An all-too-relatable awkward workplace comedy classic gets a more local spin, with the new Australian version of The Office – streaming on Prime Video from October 18. This Aussie iteration brings with it a whole new host of challenges – and a cast rising to the occasion, writes David Michael Brown.
Ricky Gervais’s The Office injected new life into the then-moribund British comedy scene. In the early 2000s, the once beloved sitcom had stagnated. Catchphrase comedy was at a low ebb and struggling to find a new younger audience. Gervais was television’s unlikely comic saviour. By focusing on the mundane and pointing a camera at it, the mockumentary TV series was born and in a genius move, the laughter track was removed.
Yes, Olympic spoof The Games, the Canadian series Trailer Park Boys and the deliciously dark Marion and Geoff starring Rob Brydon had all broken the fourth wall tackling the faux doco funny treatment before, but The Office brought the format to the global mainstream. Especially when the US reboot proved to be one of the most-watched comedies ever. Starting life in the dour grey environs of London commuter town Slough, there are now 13 international versions of The Office including the new Australian edition on Prime Video.
In the original, Gervais played David Brent, the narcissistic middle manager at the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg paper merchants. The delusional self-proclaimed “chilled-out entertainer” strived to make the workplace fun to the detriment of getting any work done. It was the comedy of embarrassment, embellished with a non-stop cavalcade of non-PC gags.
Over 12 episodes we are introduced to the anarchic archetypes that would appear again and again across every adaptation of the show: the megalomaniac boss, his psychotic Assistant (to the) Regional Manager Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook), who is constantly at loggerheads with the affable sales rep Tim Canterbury (Martin Freeman) who in turn, is in love, albeit unrequited, with secretary Dawn Tinsley (Lucy Davis). These were characters who the viewers saw themselves in.
The US The Office created by Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons writer Greg Daniels initially faltered. By slavishly following its UK counterpart’s storylines, characters and format, it didn’t offer anything new. Despite a cast that boasted Steve Carell, who was hot off Bruce Almighty and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, it wasn’t until the second season that viewers stopped comparing the two shows and were sucked into the “Will they? Won’t they?” Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) storyline while watching aghast at the outrageous proclamations of the beet-obsessed Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) that the show found its footing. The background characters of this American workplace were also given centre stage as they had more room to breathe over nine seasons and gave the writers, including Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak, an opportunity to introduce new cast members including Ed Helms, Ellie Kemper and Rashida Jones.
The Aussie iteration of The Office brings with it a whole new host of challenges. Firstly, the comedy landscape is vastly different since those PC-baiting days of 2001. Secondly, how do you follow Ricky Gervais and Steve Carell? Something that one of the show’s creators Jackie van Beek, star of What We Do in The Shadows, The Breaker Upperers and Nude Tuesday, was all too aware of. “It seemed completely mad to make another,” she explained, talking to Little Black Book’s Ben Conway. “But realising this would be the first version with a female lead made it impossible for me to say no to the challenge.”
The casting of the all-important leading role had the potential to make or break the show. Luckily, the role of Hannah Howard, the managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick, is played by the fabulous Felicity Ward. The stand-up comedian best known for her appearances on Spicks and Specks, Thank God You’re Here, Good News Week and The Ronnie Johns Half Hour along with stellar supporting turns in Taika Waititi’s Time Bandits, Any Questions for Ben? and The Inbetweeners 2.
At the recent Prime Video Trailblazers event celebrating women in film and TV in London, Ward told an attentive audience that “Ricky Gervais has approved of a female lead—he’s very excited about a female lead,” before jokingly adding, “just in case anyone is angry.” Ward admitted doing “zero preparation” and she channelled “every annoying part of my personality” with the “charm edited out” to play the character.
Like Brent, Scott et al, being a boss is all Howard has. Her male counterparts were often lonely. By mixing pathos with wisecracks, The Office has always tugged at the heartstrings as well as tickling the funny bone. And the Australian version promises to be no different.
The setup will be all too familiar for any readers who have been blissfully working from home. When the hapless manager is notified by Head Office that they will be shutting down her branch and forcing everyone to work from home, she goes into survival mode. Panicking, she makes outlandish promises she can’t possibly keep in order to keep her “work family” together under one roof.
Located in Rydalmere, the office-based familial unit includes Lizzie (Edith Poor), the office receptionist, front desk executive and productivity manager. Every incarnation of the Manager’s right-hand person has changed since Gareth Keenan. Especially in terms of toning down his sexist, homophobic, racist rhetoric in the name of laughter. Lizzie plays more like the dark twisted goth sister of Dwight Schrute. The rest of the cast includes the always delightful The Sapphires star Shari Sebbens and Steen Raskopoulos as Greta and Nick, two halves of the flirtatious office romance that would be a thing if she wasn’t in a relationship with Mason, played by Claude Jabbour.
Of the rest of the staff, What We Do in The Shadows alumni Jonny Brugh is head of IT Lloyd Kneath who is now forced into a never-ending long-distance commute and Talk to Me star Zoe Terakes plays the ever-exasperated head of the warehouse Stevie Jones [and shout-outs to NZ comedy treasure Josh Thomson playing Martin Katavake, head of HR – Ed.]. It remains to be seen how the comedy going public embraces the Antipodean Office. If the show replicates the success of previous versions, it will be fascinating which members of staff will see their star in the ascendant.
By taking a defiantly Aussie tack on such familiar territory—hello, Melbourne Cup Day—it looks like it will be worth clocking in.
