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Trivia
Trivia: Insignificant or inessential matters; trifles.
Especially when someone puts up any and all trivia without bothering to double-check it against how interesting it might be. At least it’s definitive.
The Pilot
Last bit of trivia added to the site, and it’s about the first ever incarnation of the show. That’ll be under irony in the dictionarys soon, just you wait.
Thanks to Patrick L for finding this out, along with the mysterious question posed to Steve Merchant on a radio show that started it all...
“The pilot, filmed in early 2000, was also shot in the spoof documentary style with a single camera and voiceover by John Nettles, the voice of long-running BBC1 docu-soap Airport. But before Merchant and Gervais went back to writing the rest of the six-part series, the spoof documentary element was toned down and the voiceover removed.”
Episode 1: Downsize
The scene where Tim drops Gareth’s stapler out of the window was not in the script, according to a secret source. The episode was running a bit short, and so Freeman and Crook improvised the whole thing!
One of the most memorable images of the series is Gareth’s stapler set in jelly. In the episode, he first discovers it about lunchtime, and removes it, and at the very end of the episode, Gareth walks in on Ricky and David to show them is has been set in jelly again. However, due to my research into the matter, it really isn’t possible for Tim to have put the stapler in jelly and to have let it set in the course of an afternoon. Four or five hours simply isn’t enough time.
There are several possible explanations for this, the most likely being that no-one of course cares that it would need a few more hours to set, a sentiment echoed by both the writers, by writing the script, and the audience, by really not giving a toss and just enjoying Gareth getting annoyed. Or perhaps I’ve got it wrong about how long the setting process would take. But it’s not as though you’re going to check is it.
Update: Well, someone has checked, and apparently you can get quick setting jelly. More fool me then.
Episode 2: Work Experience
As Brent is showing round Donna at the very start of the episode, we all remember the farcical slapstick moment where Brent, after joking about throwing his answer phone out the window, drops it and sort of breaks it (“It’s fine, it’s fine that one, it’ll be ok.”). The question has come up of who’s voice is it on the answer phone in the first place, and it has been argued that it is of none other than that of Stephen Merchant co-creator of the show! You can hear a short clip of one of the messages he leaves here.
Brent mentions that Donna is the daughter of his friends Ron and Elaine, which surely coincidently also happen to be the names of Steve Merchant’s parents. For more trivia on Ron Merchant, see episode 6.
2006 Update: Five years after the original broadcast, I was emailed what has to be the last bit of trivia to be added to these pages.
In the series opening phone call, Ricky Gervais gives Brent an easy chance to embarrass himself with the “How’s Elaine, has she left you let” “I forgot, she has left him” line. In episode 2, when introducing Donna, he mentions her parents are ‘Ron and Elaine’. As suggested by Simon, the split might be the reason Donna is staying with Brent. A very understated hint at the character background. Well done Ricky and Steve.
Episode 3: The Quiz
Stop the presses hold onto your hats and a third cliche, but I’ve just been handed the most vital and exciting bit of trivia of them all! For when Ricky is having trouble with the photocopier, he describes the problem as an ‘offline error 324’, and then, mere seconds later, when Brent comes over, he describes the same error as a ‘243 error’!!!
Thanks to Daniel Marsden from Rotherham for pointing that one out.We all know Finchy claimed to throw a kettle over a pub, but was this true or not so true? He talks of the Lamb Pub in Chichester, and now, thanks to Lee & Joe, the mystery of whether there is a Lamb Pub in Chichester has been solved!
Sort of.
You see, there’s only a Lamb Inn there, but as Finchy managed to “win the real quiz” with Tim’s shoe, I reckon he can be excused for getting the name a bit wrong.
And that’s a fact!
What’s also a fact is that there is also a pub called The Lamb in Pagham, which is but six miles from Chichester, and according to Steve (a mate of Dan “324” Marsden’s), this is probably the pub they’re referring to.
What were some of the team names mentioned in past Wernham-Hogg quiz nights?
The Dead Parrots (David and Finchy)
The Tits (Tim and Ricky)
Carpet Munchers
Dr. Wankenstein
Stephen Hawking’s Football Boots
Universally Challenged
Malcolm and Dennis (Malcolm and Dennis)
Episode 4: Training
In a sense this is the saddest piece of trivia I have come up with, but in another sense, someone went to the effort of making the prop, so...
During the Who Cares Wins video in the opticians, there is an eye chart on the back wall. However, a closer look (DVD freeze-framing look) reveals that it is not just random letters, but the phrase “Have you heard of customer care.” Now that my friends is attention to detail.
Go art department!
Man vs. Shark!
| Fastest recorded speed a man
has swum: Geoff Huegill of Australia swam 50m butterfly in 23.6s, which works out at 7.6 km/h. |
 |
| Fastest recorded speed of
a shark: The Shortfin Mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) has been reliably clocked at 50 km/h, although there have been claims of speeds up to 74 km/h. |
 |
Given this information, it seems unlikely that a man will ever be born who can swim faster than a shark.
UPDATE: And that was all that used to be in this section, until it pointed out to me that a boy might be born who could swim faster than a different kind of shark. Which is of course true, and makes a lot of the above irrelevant.
So where do you draw the line? Look up the fastest speed of the slowest shark, or perhaps account for injured or disabled shark’s speeds.
