Characters / Extras

Main Characters

Andy Millman

Played By: Ricky Gervais

The lead character of Extras. Andy's dream to become an actor – he left his steady day job at Natwest in Wokingham in order to pursue it - is endlessly frustrated by the fact that his agent Darren Lamb is incompetent, circumstances seem to conspire against him, and the only work he can get is as a film extra. His best friend is fellow extra Maggie Jacobs, but her fervent desire to help, coupled with a lack of tact and subtlety, means that she more often than not causes him just as much trouble. Millman successfully managed to sell a sitcom called When the Whistle Blows, which proves to be a commercial but not a critical success.

• Author Avatar: Up to a certain point. Andy's personality, style of humour and views on comedy are note-for-note those of Ricky Gervais. The big difference is that Andy is readily willing to compromise his principles in pursuit of fame and money, whereas the real-life Gervais is content sticking with his more polarizing brand of comedy.
• Break the Haughty: Him being forced to appear on Celebrity Big Brother just to keep his profile afloat makes him realise that his quest for fame was a mistake. It culminates in him giving a frustrated speech about how celebrity culture is a hollow affair and humanity should be better than that.
• Butt-Monkey: Not to the same extent as Darren and Shaun, but Andy does tend to make a fool out of himself.
• The Cynic: In contrast with pretty much everyone else.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's a lot more quick-witted than his sitcom would have people believe.
• Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: Andy hates the fact his sitcom was tampered with by the studio the second he gave it to them, but he stands by the final product if only because he has no other claims to fame. His desperate need to be in the limelight drives him to take on increasingly undignified television parts before resigning himself to appearing on Celebrity Big Brother alongside several other fame-chasers and has-beens.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His interactions with Maggie. He’s also the only one to treat Shaun Williamson with a bit of respect, calling him by his real name.
• Misblamed: In-Universe. He lost all creative control over "When the Whistle Blows" pretty much instantly and what it eventually became is a far cry from what he originally wrote. "Created by Andy Millman" still appears at the end of every episode, so whenever someone has a complaint about it his name will be brought up as if he's solely responsible.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After driving Maggie away and realising he'd hit rock bottom with little chance at recovery, Andy uses his last televised appearance to apologise to her.
• Only Sane Man: Between his idiotic social circle and the egomaniacs he meets on set.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: During an interview, he tries to affect a more suave tone of voice. It cracks at the slightest frustration.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the Christmas Special. While Andy's managed to keep his critically-reviled sitcom running for three whole series and made enough money to buy a new house, he's fully aware that this is as far as he'll ever get. His desperation to reach new heights of fame and admiration cause him to push away anyone who can't advance his own career, ranging from firing an extra just for requesting a speaking part up to ignoring Maggie when her life has hit the skids.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Especially in the Christmas Special. He complains about the fact that Greg's achieved fame while doing highbrow work, while ignoring the fact that his lowbrow material has given him plenty of fame.

Maggie Jacobs

Played By: Ashley Jensen

Maggie Jacobs is characterized as a genuinely kind and supportive individual who only wants to help out. Unfortunately for her and those around her, she is also portrayed as being rather socially inept and lacking in any sort of internal censor or sense of tact, which means that she's more likely to say precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong person, and thus create more trouble for herself and those around her (especially Andy, whom she frequently embarrasses by inadvertently puncturing his pretensions towards being an actor). Although the character possesses no malicious intent, she also appears to be rather naive and poorly educated when it comes to matters of race and political correctness - which, when coupled with her general tactlessness, frequently results in her causing genuine offense through inadvertent insults and stereotypes. In series two her earthy ways are shown to contrast greatly with the pretensions of Andy's new friends.

Maggie is rather man-hungry, and throughout the series she is constantly on the lookout for 'Mr. Right.' However, owing to circumstance and her aforementioned tendency to commit social faux-pas, the relationships she starts with men throughout the series rarely last long. However, there have been instances in which the men she is interested in turn out to be very much less than desirable, through no fault of her own.

