Good news for those who have been hoping that Ricky Gervais would resurrect David Brent – his professionally inept, fame-craving, talent-lacking, socially awkward character from the original British version of The Office – for one more desperate, misguided shot at glory.
David Brent: Life on the Road, a new film that debuts on Netflix on Friday after the streaming video service snapped up the international rights, catches up with the former "boss from hell" 13 years after the end of the critically acclaimed BBC comedy mockumentary.
Towards the end of the TV show’s run, Brent lost his job as manager of a paper company and ended up as a travelling salesman, flogging cleaning and personal-hygiene products to businesses.
More than a decade later, he is still stuck in the same job but, against all odds, clings to his dream of rock stardom. As the film begins, is about to embark on a self-financed tour of the UK with his band, Foregone Conclusion – a group of session musicians in it for the money.
He has also recruited a talented rapper called Dom in an attempt to add some street cred as he chases his dream of fame and fortune – with a documentary film crew once again recording every excruciating moment. However, some things have changed.
"This is a lot different to The Office," says Gervais. "This is a lot more about Brent's private life. I always said I would never bring The Office back and I never will. It would be a bit weird to revisit a sitcom with all the same people at the same desks after 15 years – it would be really hokey and sad.
“Brent is like a Frankenstein of everyone I knew growing up and working with. He’s just a very ordinary man who is trying to achieve something he’s not capable of – and that’s quite funny.”
The 55-year-old British funnyman says Brent has become more confessional.
"He has changed," he says. "He is older – some would say a little bit wiser, but we find out what's happened since his days on The Office. He's had a little bit of a breakdown, which was on the cards. It's about how he coped with it and how he coped with fame and how he's still obsessed with it and how he still wants it, even though it's not his friend – and nor is the camera. He thinks it will be different.
“I think in the film we see slight changes, a slight evolution, a slight change of environment, but it’s always out of the frying pan in to the fire. ”
Gervais, as co-creator (with Stephen Merchant) and star of The Office and Extras, has won three Golden Globes, two Primetime Emmys and seven Baftas.
Although it ran on British TV for only two six-episode seasons and two Christmas specials, between 2001 and 2003, before Gervais ended it on a high, The Office is the most successful British television comedy of all time. It was shown in more than 90 countries and there have been seven international remakes. The American version, which starred Steve Carell, ran for 201 episodes over nine seasons between 2005 and 2013.
Gervais's other credits include the films Cemetery Junction, The Invention of Lying, Ghost Town and Special Correspondents, plus the TV comedies Life's Too Short and Derek.
Despite all of Brent’s faux-pas and his unwittingly offensive remarks, Gervais insists the cringeworthy soul is not a bad person.
“Brent’s been sold a lie,” he says. “He’s been sold a dream and he wants it and he hasn’t quite got it, but what I like about him is he never gives up and we explore that quality in the film, too.
“He falls over for our pleasure, but he stands back up, dusts himself off and has another go. I like him. He’s a bit of a man-child and he is clutching at straws, but I like him.”
artslife@thenational.ae
