; series two aired and the plaudits and awards have been thrust upon it along with hundred of thousands of extra viewers; and now a Christmas Special has been comissioned and you can be sure it will be BBC Three’s

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Tags: BAFTA, BBC3, Britcom, Extras, Fawlty Towers, Gavin Stacey, James Corden, Matt Horne, My-Family, Ruth Jones, Sitcom, The-Office

Christmas Review #3 of 12

“Happily ever after” is how Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant brought The Office to an end as Dawn and Tim finally got together and even David Brent himself found someone special in that most memorable of finales, four year’s ago.  Trying to force lightening to strike in the same place a second time has proved tricky but there were many great little moments throughout the two series of Extras that led me to think that the Christmas Special finale would be well worth watching and

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Tags: Andy-Millman, Ashley-Jensen, BBC, David Tennant, Extras, Hale and Pace, Ricky-Gervais, Stephen-Merchant, The Ivy, The-Office

Retrospective Review #1 of 5

I’ve never watched The Thick Of It before and so this seasonal special was my first introduction to the murky world of these spin doctors and politicos. I caught a few minutes of the repeat viewing while channel hopping last night, so thought now was as good a time as any to post a review. The programme had very strong echoes of The Office, with its faux documentary style and handicam work but perhaps better comparissons would be drawn with Yes, Minister, which told a

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Tags: BBC4, Chris-Langham, Comedy, Commander-In-Chief, George-Bush, Sir-Humphrey, The-Office, The-Thick-Of-It, West-Wing, Yes-Minister

Statham and Joanna Going Down In Flames

The makers of Green Wing, much like The Office before it, seem to have decided to call it a day after two series and a one-off special and I, among many others, are going to miss it like mad. The 90-minute finale essentially had two main and entirely unrelated stories bringing themselves to their conclusions, interspresed with typical surrealism from Sue White and also the girls in HR. The funniest moments came from Statham and Joanna as they were on the run following their

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Tags: Alan-Statham, Channel-4, Comedy, Green-Wing, Joanna-Claw, Julian-Rhind-Tutt, Mark-Heap, Pippa-Haywood, Stephen-Mangan, Tamsin-Greig, The-Office

Orlando Bloom Having a Laugh

There’s something quite comfortable about Ricky Gervais these days.� His outlook seems to be one whereby he doesn’t want to join in with the common or garden celeb culture of the day.� He never turns up on adverts, rarely makes cameo appearances, only goes to red-carpet events when he’s been nominated for something and by all accounts turns down work by the bucketload if he’s not 100% bought into the art of it.� Following a career that went from zero to stratospheric in almost no time at all, this is hugely commendable and may be one of the reasons why I respect him so much.� The main reason though, is that he is simply so good at what he does.� The new series of Extras has hit our screens and started off where the last one left with a few well aimed potshots at the celebrity lifestyle he resists so much himself.�� Add into the mix a range of A- and B- listers only too happy to poke fun at themselves and you’re onto a winner.� However, the style of humour doesn’t quite have that level of cringeworthiness of The Office (but then, what does?).� Occasionally, the laughs are crowbarred in with little subtelty and seem designed to shock rather than be funny but may be that’s a bit of prudishness on my part.� In the end, it is Gervais’ character of Andy Millman that makes this so great, his quiet desparation and sarcasm is a joy to behold and, I may stand alone here, is just as funny a character as David Brent.

Tags: Andy-Millman, bbc2, Celebrity, Comedy, David-Brent, Extras, Ricky-Gervais, The-Office