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00:00It was definitely right to end it when it did.
00:02I mean, to come back now would just be mad, wouldn't it?
00:05Everyone must agree that you couldn't carry it on for years and years.
00:08There was nowhere really left for us to take it.
00:11Just not even a debate for me that that was the right thing.
00:14There's not even a part of me that thinks, I wonder if we could do another one.
00:17We just mustn't.
00:41We were nobodies and we hadn't written before, hadn't directed before, hadn't acted before.
00:45But the reason they sort of let us sort of get on with it was, I think, because it didn't
00:48cost much.
00:52David Brent.
00:53One of the important things, one of the cast requirements, was that we weren't known, we weren't famous.
00:58There's no point in doing, you know, a mock documentary if Julia Sawala is playing the receptionist or something.
01:04Dawn Tinsley. Receptionist.
01:07What?
01:08Do this for age, don't you?
01:09Yeah.
01:10I'd say, at one time or another, every bloke in the office has woken up at the crack of dawn.
01:15What?
01:17The first time The Office went out, it wasn't greatly, greatly watched or greatly fated.
01:23After the focus group, they could have pulled it, because we got the joint lowest score ever of any focus
01:30group, along with women's bowls.
01:34So...
01:34It was pretty bad.
01:35It must have been worrying for the BBC.
01:37You're a twat, Gareth. You're a twat on a knob end.
01:39I'm still not listening, so it's not offending me, sir.
01:41Right, okay, so you won't hear this.
01:42You're a cock, you're a cock, you're a cock.
01:46You're a cock.
01:47It was this show that was on BBC Two Monday night that, with no stars in it, that could easily
01:54have fallen by the wayside, and it didn't, and it really, it hit.
01:58Gradually, you become more known, and that's really weird, and no one has their own experiences.
02:02I knew the show had sort of taken off when, erm, I was walking home one night, and I was
02:07recognised by, I don't know what the PC word for them is, a tramp.
02:14A hobo. A homeless.
02:17And, er, it was a proper one, like a young one, right?
02:21And he went, oh, oh, man, I don't know where the homeless watch it, through Dixon's window or something, right?
02:26But he went, oh, man, he said, I've just been to HMV, I've just nicked loads of your DVDs.
02:30I get recognised all the time. I just moved into a place which is very close to a sixth form
02:35college.
02:37And that's a night, that can be a nightmare at lunchtime or home time.
02:42They, they'll go crazy if, if a pack of them see Gareth walking past, so I've learnt all the detours.
02:48It is sort of creepy being recognised. It is creepy having your picture taken when you walk along the street.
02:54Erm, but I think, as long as your hand looks well, there's nothing to worry about, I think some people
02:58caught it,
02:58and, er, some people that get in trouble, you know, with the tabloids or whatever, they do sort of caught
03:03it.
03:04You know, what you don't do is just go out every night and be seen coming out of Stringfellows
03:08or trying to know how it's pissed up or coked up, erm, you know, with a, with a slapper.
03:13Do you know what I mean? Just, all your...
03:14I thought I'd do something with my Tuesday nights.
03:18Because at the moment, you know...
03:20You will never work in a place like this again. This is brilliant. Fact. Yeah?
03:25And you'll never have another boss like me, someone who's basically a chilled out entertainer.
03:30I have so many favourite scenes. I don't really know where to start.
03:33My favourite scenes from The Office.
03:35My favourite scenes, er...
03:36Free love on the free love freeway
03:40The love is free and the freeway's long
03:43I got some hot love on the hot love highway
03:47Going home cos my baby's gone, she's gone
03:51Free love on the free love freeway
03:54My favourite episode is still, er, episode four, series one.
03:58I thought episode four of series one was really good.
04:01So boring, but everybody sort of says episode four with the whole, erm, training and the whole guitar thing.
04:14Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah. That's pretty nice.
04:18My favourite scene from that episode is probably the scene where I come in and declare that my fantasy would
04:23be...
04:23Two lesbians, probably. Sisters. I'm just watching.
04:28But it's still, it makes me cringe and laugh.
04:33Okay, erm, Tim, do you have one?
