The Office (British TV series)

The Office
Genre	Mockumentary Workplace comedy Cringe comedy Sitcom
Created by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Written by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Directed by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Starring	Ricky Gervais Martin Freeman Mackenzie Crook Lucy Davis Stirling Gallacher Oliver Chris Ralph Ineson Patrick Baladi Stacey Roca Elizabeth Berrington
Opening theme	"Handbags and Gladrags" performed by Big George
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	14 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Anil Gupta Jon Plowman
Producer	Ash Atalla
Cinematography	Andy Hollis
Editor	Nigel Williams
Running time	approx 30 minutes
Production companies	Capital United Nations Entertainment The Identity Company
Original release
Network	BBC Two (2001–2002) BBC One (2003)
Release	9 July 2001 (2001-07-09) – 27 December 2003 (2003-12-27)
Related
The Office (U.S.) Le Bureau HaMisrad La Job Os Aspones Stromberg The Office (India)
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The Office is the original British mockumentary television sitcom first broadcast in the UK on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, it follows the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictional Wernham Hogg paper company. Gervais also starred in the series as central character David Brent.

Two six-episode series were made, followed by a two-part Christmas special. When it was first shown on BBC Two, ratings were relatively low, but it has since become one of the most successful of all British comedy exports. As well as being shown internationally on BBC Worldwide and channels such as BBC Prime, BBC America, and BBC Canada, it has been sold to broadcasters in over 80 countries, including ABC1 in Australia, The Comedy Network in Canada, TVNZ in New Zealand, and the pan-Asian satellite channel Star World, based in Hong Kong. It was shown in the United States on BBC America from 2001 to 2016, and later on Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim from 2009 to 2011.^[1]

The show centres on themes of social clumsiness, the trivialities of human behaviour, self-importance and conceit, frustration, desperation and fame. Its success led to a number of localised adaptations (based on its basic story and themes) produced for the television markets of other nations, creating an international Office franchise, including the successful and Emmy-winning American remake on NBC starring Steve Carell as David Brent's counterpart, Michael Scott.^[2]