Specials (The Office)
Encyclopedia
The Office Christmas Specials are the two-part final episode of the British mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...

 comedy television series The Office
The Office (UK TV series)
The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...

. The specials were commissioned after the series' creators, Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...

 and Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...

, announced that they would not write a full third series of the show. The first 45-minute part was broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 on 26 December 2003, and the second 50-minute part was shown the following evening. The episodes are presented in the style of "revisited" documentaries common on British television, in which popular "docusoaps" (e.g. Airport
Airport (TV series)
Airport is a British documentary television series based at London Heathrow Airport, the world's busiest international airport, broadcast by the BBC and syndicated to Dave, part of the UKTV network....

), are brought back for one-off specials several years after the series concluded. David Brent
David Brent
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series...

 (Gervais), forcibly made redundant at the end of the second series, is now a travelling salesman of cleaning supplies. Tim Canterbury
Tim Canterbury
Tim Canterbury is a main character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Martin Freeman. He is a 30-year-old sales representative for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and lives with his parents. He spent one year at a university before dropping out, and one day hopes to return to get a psychology...

 (Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman
Martin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...

) and Gareth Keenan
Gareth Keenan
Gareth Keenan is a fictional paper salesman on BBC's comedy The Office. He is portrayed in the series by Mackenzie Crook as a gaunt, self-important team leader proud of his alleged lieutenant status in the Territorial Army...

 (Mackenzie Crook
Mackenzie Crook
Paul Mackenzie Crook is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.-Life and career:...

) are still working at the offices of Wernham Hogg, and former Wernham Hogg receptionist Dawn Tinsley
Dawn Tinsley
Dawn Tinsley is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Lucy Davis. She is a receptionist for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and is engaged to warehouse worker Lee. Her American The Office equivalent is Pam Beesly...

 (Lucy Davis
Lucy Davis
Lucy Clare Davis is an English actress. She is best known for playing the character Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy The Office and as Dianne in the horror-comedy movie Shaun of the Dead.-Career:...

) now lives in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, though is flown back to Britain by the documentary crew to reunite with her old colleagues.

The episodes won various awards, including two British Academy Television Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...

, a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

 award, and a Television Critics Association
Television Critics Association
The Television Critics Association is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian journalists and columnists who cover television programming...

 (America) award. They were also nominated for a British Comedy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...

.

Part 1

Three years after the documentary that made them famous, a different documentary crew revisits the office to see what the staff members are doing now. After being made redundant from Wernham Hogg, David Brent
David Brent
David Brent is a fictional character in the BBC television mockumentary The Office, as well as a recurring character in the NBC series of the same name, portrayed by co-writer and director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the BBC series...

 (Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...

) is now a travelling salesman who, following a failed album featuring a cover version of "If You Don't Know Me By Now
If You Don't Know Me By Now
"If You Don't Know Me by Now" is a song written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and recorded by the jersey soul musical group Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, which became their first hit after being released as a single in 1972 topping the R&B chart and peaking at number three on the Pop chart.The...

", now leeches off what little fame he has in a series of demeaning nightclub appearances alongside a crowd of minor celebrities. Dawn Tinsley
Dawn Tinsley
Dawn Tinsley is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Lucy Davis. She is a receptionist for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and is engaged to warehouse worker Lee. Her American The Office equivalent is Pam Beesly...

 (Lucy Davis
Lucy Davis
Lucy Clare Davis is an English actress. She is best known for playing the character Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy The Office and as Dianne in the horror-comedy movie Shaun of the Dead.-Career:...

) lives in Florida, trapped in a miserable existence with fiancé Lee (Joel Beckett
Joel Beckett
Joel Beckett is an English actor, best known for playing Jake Moon in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders from December 2004 to October 2006 and as Lee in the British comedy series The Office...

), who is bouncing from job to job as they live with his sister rent-free and hidden from immigration authorities. In the office, Gareth Keenan
Gareth Keenan
Gareth Keenan is a fictional paper salesman on BBC's comedy The Office. He is portrayed in the series by Mackenzie Crook as a gaunt, self-important team leader proud of his alleged lieutenant status in the Territorial Army...