04:37Yeah, I never thought I'd say this, but can I hear more from Gareth, please?
04:41I like the comic relief episode a lot. I thought that was funny.
04:45I'll tell you what I love. What?
04:46That crazy dance you do.
04:49It has just been shown so many times. I'm almost...
04:53Please.
04:54Whoa. Please.
04:54No, I'm sick of it.
04:56No, I'm sick of it.
04:56Well, don't mention it, then, or I will...
04:59It is just...
05:00Steve, well, don't mention it, then!
05:02Just please never do it. I know... I never want to...
05:04Cut.
05:11I honestly don't remember doing it.
05:13I look like an orangutan. I didn't realise my legs were so short. I got a pot belly. I got
05:19a ridiculous look on my face. And as I walk along the street...
05:21That is actually how you look.
05:22I know, but I didn't know that.
05:26The last episode of series two is incredible.
05:33Don't. Don't close. Just have a word in there.
05:36I love the point when he takes off his microphone and everything goes quiet for that last few minutes.
05:48It seemed to last an age when you were watching it, and it was like, surely, surely we can't do
05:53this. People are going to be turning, you know, up their volume and thinking, what the hell's happened to my
05:57TV?
05:58Everyone since then has said to me, what did you and Martin say to each other in that room? And
06:03it's so weird, because suddenly, when someone asked me, it felt private. That's really ridiculous. Why would it feel private?
06:09It really did. And I was just like, oh, you know what, I'm just going to keep that to myself.
06:13That's really stupid. Why would I want to keep it to myself? It's acting.
06:18If you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain. Do you know which philosopher said that?
06:24Dolly Parton. Yeah.
06:27And people say she's just a big pair of tits.
06:30We were going to end it after the second series, but we thought, you know, we could have a bit
06:35of a cliffhanger and make that complete and then come back and tie up the loose ends of the story.
06:40When we came to write the specials, we took a visit, do you remember that? We took a visit to
06:43Slough with our friend, comedian Jimmy Carr. He drove us around Slough because he's from Slough.
06:48We're looking for a place where Brent, David Brent, would live. And so we've got quite a nice new estate,
06:54not too expensive, but not too terrible. And where are we here, Jimmy? Because this looks perfect for me.
06:58Little Fisher-Price mansions, really. This is nice. You know, it's kind of a mix of flats and houses, and
07:03they're all sort of new buildings.
07:05But this is perfect. I think David Brent lives here.
07:10We tried to get everyone together for a read-through. We normally have a little read-through and everyone just
07:14reads the scripts and we'd make any changes.
07:15But I think it was impossible this time. Everyone was doing films. Mackenzie was off making films. Lucy was in
07:21America, I think. Just couldn't get anyone together.
07:24I think it was me, Ricky and Howard Brown from the Halifax ads. I think they were the only three
07:30people there.
07:30And I only made the last hour because I was opening a leisure centre in Newport Pagnon with Big Keith.
07:35Yeah. That's not his real name. It is now. Is it? Changed it.
07:50Two series, two Christmas specials. Never paid attention.
07:54It's different on every other shoot. If you make a film or anything like that, it's all filming the camera.
07:58Do I want...
08:01Did you see a nod of me?
08:04Look at that one.
08:09When we got to the Christmas specials, you know, I thought it would be different. Nah.
08:13Still winding up Martin, still trying to ruin scenes by just selling him stupid stuff.
08:19On the way to work, maybe Ricky had had one of his great ideas, as I like to call them,
08:26and thought,
08:27Not only can I make the working day longer, but how can I make it less productive?
08:33All right, please.
08:35Because he knows I will sometimes laugh at what he does, he kind of created a whole new bit of
08:41business.
08:43I'm coming up, so you better get a party started.
08:47Shamal.
08:57He can't stop a scene. He can't stop a take. He has to go with it. And if he laughs,
09:01it's his fault.
09:01So it was not only Shamal, there was also Tim, Tim, Timbo, Timber. And so it made this kind of
09:10sound like Timber.
09:12Hey. Timbo. Timber.
09:20It was also Tim Canterbury, so we should be led forward to the Bishop of Canterbury.
09:24Tim Canterbury. Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Muzurewa.