• Break the Cutie: There are signs of this starting to take hold throughout the second series, but it really comes to a head in the Christmas Special, thanks to Andy shutting her out of his life and her own career really falling apart.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Goes way beyond this, and has to blurt out absolutely anything that crosses her mind, no matter how offensive it might be.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Of the Adult Child variety, which Andy calls her out on during the first series finale.
• Cringe Comedy: An absolute fountain of it. There are times when it's almost physically painful to listen to her speak.
• Despair Event Horizon: Clive Owen's atrocious treatment of her on a film set during the Christmas Special drive her to this. The director tells her that she can either put up with it, or be fired and blacklisted from ever working as an extra again. She chooses the latter, and officially gives up her dream of becoming an actress.
• The Ditz: Once bit into a bar of soap just because it smelled fruity.
• Dumb Blonde: The only character dumber than her is Darren, who is also blonde.
• The Heart: Andy is at his nicest when he's with Maggie.
• Negative Continuity: Handwaved. In the first series finale, she seems to re-evaluate her life, rids her apartment of soft toys and adopts a more mature look and personality following Andy calling her out on her attitude toward things when she nearly ruins his chance of getting a BBC sitcom; realising she was only trying to help him, Andy recruits Patrick Stewart to apologise on his behalf, and the relationship between the two returns to normal.
• Nice Girl: Doesn't have anything bad to say about anyone.
• No Social Skills: She has a bad habit of letting people know that Andy says offensive things about them.
• Only Friend: Andy's best and, it seems, only real friend. Acknowledged by Andy himself in the Grand Finale.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Whatever the situation, you can always count on Maggie to make it exponentially worse the second she starts speaking.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: To the point where late in the second series she has to resort to dating Darren. Their date goes surprisingly well, until Darren's antics when dealing with a toilet emergency drive her away.

Shaun Williamson (Barry from EastEnders)

Played By: Shaun Williamson

Shaun Williamson plays himself as one of Darren's clients. He used to play Barry Evans on the British soap opera EastEnders, but left to pursue a multi-million pound contract elsewhere and failed. Darren Lamb doesn't use his real name, but instead calls him "Barry off EastEnders" or just "Barry" and occasionally "Barr".

• Adam Westing: In real life, Shaun's acting career never faltered as bad as it did here.
• Butt-Monkey: A once successful soap actor whose incompetent agent held out for too much money, he's now the only client of said agent who only gets him non-acting work such as cleaning the toilets. Nobody calls him by his real name (except for Andy) and his tendency to steal food indicates he lives in near-poverty.
• Hidden Depths: He offers genuinely good advice to Andy.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: It's Barry-from-Eastenders!
• Those Two Guys: With Darren.

Darren Lamb

Played By: Stephen Merchant

Andy Millman's agent. He is utterly incapable of breaking an act, and his usual negotiating tactic is to simply agree with whatever anyone else says, or suggest someone other than his client for the part. He's very good at deducting his 12.5% commission ("15% for adverts") despite frequently having done nothing to contribute to his act's success.

• Ascended Extra: In Series 2 and the Christmas Special.
• The Big Guy: Comes with being played by Stephen Merchant who stands at a whopping 6"7.
• The Ditz: His idiocy is truly staggering.
• Dumb Blonde: To say he has no idea what he's doing would be an understatement.
• Kaiju: When he meets Warwick, Darren compares himself to both Godzilla and King Kong.
• The Millstone: For both Andy and Shaun.
• Mythology Gag: In the Christmas Special, Tre Cooper says that he's never heard of Darren before. In fact, prior to that episode Darren's full name had never been spoken on-screen, and he was only ever credited as "Agent."
• No Social Skills: Best seen with Warwick Davis.
  "Oh, midget!"
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Averted. He wears glasses and he's a complete moron.

