Ricky Gervais reflects on the 10-year anniversary of his original version of ‘The Office’:
David Brent doesn’t represent evil, or nastiness or even ignorance. He’s just a little out of place. Out of time. His worst crime is that he confused respect with popularity. He wanted both but concentrated on the wrong one. He didn’t really know what people wanted of him. He shouldn’t really have worried about that at all. He just tried a little too hard.
Gervais says that Brent was “quite a nice man.” Huh. I love the BBC original and David Brent, but I can’t see him as nice.