The most underrated line in this is when Rowan says "always a waste of time" meaning he's been here before and been derailed by David previously.

My best friend is coming down to visit tomorrow. We talk a few times a week, and usually see each other (and families) every few months.We first met when he started working on the same team I had got a job with only 2 weeks previously. The first time I met him,. I did a piss-take of his accent. This was over THIRTY YEARS ago - we were a Welshman and an Irishman working in London.

The song he mentions at the end "equality street" is worth a watch on youtube

BRILLIANT! "She's not dead!" 😂

My fave episode by some margin, superb writing and acting. Perfect 30mins.

"Don't be Blue Peter.. Now F*CK OFF!" (copyright Alan Partridge)

My wife and I had Freelove Freeway as our first dance at our wedding August 2008. The version done with Noel Gallagher!

This is one of the few episodes where the US has a direct equivalent. They didn’t remake it, but the theme of doing training and the boss (Michael or David) not being able to cope with not being the center of attention and trying to take it over was present in both.

What's so brilliant about this - and what separates it from the US Office in a wider sense - is that Brent's character is actually *clearly* not a bad musician. That would've been lazy comedy. He's gifted and accomplished at playing guitar, & has a good voice. The lyrics are a bit silly and formulaic, but nothing about it is bad musically. The comedy is in his lack of self awareness and self delusion, not that he's incapable.

Peter Purves from the instructional video is the same man Partridge claimed he sassed on a train, at the end of the series. Don't be blue, Peter.

"Every move you make, I'll be watching you" just like Lee 😂😂

My favourite episode in series 1..... if I remember correctly, this episode was the one that got everyone asking, "have you seen that show The Office".... even watching it all these years later, I roar with laughter 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Woot, we're at Training. I've never met anyone whose favourite episode isn't Training.

"Not every social situation requires a guitar" 🤣

I genuinely mean it, top quality dead air filling at the end. You learnt from the worst Partridge on what not to do.

Trivia: This is Ricky's favourite episode.

When you're done with The Office UK, you must watch Extras. As much as I love The Office, Extras for me is funnier. Brilliantly written and directed by Gervais and Merchant.

Freelove Freeway came as a CD, attached to the video/DVD at the time. Absolute banger.

Check out Life on the Road when you finish The Office. Catching up with David Brent as he attempts to revive Foregone Conclusion with his severance payout. An album was also released

The best US reaction of The Office....respectful ....and you got "it" from the first episode.

That last song was used on an advert & got popular, check out Ricky's equality street video song.ricky said his influences were david Bowie of which was in TV series extras is worth a good watch to.

Wow, in the UK, office banter is off the charts.

You have to do life on the road after the office which was a movie with David Brent after he left the paper merchants- he wrote the soundtrack and it is too funny- he even did music videos for them but you should wait until the office is complete 👍👍

I worked in an office in Amsterdam over 20 years ago and I'm still in touch with a large group of friends that I made there. We used to regularly go out drinking and smoking after work and we always had a great laugh.

His songs are on learn Guitar with David Brent on youtube. Brilliant.

😂😂well done fellas, I definitely thought it was a real documentary when the first episode came out😂😂🙌🏽👏🏽👏🏽knew something wasn’t quite real but was so close to the real thing that it kept me guessing 😂😂👍🏽

noel gallagher recorded freelove freeway with gervais in 2004, its on youtube!!

Guys. Do check out Gervais’ series ‘Extras’.

Fantastic episode. I've sat through hundreds of these boring training sessions. They are just box ticking exercises.

The actor who played Rowan saod in an interview that he still gets strangers coming up to him in public, shouting "I THINK THERE'S BEEN A RAPE UP THERE!!"

In Fargo they seemed to reference that 'Fox, Chicken and Grain' puzzle as it's the Tim actor that gets it right in Fargo; although he plays a very different character (Martin Freeman, in season 1 with Billy Bob Thornton. Great series!)

I haven’t watched the American 🇺🇸’Office’ so can’t compare but this broke new ground it was more drama than a sitcom filmed like a reality show sitcoms in the UK have disappeared because this was their logical conclusion

Ricky Gervais says he actually likes bosses like Brent because you can get away with murder. Pretend to be their friend, invite them to 1 of every 5 parties & instead of working you can say things like “hey, you’ve got a motorbike haven’t you?” & he will spend the next 30 mins talking about his Harley.