 (Mackenzie Crook
Mackenzie Crook
Paul Mackenzie Crook is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.-Life and career:...

) is now the general manager and Tim Canterbury
Tim Canterbury
Tim Canterbury is a main character in the BBC sitcom The Office, played by Martin Freeman. He is a 30-year-old sales representative for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and lives with his parents. He spent one year at a university before dropping out, and one day hopes to return to get a psychology...

 (Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman
Martin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...

) is still trapped in a job he hates with an obnoxious, pregnant desk-mate Anne (Elizabeth Berrington). Despite leaving Wernham Hogg three years ago, Brent still visits the office to see the staff and "keep up the morale". This does not sit well with Gareth or David's former boss Neil Godwin (Patrick Baladi
Patrick Baladi
Patrick Baladi was born on 25 December 1971 and is an English actor.Baladi was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. His father is a gynaecologist from Libya, and his mother was a midwife...

), and it appears to the viewer that Brent misses his old job. When the programme makers offer to fly Dawn and Lee back for the office Christmas party, along with the appearance of David Brent, the scene is set for a reunion.

Part 2

Brent tells Neil that he has a date for the Christmas party, when he really does not. With Gareth's help, he searches Internet romance websites for suitable women, and lines up three possible candidates for blind dates. He takes the first to dinner, but accidentally steers the conversation to breasts. He calls from his car to arrange a meeting with the second woman (voiced by Julia Davis
Julia Davis
Julia Davis is an English comedy writer and performer, best known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy Nighty Night.-Background:...

), who does not realise who Brent is, and mocks the manager from The Office documentary. Brent hangs up. On the third date, Brent immediately finds the woman unattractive and boring. Dawn returns to Britain and arrives at the office. She and Tim immediately recreate old times by winding up Gareth. Brent pushes Neil's patience too far when he brings his dog into the office to show to the staff. Neil bars Brent from the office and later stops anyone who does not work for Wernham Hogg from going to the Christmas dinner. At the party, Brent anxiously awaits his fourth blind date. When the woman, Carol, arrives, she and Brent hit it off straight away. Lee tells Dawn that it is time to leave. She and Tim say awkward goodbyes and she leaves with Lee.

In the taxi, Dawn opens her "Secret Santa" present: an oil painting set from Tim with the words, "Never give up" written next to Dawn's sketch of Tim, which she had made earlier in the day. Brent walks his date to her car and she gestures through the window for him to call her. Returning to the office, he is subject to yet another cruel remark from Chris Finch
Chris Finch
Chris Finch is a character in the BBC comedy show, The Office. He is played by Ralph Ineson.Finch is an outside sales representative for the paper merchant Wernham Hogg, in whose Slough office the show is set, and as such is frequently on the road...

 (Ralph Ineson
Ralph Ineson
Ralph Ineson is an English actor best known for playing the character of Chris Finch on the BBC television programme The Office. He has a rich Yorkshire accent and is an avid supporter of Leeds United A.F.C. Ralph Ineson was educated at Woodleigh School, North Yorkshire...

) about his date, and Brent, in a moment of catharsis, and having finally have had enough of his insults, tells him earnestly, "why don't you fuck off". In the final scenes, Dawn returns to the office and kisses Tim, indicating that she has left Lee. The whole office staff gathers for a group photo. Brent asks to have a group photo of just him and the "old gang." While David, Tim, Dawn, Gareth, and the rest of the office members gather round for the photo, David finally manages to make his colleagues laugh, with an impersonation of Frank Spencer.

Production

Gervais and Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...

 had announced that they would not write a third series of The Office
The Office (UK TV series)
The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...

 even after the overwhelming success of the second. In an interview published in Heat
Heat (magazine)
Heat is a British entertainment magazine published by German company Bauer Media Group. it is one of the biggest selling magazines in the UK, with a regular circulation over half a million. Its mix of celebrity news, gossip and fashion is primarily aimed at women, although not as directly as in...

 in May 2003, Gervais announced that he and Merchant had begun writing a two-part Christmas special. Merchant joked that it would be the "same jokes, but with tinsel and David Brent in a Santa outfit".

