On-Set with David Brent

Can TV antihero David Brent follow in the footsteps of Alan Partridge and The Inbetweeners with a leap to film as the wannabe rockstar/ toiletries salesman goes on tour? Total Film plays roadie to writer/director/star Ricky Gervais on set in glamorous Wat

this is Lavichem, for all your cleaning products. All your toiletry needs. Tampon dispensers, urinal lozenges, you name it, we’ve got it.” It’s a suitably grim rainy day in December 2014, and Total Film is getting a guided tour of David Brent’s new office from the man himself. Well, to be more specific it’s multi-tasking writer/ director/star Ricky Gervais, who’s slipping in and out character as he shows us around. “I thought they were deodorants – they’re not,” he laughs, proffering a selection of lubes. In a run-down former telecoms building in Watford (doubling for Brent’s native Slough), a makeshift office has been put together and populated with unfamiliar faces. This isn’t Wernham Hogg, where David Brent was once top dog. Some 13 years after The Office came to a close with the Christmas specials, the hapless former friend/boss/entertainer is at the bottom rung of the ladder as a travelling toiletries salesman.

“A new Dawn,” cackles Gervais, as he introduces Kaz (Mandeep Dhillon), the receptionist at the new place. He also greets Tom Bennett’s Nigel. “This is my protégé, the only person who really likes Brent… I love little mini-Brent. Everyone else thinks I’m a twat.” Gervais/Brent, dressed in a teabag-brown suit with lilac shirt and tie, continues the introductions around a bank of desks. “They’ve all got nicknames. Jacko. The Wolfman. This is Jezza, the Jizzmeister.”

So far, so Office. It feels like the character’s never been away, despite the flagship series – which reinvigorated the mockumentary format and made co-creator Gervais a global star – wrapping up over a decade ago. Sure, the character has popped up here and there – in live performances, ads, the occasional appearance in The

Office’s long-running US spin-off. But now he’s back with a feature-length film, following in the box-office-