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Paul Jones spoke with Ricky Gervais about the return of his iconic
comedy creation in David Brent: Life on the Road.
D onald Trump has literally just been
announced as president-elect. Could
there have been a better – or worse
– time to talk to Ricky Gervais? “Mad, innit!”
he says, before launching into a humorous
analysis of the people that voted for Trump,
the shock result, and what it means for the
world. Yet, before I have to intervene and
steer the conversation away from American
politics, Gervais himself is done with the
subject: “Anyway, enough of that.”
Tonight we’re talking David Brent: Life
on the Road, Gervais’s full-length film that
resurrects the eponymous character he
co-created with Stephen Merchant for the
BBC mockumentary series The Office. 15 years
on, Brent is now a sales rep for Lavichem, a
company that specialises in sanitary products.
In 2016, Brent is a disconsolate character,
immersed in a mid-life crisis and clutching at
the futile dream of taking his band, Foregone
Conclusion, out on a self-funded tour.
“I think people are going to be surprised
how they sympathise with David Brent this
time around, and how much pathos there is
in a middle-aged man who’s got one last shot
at fame,” says Gervais, who speaks as if he’s
sporting a perpetual smile. “And by fame, he’s
really going for happiness. He just thinks fame
will sort it out for him, and of course it won’t.
It was nice to put that together in a movie as
opposed to just a TV special."
That was a question I'd wanted to ask Gervais
when I finished watching the film. Given the
subject matter, did he not consider an extended
TV or Christmas special? Why did he opt to bring
Brent to the big screen?
“Ambition, I think more than anything else. I
wanted to make a sort of classic British movie
and it not be just another episode of The Office.
And that’s why it had to be 15 years later, so
enough had happened for it to be a movie."
The final episode of The Office, the show
that introduced Gervais and his brand of cringe-
inducing humour to a global audience, aired in
2003. Since then he has written and starred in
several other television series, directed
films, performed stand-up comedy,
authored a series of children’s books, and
even voiced a video game character. While
he returned briefly to the role in 2013 for
a Comic Relief special, it has been a long
time since Gervais has played David Brent.
“I can play him in my sleep but I had
to change him a little bit as well because I
had to acknowledge that a man would’ve
changed in 15 years," he explains. "What
I decided to do was make him just a little
bit more broken. I wanted fame to have
broken him a little bit over the 15 years,
and I gave him a nervous laugh.
“So although he’s the same guy, I made him
slightly more honest because that reflects how
documentaries change as well. A documentary
is much more intrusive these days. 15 years
ago, you wouldn’t have talked about a man’s
breakdown on one, but now documentaries
start with it. Things on TV like Big Brother, for
example, tend to start with people at their
lowest ebb.”
He pauses momentarily: “People live their
lives like an opened wound to be famous these
days. What’s nice about Brent is we realise
he was never that sort of person. He’s not
the modern person who would do anything to
be famous. He wants to do something to be
famous; he wants to be a rockstar, bless him.”
Gervais also wrote 15 songs for an
accompanying album. Aside from the hilarious
(and politically incorrect) lyrics, the structure of
the tracks is very good. These are melodies you'll
be humming for hours after you've listened
I think people are going
to be surprised how they
sympathise with David
Brent this time around
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14 DECEMBER 2016
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