23:50 there was a similar thing happened at school when my sisters class went to assembly and they had a visitor, what happened was whenever the visitor talked or uttered a few words, he’d get a massive round of applause from her class. And they’d keep it going for as long as they could to delay him, so it delays them going back to class! 😂😂 He was like “hello and welcome…”👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 “My name is Bryan” 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 etc etc and they kept it going to the point where the teachers had to keep telling them to stop clapping lol

Great episode you watched and I loved the end of your video!

Check out the video of Freelove Freeway with Noel Gallagher on guitar, top song

If you haven't already, see 'Life On The Road' - a film all about David Brent's band, Forgone Conclusion. If time permits, might be a great time to watch Forgone Conclusion on tour during Spencer's UK tour.

There's a David Brent album that came out a few years ago 😂It's quite a good album 👍

You guys should check out the full version of 'free love freeway' with Noel Gallagher.

Bro's - I've made some of my closest friends through work, one of them became a director which very much helped my career... as they say, its who you know, not what you know. Maybe you should adjust the way you perceive work relationships!

The last song that he plays is called free love freeway there's a version he done with Noel Gallagher recording it in a studio do a reaction to that.

Whilst I don't love my co-workers, becoming mates with them makes the working day vaguely tolerable. I think your scepticism comes from America not having any workers rights! Most of you don't get sick pay, very little annual leave (holiday time), your minimum wage is dire, you don't have maternity or paternity right, or a maximum working week. In Europe, we have better workers rights. Even so, I'm one moderate lottery win from walking away from work!! 🤣😆 The bloke on the video the office staff were watching was Peter Purves, he was a presenter on Blue Peter (a kids show) in the 1970s. His name was pronounced "Purr viss", not pervs. 🤣

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was the first movie I remember that had additional movie during the closing credits, and a “tag” or post-credits scene which remains a classic.

What's the link between Derek in the comedy Derek, and Peter, the presenter of the video at the training session ? Answer: : Both have the surnames of a presenter of childrens tv show Blue Peter in the 1970's. with its classic line up of Peter Purves, (pronounced "per-viss", ), John Noakes, and Valerie Singleton. Derek's surname is Noakes and Peter Purves played himself in the training video. I'll get my coat !! 😂😂

I'm from UK & have worked in American offices. People were screwing left & right. I nailed someone 'in' the office.

David Brent illustrates the stupidity of corporate culture. Brent was an outstanding salesman, outperforming every other salesperson in the organisation. Because of this he was then promoted to the role of regional manager, of which he had no experience, skills or competence to do. The company lost a brilliant salesperson and gained an incompetent manager by choice and this is why 99% of all organisations are terrible - the practise of placing the wrong people in senior leadership roles because they were good at what they did and not because they are good leaders.

So true about the 80s videos, same when I was at school 😄

Equality street is real song and hilarious.

well in the uk we call something based on a documentary but is a comedy is called a MOCKUMENTARY !!

Great pep talk Dan 😂😂

That Alan Partridge video is masterful. How they captured such authenticity is nothing short of genius. Then there's the fat face prosthetic thing going on, it just sends a even weirder vibe. Having grown up in the 80s, you'd get these tacky shows out of the UK, Australia, and the cream of the crop, well that prize goes to Canada. I still feel uneasy about shows of theirs I viewed 35 years ago.

You asked about the post credit thing? Right away I thought of Frontline, an Australian mockumentary of sorts. More of a show really, that isn't much different, in parts, to Alan Partridge. Frontline, a mock current affairs TV show, predates both, and it is well worth a look, even for its educational value. On a side note, there was another British mockumentary that predates The Office, 'People Like Us'.

David Brent is a sweet guy fundamentally. I think he was just promoted too high - a living example of the Peter principle :D. He treated his managerial position as a chance to vent his dormant dreams of stardom, and it's just always inappropriate. Something within him knows he shouldn't be doing it, though, which is how he always manages to sabotage his own efforts to make things right.

Check out Freelove Freeway by Ricky Gervais ,,, and a certain Noel Gallagher on backing vocals

I think Monty Python’s Flying Circus was the first comedy show to have post (& pre) credits material

I was actually looking forward to Danny trying to remember the sign off on his own there, that would be a real treat....

