Did David Brent want to be a reality TV star in The Office UK? Explained 

For two seasons and a Christmas special, The Office UK had a mockumentary crew diligently follow the dull and monotonous lives of employees at Wernhamm Hogg, a fictional paper company in Slough, United Kingdom.

The premise is rather idiosyncratic: What's so dazzling or juicy about people pushing paper (literally) at their desks for hours together? Turns out, the answer is one delusional general manager named David Brent.

Created by and starring Ricky Gervais with an ensemble cast, the show received cult status for its ability to capture everyday life with a wry humor and ironic realism. And of course, it inspired workplace sitcoms of the same name across the world.

So, fans are always excited to learn more about what inspired The Office UK, as well as other obscure facts, such as whether David Brent aspired to be a reality star (Spoiler alert: The answer is yes).

Disclaimer: All opinions in this article belong to the writer.

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David Brent: Paper company manager or aspiring reality star in The Office UK?

The main cast of The Office UK. From left: Gareth, David, Tim, and Dawn (Image via Amazon UK)

When Ricky Gervais first began conceptualizing The Office UK in the early 2000s, television was a changing landscape.

He was inspired by the dry humor that emerged from tired office workers (after working for a decade in an office). He also saw the potential for something more anthropological: How someone like David Brent, with his cringeworthy and overcompensating personality, shine when given the chance to be mildly famous.

"Throughout the nineties, I watched a lot of those docu soaps that were happening here where ordinary people got their fifteen minutes of fame," Ricky Gervais said during his appearance in the The Office Deep Dive podcast.

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Ricky Gervais explains his inspirations on The Office Deep Dive

In The Office Deep Dive, a podcast by The Office US actor Brian Baumgartner (who plays Accountant Kevin), Ricky Gervais talked about working on The Office UK and creating an iconic character like David Brent, complete with aspirations and desires.

Gervais explained David Brent's inherent personality as someone who wanted fame, which meant that the mockumentary format was the perfect way to explore what goes on in his head. The exaggerated theatrics, overreactions, and oftentimes scripted reality TV shows inspired him, and he adapted them to a more somber, realistic setting.

In a way, The Office UK was more real than reality television, because not only was most of the script improvised, but it also went beyond theatrics and left in the awkward moments. Ricky Gervais elaborated on his thoughts on reality TV and the origins of David Brent, saying:

"There was this culture of misbehavior media that was being rewarded."

Fans can see this sentiment appear on the workplace sitcom, and in the way Brent created a personality for the cameras. He was more or less a peacock, with his ruffled feathers, his loud but often ignorant humor about race or disabilities, and a face that gave every feeling away. Gervais explained that it was because Brent just wanted to be universally loved, and by extension, famous.

The mockumentary crew coming right into his workplace became a sort of audition for Brent. This resulted in two seasons of comedy about his missteps, awkward stares right into the camera after a joke where nobody laughed, and envy when someone else got the spotlight. Remember his iconic moves in season 2 episode 5 (Charity), when he tried to out-dance Neil?

Talking about David's psyche, Ricky Gervais explained:

"Initially it was about a man who was doing stuff to be loved and famous, and deep down he wanted to be popular and he thought that (the mockumentary) would be a short cut to it."

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David Brent in The Office UK Christmas special echoes these sentiments

David's optimism did not die out even after the mockumentary crew left Wernham Hogg, and his redundancy chased him out of the office. In the Christmas Special, he came back to the Swindon branch and chatted with the cameras once again, talking of his escapades in the months after the wrap-up.

That's when fans find out that he used his redundancy package (yes, around £42,000) on creating a music label named Juxtaposition Records, making his own single, producing records, and hiring PR for it.

When the crew asked him how many records he sold, he mumbled a number that sounded suspiciously like fifty, before Gareth jumped in to add that he purchased five, all of which were still in his garage.

Later, he used the "fame" from the mockumentary to try and go on a blind-dating event akin to The Bachelorette, which again alluded to his reality star dreams in The Office UK. He dressed up as Austin Powers and got extremely humiliated when he was not chosen, yelling at the woman before she tipped not one, but two beers on him.

But by the end, he crash-landed into actual reality and became a more somber version of himself. When Tim and Dawn finally got together, he didn't try to upstage them with any shocking news of his own. Instead, he smiled proudly at the camera, showing a shift from aspiring reality star to just another office worker.

Writer and creator Ricky Gervais talks about playing David Brent (Image via YouTube/BBC Comedy Greats)

In the podcast, The Office UK star Gervais questioned what came after a character's 15 minutes of fame. Is the character still likeable despite their flaws and mishaps? For David Brent, the answer was yes. By the end of the show, fans see behind his facade and understand that he was just another man who wanted to be loved.

"And once you realize that David Brent just wants to be discovered and become famous, and needs a hug, it all seems to make sense, really," Ricky Gervais said.

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So while David Brent ended his story on the workplace sitcom as a normal man in the background, he tried his hardest to become a famous man who came from nothing. But unfortunately, reality television stardom was not on his cards.

Stream all episodes of The Office UK on Prime Video.