09:32Bishop Muzurewa, he said, which is a name I have not heard since about 1980, and it really made me
09:37laugh. Bishop Muzurewa. Like that.
09:41It's all good stuff. It's all good work.
09:46Okay. So that's what I'm going to say.
09:49Okay. Is it, though?
09:53There he is. Mr Canterbury. Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Muzurewa.
10:00Bashing the bishop.
10:06I don't know exactly why he did that. It's because he wanted to see me, the more professional and experienced
10:12of the two actors, fumble.
10:15Three, nine, take ten.
10:20And then there's pictures. There's always pictures drawn, lots of pictures of unspeakable things.
10:26One, two, three, nine, take eight.
10:28Ricky likes to draw pictures and then present them to you, nonchalantly, so the camera can't see. Just below the
10:35camera level, he'll present something horrific.
10:39Not right, is it? Not right.
10:42I've got those pictures. They're safe. They're my Diana letters.
10:53From the start, I know that everybody had quite liked to think of a romantic ending.
10:58I think a lot of people initially thought that David Brent was the focus of the show, but really, for
11:02us, I think it was always the Tim and Dawn love story and their sort of storyline was kind of
11:06the heart of the show.
11:09I've just heard you were leaving.
11:12Why me?
11:13Say it isn't so.
11:14It goes around fast.
11:16It's true?
11:17Yeah, yeah.
11:19Were you going to tell me, or...?
11:21God, yeah.
11:22Steve Merchant had rung me and said, oh, I think we've shot ourselves in the foot a bit by sending
11:28Dawn and Lee off to Florida, because now we've got to get her back.
11:31The cost of living out of here is so cheap. You can live in a pit and... In fact, our
11:36situation here is almost as good as it was in Slough, isn't it?
11:39Definitely.
11:40It's just suddenly struck us that if a documentary crew is making a documentary, they can invite people back.
11:45What if we were able to arrange for you to go back?
11:49For a million reasons we can't go.
11:51What do you mean, arranging?
11:52Well, if we were able to take care of everything, would you want to go back?
11:55Yeah, of course.
11:57Let's talk about it first.
11:58Is that a genuine offer?
12:00Documentaries do that all the time. People think they don't interfere, but of course they do.
12:03Yeah.
12:04I was always worried about, it's funny, interfering, watching wildlife documentaries.
12:09When I was growing up, I was thinking, they'd go, there's the lion.
12:13He's seen the young antelope.
12:16And I was thinking, if I was watching that, I'd go, run, there's a fucking lion!
12:21And they never did.
12:23And I hated it when the lion got there and at this little creature in front of everybody.
12:26And I said to my mom, why didn't they stop it?
12:28And my mom said, well, you can't interfere with nature.
12:30And I thought, oh, I'd like to see the lion turn on David Attenborough.
12:33And what do they do then?
12:34The crew would go, sorry, David.
12:35I'd go, he's eating the old bollocks!
12:37So it's okay to be ripped apart of your little impala.
12:40But if you're a ward-winning David Attenborough, they get the lion off you.
12:43One law for Attenborough, one for the little impala.
12:48A new dawn.
12:50She looks a bit a younger model there.
12:54I'm not a model.
12:57Not as bright as dawn, I think.
12:59When I first got the scripts for the specials, I was just like, yeah, let's see what happened.
13:03I didn't know anything that was going to happen.
13:05And I decided to take it to my little local coffee shop and read it.
13:10And it was a joy.
13:13And then as soon as the bit came where Dawn was getting out of the car to come back to
13:17Wernham Hogg to see everybody for the first time, I just had these tingles up by his spine.
13:23Hello.
13:26No, Lee?
13:27No, he's at his mum's.
13:31I was like, oh, my God, what's going to happen?
13:34That's mad, because actually reading something doesn't normally make me have that reaction.
13:38And then I cried.
13:40So, this has been nice.
13:41It has.
13:42Good night, isn't it?
13:43Yeah.
13:45Good seeing you again.
13:46Look after yourself.
13:47I will.
13:48Have a good life.
13:49I could keep in touch.
13:50I might.
13:53I will.
13:55Any way.