I work for an American tech company here in England and its a soul sucking environment and the way its going is more and more American in the attitude to work. I actually had to tell my manager I'm here to work to live not live to work and as soon as I've clocked out work stoos even if I'm still on company properly as I'm no longer clocked in and getting paid. Strangely though we have got 1 bonus from America as we have all just got life assurance paid for 100% by the company.

"sisters"

The word for this kind of show is a Mockumentary 👍

The Free Love song is the best!

Your perspective on what work is is VERY American. It’s not entirely wrong, but in other parts of the world we’ve found ways to do both. We can have friends at work and get the work done.

Hey guys I’ve been subscribed to you for a long while now and I really enjoy your content. I don’t normally comment but if you are ever in the North of England the beers are on me! 🍻

Noel gallagher and ricky gervais released a full on sungle version of free love free way check it out

I wonder who got the power pack

BRENT ISN'T A DOUCHEBAG. THE DOCUMENTARY STITCHED HIM UP. HE WAS ACTUALLY VERY FUNNY, POPULAR, COMPETENT - AND AS THIS EPISODE SHOWS - TALENTED. THEY EDITED THE WHOLE THING TO MAKE HIM LOOK BAD.

the Comedy is that he (David Brent) is trying to be popular and liked at all costs by his staff a sentiment that seems to have been lost by the reactors . Its like a list of things not to do in management

Best episode 😂👍🏻

Other shows did post credit scenes before the Office, or scenes during the credits. You’ve reacted to one of those shows recently…’I’m Alan Partridge’. You’ve also reacted to Blackadder that had a post credit scene at the end of the finale in Series 2. An awful British soap called Hollyoaks has been doing pcs since the 90s.

@embracethesuck21 "You think you matter to anyone in your job"... sorry, to counter but I try every day to matter to (and help) my colleagues, at all levels. Agree this is hard/impossible at large organisations where you're a small 'cog' etc but that isn't true as a general statement. Also, made some of my best friends in "office" but that could be my outlook / luck or naivety! Really love your reactions btw and take every day as it comes 😁

I’ve been a corporate trainer, and although Brent is awful, the trainer here didn’t handle him very well. I had Brent style person in one of my sessions and, without being obvious that’s what I was doing, turned the whole day into a seminar on how to handle people like him.

two lesbians gets me every time,,,

I once met Ewen Macintosh RIP who plays Keith and he opined that this was the only really good episode.

Didn’t he sing free love free way with Noel G

Dropping the Black Pill before the comedy!

Very funny episode

Yeah there are no phony mofos in the arts and entertainments, huh Spencer.

im in the uk, i go to work to do my shit and then leave. im not there to make friends 😊

It’s definitely worth checking out David Brent Microsoft Values. It is hilarious

You have the most warped and twisted view of working in an office I have ever heard. Most of my closest friends were made working with them in offices. And these were companies that were among the top in their sectors. People are more productive when they enjoy going to work. You clearly have experienced bosses with terrible leadership skills.

What you're probably not getting about Brent is that this came out when Reality TV was in its infancy over here. There had been a few reality shows and other fly-on-the-wall shows where the people involved had become famous. From the interactions with his boss, it is clear that Brent was actually good at his job before this. However now the cameras have turned up, he wants to show the world how talented and funny he is. He is desperate for fame. Unfortunately he is neither talented or funny and what you are seeing is his desperation as he prostrates himself for the public, because he desperate wants everyone to like him.

Always seemed like an a,Eric an thing to make friends at work. We don’t do that here.

It's not being fake, it's professional behaviour. There's give and take in most situations including the office. It's the idiots who are 'real' and don't care what they say that no-one wants to work with in my experience.

I wonder if you'd like the film Sex Lives of The Potato Men featuring Johnny Vegas and Mackenzie Crook (The guy who plays Gareth in the office)

I have worked in offices, it didn't suit me. I am an introvert by nature, too much team building cringe nonsense and you are not allowed to keep yourself to yourself. Then everyone knows everyone's life stories and it becomes a soap opera.

Us office is the only decent remake of a English show

Do you realise this is a comedy?

He also recorded the Freelove Freeway song with Noel Gallagher.. Video is on YT🖖🏕️

Type this into the youtube search box guys . The UK Office Freelove Freeway Ricky Gervais Noel Gallager