This trilogy literally revisiting three sitcoms loved by hosts Joe Wilkinson and David Earl has been a real gem for TV comedy lovers/nerds. After Porridge and Fawlty Towers the final show looks at The Office. As David Earl explains, he wouldn't have left his own office job and gone into comedy if he hadn't seen this, sent a D-I-Y VHS to Ricky Gervais and landed a whole new career.
The doc has some great guests too. Stephen Merchant chips in to set the scene, how The Office started off as a training film on his BBC course and was so good it was commissioned, and Ricky Gervais, who was noticeably absent form the BBC's recent 25th anniversary tribute, invites Joe and David into his lavish Hampstead home to discuss the roots of the show. He has the Wernham Hogg bell on his desk and unearths his drawing for the Cuban heels he wanted Brent to wear and even a note from 1995 about an idea for a boss which thinks may have been his very first mention of a comedy about a desperate desk-based people-pleaser.
Of course, as has been been something of a sad running theme in these shows, when the duo hit the road (and the River Thames in a boat) to go back to the historic locations, they mostly find new-build flats where these programmes were initially made. Priceless pieces of our nation's comic past have been demolished. This is the case both in Teddington where scenes were shot and in Slough where it was set.
This doc is particularly poignant following the recent news that Lucy Davis, who played Dawn, has incurable cancer. Davis isn't in it and I assume this predates knowledge of her condition, but it does pay tribute to the late Ewen MacIntosh who played monosyllabic Keith. His brother says that Keith's timeless appraisal scene with Brent is used by human resource departments in real life to show how appraisals should not go.
What comes across most of all is Joe and David's friendship and love of the sitcom form. They've even had their own crack at it. Their family comedy, The Cockfields, is pretty good, but I suspect even they would admit that it is not a patch on the enduring triumvirate explored here. It would be great if they could do more - I'd suggest a quartet - Dad's Army, Only Fools and Horses, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads? and at least one Blackadder. Or maybe a whole series on Blackadder. And Are You Being Served? If they are too busy to do it, in the words of Mr Humphries, I'm free.
Joe and David’s Magical Sitcom Tour – The Office, U&Gold, Tuesday 18th August, 9pm on U&Gold
Picture: UKTV