13:56After the second concluding part of the Christmas special went out.
13:59It's been nice seeing you, Dawn.
14:00Good to see you.
14:01I got about 14 texts on my phone from various people, you know, just saying I'm in tears and I'm
14:08crying.
14:08My mum and dad had been out at some friends' house and they'd asked for it to be put on.
14:13The moment where Dawn had come back into the party to get her man was just this roar that had
14:19gone up of joy.
14:24Careful, she's got things.
14:27Not only me.
14:35We sort of worked really hard all the way through to just make sure that the love story was kind
14:38of quite classic in its own way.
14:39Quite traditional.
14:40Yeah.
14:41It's sort of Shakespeare or something.
14:44I like Shakespeare.
14:45Yeah.
14:45Yeah, I love it.
14:46Just like Shakespeare.
14:47What Shakespeare are you thinking of?
14:48I know you're a big fan.
14:49I do like Shakespeare.
14:50Yeah, you're a big fan of Shakespeare.
14:50Don't be fooled by this image.
14:52I love all the Shakespeare stuff.
14:53Yeah, and what do you...
14:54More like Romeo and Juliet.
14:56That is what I felt Tim and Dawn of Romeo and Juliet.
14:59Yeah, in what way?
15:00Huh?
15:00You've read Romeo and Juliet.
15:02Have you been familiar with that?
15:02Yeah, I've seen it.
15:03I've seen it.
15:04Yeah.
15:05What happens in Romeo and Juliet?
15:07Lots.
15:08Lots of stuff.
15:09All the...
15:10They, um...
15:12They, uh...
15:13They meet and they, um...
15:16They sort of fall in love.
15:17Mm-hmm.
15:18But, uh...
15:19Cos it's olden days.
15:22They, uh...
15:23All dressed...
15:24They're dressed differently, but...
15:25And then they...
15:26After they meet, it's about two hours of all Shakespeare stuff.
15:29Mm-hmm.
15:30I can't understand what they're saying cos it's all...
15:32Um...
15:33Gobbledygook, but...
15:34It doesn't matter in that because love is...
15:38Um...
15:38Blind.
15:39And deaf.
15:40So it doesn't matter what you...
15:41Right.
15:41And then, um...
15:42I think she plays hard to get for a little while.
15:44She's on the balcony high up and he's going,
15:46Why are you up there?
15:47She's going,
15:48Well, come up if you want some.
15:50And she lets her hair down.
15:51And he climbs up.
15:53And...
15:54They're straight to it.
15:55Sure.
15:56Gives her one.
15:57Do you like it?
15:58Oh, so I put that on you.
15:59Brilliant.
16:01Twice.
16:01I was already wet, so the joke's on out.
16:07Great.
16:08Tart.
16:09Oh, I could've...
16:16The fact that for a long time it was bleak in many ways,
16:19And then I think some journalist wrote that the weather broke.
16:23And I really liked that phrase.
16:25That out of everything that happened, it was like,
16:27Oh my God, suddenly, without being completely over the top,
16:31Brent had some hope in his life.
16:33He told Finchie to fuck off, which is probably the best moment for me.
16:36That is probably the only scene where I got a little bit of an adrenaline rush just saying it.
16:41Just saying...
16:42Chris!
16:42Look.
16:43Why didn't you fuck off?
16:48The important thing was a change in attitude, that's all.
16:51Nothing definitive.
16:52He just went to Finch, fuck off.
16:54That was great.
16:55I really enjoyed doing that.
16:56Well, I am beginning to wonder if your heart is really in this job.
16:59Dawn, you shouldn't be behind there.
17:01You don't work here anymore.
17:02Look at the plots.
17:03Look at him.
17:04Look at his little boss face.
17:05At the end of the Christmas specials, there was no particular closure for Gareth,
17:09Where there was for Brent and for Dawn and Tim.
17:13But I think that's absolutely right.
17:15I think about what Gareth could be doing now.
17:17And the fact is he'd be at Wernham Hogg in much the same position as he always was.
17:23And I think, look at it again, in, you know, ten years' time,
17:26he'd still be pretty much the same position.