As you can see, the answer to this problem requires a lot more effort than I originally thought, which is why I can’t be buggered to look into it.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The torture never stops! Apparently, Geoff Huegill doesn’t have the fastest recorded speed of a man, the record in fact being held by the Russian Alexander Popov, who swam 50m in 21.64s, which works out at 8.3 km/h. I think. As all the work I put into this section has been proved in either the facts used or logic applied, be happy that I haven’t just scrapped the whole thing.Monkey Alan, how did they come up with that name? Gary from Dartford thinks he minght know the answer:
“Not sure if this has been put to you before, but it’s a very close coincidence, and bear with me while I explain…
Most small, British towns can count at least one complete loony within their population. You know what I mean, usually homeless, 9/10 of them suffer from some form of mental illness, and they can be found wandering around the town centres talking to themselves, others of their ilk, pigeons, lamp posts etc. Everybody knows who they are, and the kids will have derived a nick name for them.
Dartford in Kent is no exception, and is the home of what can only be described as a whole mess of these unfortunate individuals. Personally I don’t know whether this is due to the huge chemical plant in the middle of the town, or the fact that 2 of the 3 very large hospitals for the mentally ill in the vicinity have been closed down over the last decade or so. One of these individuals had the rather dubious nick name of Monkey Al. I was surprised to hear this name (although extended) mentioned in the first series as a warehouseman at Wernham Hogg until I discovered that Mackenzie Crook hails from Dartford and may well have stunned the rest of the cast with tales of Monkey Al’s crazy antics.”
Episode 5: New Girl
When Brent and Tim are leaving the nightclub, the motorbike with sidecar drives past them in the distance, just before it drives past the camera and we get the unforgettable shot of Gareth glancing at the camera.
Also the Bar ‘Henry the Eights’ is mentioned, and in the poem ‘Slough’ by John Betjeman there’s the following verse:
And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren’t look up and see the stars
But belch instead.Could just be coincidence for all I know. But it’s there, and so I’ve got to note it down. On the other hand though, I was recently sent this:
“Feel a bit sad mentioning it but, re your fine trivia section series 1 episode 5, the bit when Tim mentions the Henry the Eighth bar, this place actually existed. There was bar/night club which existed ( I don’t think its there anymore) in the middle of Burnham Beeches, a forest a few miles away from Slough. A total bastard to find , most people who went there would spent hours driving around the forest before eventually stumbling across it, it had a bar called the Anne Bolyne bar and a night club next door called Henry’s. And yes the toilets did have something suitably daft written on the doors.”
So will there ever be an end to this mystery?
The song Brent has printed up on his wall and starts singing to unsuccessful secretary applicant and real person Stuart Foot is “Crazy Maze” by Des'ree. For your joyful comparison here are Brent’s version and a clip from the original. When Brent and Tim are leaving Chasers, Brent starts singing “Life, oh life”, the chorus from another Des’ree song, who he is obviously a big fan of.
Ever been to Malia?
(Thanks to Joe for getting this pic. Yes there’s a bar called Chasers in Malia, apparently it’s rubbish, it is rubbish)
Episode 6: Judgement
Near the start of the episode, there is a shot of Tim working at his desk, ad in the background, a cleaner comes out of a room and when he sees the camera, just stops and stares at it. The joke being that he had no idea a documentary was being made about the place where he worked, and that he’d missed it for the previous five weeks. But.... Did You Notice.... that later on during the party, there is another, but much briefer shot of him, again staring at the camera, and with no idea what’s going on. Well done Mr. Merchant and Mr. Gervais for a subtle comic point, which helps demonstrate that you really do have to watch The Office repeatedly to get the best out of it. I’ve also been informed that the cleaner is played by a Mr. Ron Merchant, father of Steve Merchant, thanks to (anonymous source) for that. (Ron Merchant’s name is in the credits of this episode if you don’t believe me and want to check for yourself). Also this character has the name Gordon, he works in maintenance.
Thanks to Ricky from the forum for this one:
“I noticed a huge mistake in Ep 6 of Series 1. When Jennifer is giving David the “good” (irrelevant) news, she mentions that she has been made into a partner. However, mere moments later, she tells David that the board (of directors) has voted 5-2 to make him the new UK manager.
Well! Is Wernham Hogg a partnership or a company??? Quite frankly this egregious error has spoiled my enjoyment of an otherwise classic comedy”
Update: A partnership can technically have 7 members, so it does make sense. It was the name Wernham-Hogg that threw me off.In the very first scene of The Office, episode 1, David is hiring someone to be a fork lift truck driver. At the beginning of episode 6, he is firing a fork lift truck driver. There’s a chance that it’s the same person!!!
Good news! This has been confirmed by the delightful Caroline Fletcher. Alex is played by Neil Fitzmaurice, who is better known for being a stand-up and co-writing Channel 4’s excellent Phoenix Nights.
Also in the episode Brent mentions the leaving present that Pete Gibbons got. Peter Gibbons is the name of the main character in the film Office Space, which made of a lot of the same observations as The Office about office life. Was this meant, or is it coincidence??? (thanks to Che Given for pointing this one out). And if you don’t believe me, then have a look at this!
Thanks to Stuart Foot from the forum for pointing out this, although I did a lot of the real research, anyway.
You might remember Tim saying this in episode 6:“It’s like an alarm clock’s gone off, and I’ve just got to get away. I think it was John Lennon who said: “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”, and that’s how I feel. Although he also said: “I am the Walrus I am the eggman” so I don’t know what to believe.”
Although what John Lennon actually said is: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”.
And the Beatles lyric is: “I am the eggman oh, they are the eggman - Oh I am the walrus GOO GOO G’JOOB.”Subtle character point or unfortunate mistake by Gervais and Merchant?
Or perhaps they just don’t care. Ask yourself, when it comes down to it, do you?
