What was the 20-minute film that helped inspire The Office (UK)?

Seedy Boss was the 20-minute film that helped inspire The Office (UK). Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant made it in June 1998, years before the sitcom reached BBC Two.

The short film starred Gervais in an early version of the character who would become David Brent, the self-important manager of Wernham Hogg’s Slough branch. Merchant made the film as part of his television-producer training for the BBC, and the project gave the pair a way to test the awkward workplace-comedy idea that became The Office.

Ash Atalla showed the tape to Jane Root, then head of BBC Two. Root commissioned a television series based on it, and the finished programme premiered in July 2001. The original film therefore served as a crucial proof of concept rather than being an episode or a later spin-off.

Life on the Road is a separate 2016 feature film following David Brent after the sitcom. The Return of Brent was a 2013 short made for Red Nose Day, while Closed for Business is not the film that originated The Office.