17:29I think that Dawn and Tim will just naturally have moved in together
17:33and that won't be a thing where it's like, let's spend 18 months together
17:36and decide about this.
17:37I think he would still be there, but maybe a bit happier.
17:41It'd be nice to go, yeah, no, she's got a man and now she's like a famous illustrator,
17:46but let's face it, it's Slough and it's the real world
17:49and I think that probably she still will be doing Receptionist,
17:52but she'll be dead happy.
17:53Wrong.
17:55Well, that's a bit ungracious.
17:56Well, they've got no idea.
17:57Where do actors go, oh, I think they'd be doing this.
17:59I'll tell you what they'd be doing.
18:00Whatever I fucking write.
18:02Learn the lines.
18:04That's a bit ungracious though.
18:05Everyone's allowed to think where they might be in the future.
18:08Don't try and wormy way into writing.
18:10You're actors.
18:11You're hired hands.
18:14Um, now, you know what this is about.
18:18Obviously you've seen the picture, you know, of David on the computer.
18:21I saw it, I saw it.
18:21Yeah.
18:22And we've all had a bit of a laugh about it, haven't we?
18:24It's funny.
18:25Yeah.
18:26There's a time when the joke has to stop though.
18:28People ask me if I'm worried about escaping the shadow of the office
18:31and is Gareth my Rodney Trotter.
18:33I had a dream the other night that I went on to do my own studio-based sitcom,
18:40Gareth Keenan in Better Gates, where he opens a private investigation agency,
18:44a studio-based Canned Laughter.
18:47And this sitcom was so poorly received that it ended up with the original series being stripped of its BAFTAs.
18:54It's hard to escape the, er, part of dawn.
19:00I think you have to be a little bit careful with your choices.
19:03I'm not going to play a receptionist for a while.
19:05The happiness about being involved in it, I think, outweighs the worry about escaping the shadow.
19:12If people are still shouting Tim at me when I'm 55, I would kind of understand it,
19:16but I would sort of, as well, wonder why I haven't done something else
19:20that makes them not shout Tim at me, do you know what I mean?
19:24There are a lot worse things to be shouted at me, do you know what I mean?
19:27There are a lot worse.
19:28Most of them were shouted at me during the filming of the show.
19:30If I'm always associated with Gareth Keenan, then that's not a bad thing to be associated with.
19:38So what becomes of you, my love, when they have finally stripped you of
19:48The handbags and the glad rags that your grandad's had to sweat so you could buy
19:55I was in New York last week for the Peabody Awards, and at the end of it, there was a
20:00girl who'd come up to me
20:01and had got lots of DVDs to sign and everything, and she said that she'd flown from Canada to New
20:06York
20:07in order to come and meet someone from the office, and that made me just take a step back and
20:12go,
20:13Oh, my God, that is mad.
20:15I don't know that I'll do anything that has that kind of impact in that kind of way again.
20:19Where can you go from there? I don't know.
20:21We sort of predicted that we'd be pleased with it, but no, you could never dream of a success.
20:26There is a kind of fondness knowing that we were all part of the same gang, you know, in a
20:30job well done.
20:31Sing a song of sixpence for your sake, and take a bottle full of rye
20:42Four and twenty blackbirds in a cake, and bake them all in a pie
20:54They told me you'll miss school today
20:59So I suggest you just throw away
21:03The handbags and the glad rags, that's your brand that's had no sweat to the night
21:11Oh my God, that's my God
21:18Oh my God, that's my God
21:18He just gave a bottle full of rye
21:39Oh, baby. Bye-bye.
21:48Oh, bye-bye.
21:55I'd be hard-pushed to find a job where you laughed as much every day,
22:00and where you were genuinely that happy to go to work.
22:03I can't see a situation where we'd all be back together
22:07as one team working together, and, yeah, that's sad.
22:11That's sort of the end of an era.
22:13And I'm just sorry that we won't work together again.
22:17It's pretty sad.
22:21Get over it.
22:23Harsh.
22:24We're not going to work together again.
22:28Next.
22:29It's tough.
22:30Where are you going?
22:32Huh?
22:32Is that it, then, is it?
22:33Yeah, I've got a sauna.