"That was what was interesting to us how does having a camera trained on you affect the way you present yourself to the world," says Merchant.
The mockumentary format was common in film – Spinal Tap was an influence when creating The Office – but it was yet to take off in TV comedy, and the pair specifically wanted to spoof the real-life docusoaps that were popular at the time, shows like Driving School and Airport, that were giving "normal" people their 15 minutes of fame. No laughter track, shaky handheld cameras – and a cast that looked like people you might actually sit next to at work. Workplace comedies were nothing new, but Merchant and Gervais were trying something different, a sitcom that was filmed like a documentary. When Merchant later started a trainee producer course at the BBC, the pair collaborated on a short comedy film, Seedy Boss, for part of his coursework – which later became the basis for The Office.
Merchant and Gervais met working at London radio station XFM. Two decades since that first episode, the show is still finding new fans – even though its premise of a life lived day in, day out in the same office block now feels like it's describing a slightly bygone era.
It also spawned 10 international versions – including a US series that ran for nine seasons and – despite ending in 2013 – was the most streamed show of 2020 in the US, racking up 57 billion minutes' worth of views. It won Golden Globes, Baftas and a Peabody award, launched hugely successful careers for its cast and creators and influenced scores of comedy shows. Though it ran for just 14 episodes, its cultural impact is immense. Instead, it is perhaps the most extraordinary comedy success story of the 21st Century. But 20 years since the first episode aired, there is nothing ordinary about The Office. This was a show intended to look as mundane, as unremarkable, as ordinary as possible. We got very excited at one point because Martin Freeman was doing a talking head and in the back of the shot was a dying plant." "I think we probably leaned into the drudgery and the drabness of it more than we needed to.
"We were obsessed with it feeling real, and our dream was that someone would stumble across it and think it was a real documentary," Merchant tells BBC Culture. In creating their mockumentary sitcom, set in the world of Slough paper company Wernham Hogg, he and Ricky Gervais had put blood, sweat and tears into making their fictional office as realistic as they could – from the background whirr of the photocopier and the fluorescent lighting to the bored, weary faces staring into their computer screens. "Oh, well it wasn't very funny then," the woman replied.ĭespite the somewhat damning review, Merchant was over the moon. Shortly after the first episode of The Office aired on British television, on 9 July 2001, its co-creator Stephen Merchant was sitting on a train when he overheard a woman asking her friend if she'd seen "that documentary about that crazy guy in that office?" The friend corrected her, explaining that it wasn't a fly-on-the-wall look at office life but, in fact, a new comedy show.