The episode was filmed between August and September. Scenes set in Florida were filmed in Spain. Anne, Tim's new desk-mate, was written to be an even more annoying character than Gareth.

In November, a woman from Saffron Walden claimed to have been sent the scripts in the post by mistake. She announced to The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...

 that she intended to sell them for "thousands" of pounds. The Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

 purchased the scripts and revealed most of the plot in an article published four weeks before the broadcast. In a BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 Newsbeat
Newsbeat
Newsbeat is the flagship news programme on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. Newsbeat is produced by BBC News but differs from the BBC's other news programmes in its remit to provide news tailored for a specifically younger audience....

 interview, Gervais asked for a newspaper or magazine to buy the scripts and return them to the BBC as "a little Christmas present to the nation".

Reception

The second series of The Office averaged four million viewers per week when it was broadcast on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

. To get as many viewers as possible for the Christmas specials, the BBC's director of television Jana Bennet allowed it to be moved to BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

. The ratings were deemed a success by the BBC; Part 1 received 7.17 million viewers and a 30.97% share of the audience, and Part 2 received 6.14 million viewers and a 25.66% share. Part 1 was the third most popular programme on Boxing Day for 16–34-year-olds.

A "clerical error" at the BBC meant Gervais was initially omitted for consideration for a British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy Performance in 2004. Crook, Freeman and Davis were all long-listed for the award. A last-minute reprieve allowed Gervais to be included on the list, and he went on to win the BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance. Freeman had also been shortlisted. The specials themselves won in the Best Situation Comedy category. The award was presented to Gervais, Merchant and producer Ash Atalla
Ash Atalla
Ash Atalla is an Egyptian-born television producer responsible for producing several British TV series such as The IT Crowd , The Office and Man Stroke Woman. He has also made cameo appearances in productions such as Ricky Gervais' Politics...

. At the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

 Programming Awards, the specials won in the Situation Comedy and Comedy Drama category. The RTS jury commented "The problem of writing a final episode of a much-loved comedy was fully resolved. Tim gets Dawn. Dawn gets her oil paints. Brent gets the girl and we are carried along with it all. Perfection!" Gervais was also nominated in the Comedy Performance category. The specials were nominated for Best TV Comedy at the British Comedy Awards
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...

, but lost to Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

, though Gervais and Merchant won the Writer of the Year award.

The specials were broadcast in the United States on 21 October 2004. BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...

 merged both parts into a single 135-minute episode entitled The Office Special. The making-of documentary How I Made the Office, previously released on the Series 1 DVD, was broadcast after the special. In a preview in The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...

, Cynthia Littleton highlighted the scene where Brent tells Carol that the documentary crew edited his antics to make him look like a fool as being true to life, comparing it to the various real-life lawsuits filed by Survivor
Survivor (U.S. TV series)
Survivor is an American version of the Survivor reality television game show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. The series premiered on May 31, 2000 on CBS...

 contestants against CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. Littleton also commented positively on the scene where Gareth asks Brent to "call ahead", and Brent's music video. In The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Alessandra Stanley wrote that the specials are "as wickedly, painfully funny as the first two seasons and, in tiny, fleeting doses, as delicately tender".

The following year it was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie
This is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, which is awarded since 1992. The category was originally called Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special.-1980s:*1980: The Miracle Worker...

. Gervais and Merchant received a nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special
This is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.- Award winners:1970s*1979: The Jericho Mile – Michael Mann, Patrick Nolan1980s...

. The episodes won in the Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-series & Specials category at the American Television Critics Association
Television Critics Association
The Television Critics Association is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian journalists and columnists who cover television programming...

 Awards. The award was collected by Lucy Davis.

The specials appeared at #4 on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

's 100 Greatest Christmas Moments polls in 2004.

Home media

The specials were released on VHS and DVD in the UK on 25 October 2004 by BBC Video. Extra features include an audio commentary on Part 2 by Merchant and Gervais, a retrospective documentary entitled The Office: Closed For Business, the full video for Brent's version of "If You Don't Know Me By Now", a featurette about the cast and crew collecting the Golden Globes, and a studio version of "Freelove Freeway"—Brent's song from Series 1, Episode 4. It was released in the United States on 16 November 2004 with the same special features.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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