When The Office celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year, there was one notable absence from a BBC documentary special – Ricky Gervais. Now, the star and creator has addressed why he skipped filming and hit out at claims that it was a “snub to the BBC”. Gervais, who created and starred as cringe-inducing paper company boss David Brent in the award-winning sitcom, celebrated the mockumentary’s anniversary on his YouTube channel with a video looking at the character’s 25 greatest moments.
Meanwhile, on BBC Two, stars Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Crook marked the occasion with a special of Remembers..., looking back at their time on the BBC sitcom from 2001 until 2003. In a new interview, Gervais explained why he didn’t appear in the BBC’s documentary, describing the idea that he chose not to take part as “nonsense”. It wasn’t a snub to the BBC,” he told Saga Magazine.
They added they were “keen to clarify that there is no rift” between Gervais and the broadcaster. Hailed as one of the best sitcoms of the 21st century, The Office followed the lives of employees working in the Slough branch of fictional paper company Wernham Hogg, with David Brent as their incompetent boss. Crook played Assistant to the Regional Manager, oddball Gareth Keenan, while Freeman played Tim Canterbury, a jokester with a crush on office receptionist Dawn (Lucy Davis).
Elsewhere in the interview, Gervais revealed that he plans on marrying his longtime partner of 30 years, author Jane Fallon, to avoid inheritance tax when one of them dies. We haven’t done it yet,” he said. How more married can you be?
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Some marriages don’t last a year. I’ve got to get around to marrying, before I die.” Earlier this month, Gervais’s The Office co-star Davis revealed that she had been diagnosed with incurable breast cancer, which had “metastasised to my bones, specifically to my spine, right hip, and my ribs”. And cancer has not disappointed in that regard; there’s a lot I have learned from it, and I’m grateful for that..” A number of her colleagues shared their support in the comments, with Gervais posting a love heart emoji while Jenna Fischer – who played Davis’s character on the US version and was diagnosed with stage one triple positive breast cancer in 2023 – wrote: “Beautiful post.
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