Recurring

Greg Lindley-Jones

Played By: Shaun Pye

Andy's nemesis throughout the programme, who also started out as an extra before finding success in a number of productions and becoming a well-respected actor, much to Andy's annoyance.

• Classically-Trained Extra: Eventually rises to film star.
• Deadpan Snarker: Though his barbs are less about being funny and more about rubbing his successes in Andy's face.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Greg has a Pet the Dog moment in the first episode, giving Maggie some sincere and selfless advice. This is the one and only time in the entire series he is portrayed favourably... although considering that all of his bile seems to be directed towards Andy, it could be inferred that he's a decent enough guy to other people.
• Jerkass: When Andy announces that he's got his own sitcom, Greg snidely says that he's not funny. That right there shows that success isn't enough, he wants Andy to wallow in mediocrity.
• Meaningful Name: His surname Jones may be a reference to Keeping up With the Joneses, due to Andy's sense of achievement being dictated by whatever Greg has.
• Pet the Dog: When he tells Maggie about supplementary performance fee. He's generally quite nice to her.
• Smug Smiler: Bordering on Slasher Smile.
• Smug Snake: His casting call was, ‘a smug cunt with a punchable face’. It was accurate.

Iain Morris

Played By: Guy Henry

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Acts reasonable and comes across as appreciative of the arts, yet will tamper with people's vision and threaten to tear up their contracts if they complain about it.
• Hypocrite: Demands compromise, but when push comes to shove he refuses to back down.
• Jerkass: He tells Andy rather flatly and harshly that, screw his creative vision, they're going for the lowest common denominator...
  • Jerkass Has a Point: ...but seeing how Andy waited until literally minutes before filming the pilot of When the Whistle Blows to make his complaint, he's pretty much correct to point out how it's really too late for a Retool.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Damon's red.
• Shout-Out: He shares his name with one of the co-creators of The Inbetweeners.
• Straight Gay: Something he keeps to himself until after Andy makes a remark about how over-sensitive gay people can be.

Damon Beesley

Played By: Martin Savage

• Camp Gay: Andy finds his stereotypically over-the-top mannerisms to be annoying, which lands him in hot water when Maggie repeats this out loud to Damon.
• Insult to Rocks: Despite having an awful sense of humour and virtually destroying Andy's vision for When the Whistle Blows, even he apparently doesn't think that Lenny Henry is funny.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Iain's blue.
• Shout-Out: He shares his name with the other co-creator of The Inbetweeners.

Bunny

Played By: Gerard Kelly

• Abusive Parent: He’s overly-controlling and quite a bully.
• Camp Gay: Loves kitschy performances and has lots of sex with strangers in public places.
• Karma Houdini: Gets no comeback for his bullying ways. Maggie's attempt to call him out only leads to his family closing ranks and seeing her off.
• Rule of Three: He appears in three episodes.
• Stage Dad: Forces his daughter to perform for her own birthday party.
• Transparent Closet: For his first appearance. He's fooling absolutely no one except his daughter.

Tre Cooper

Played By: Adam James

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Takes Andy on as a client, but only because of his commercial value. He pushes him aside once Andy demands more respectable roles.
• Catchphrase: ‘Life’s cruel’.
• Jerkass: After his true colors are revealed.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: That said, Andy's diva-esque behavior certainly doesn't make Tre's life any easier, which he eventually calls Andy out on.
• Slimeball: He ignores Andy's calls, but still takes a cut of his pay. His method of keeping his clients in the spotlight involves a less-than-savory approach, which Andy calls "the Hepatitis B-List".

When the Whistle Blows

Ray Stokes

Played By: Ricky Gervais as Andy Millman

• Catchphrase: "Are you having a laugh? Is (s)he having a laugh?"
• Large Ham: Makes weird noises and has a goofy facial expression.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Not as respected as he imagines himself to be.
• Quirky Curls: He's far too excitable to be taken seriously as a boss and the studio mandated that Andy wear a curly wig to hammer home his goofiness.
• Stupid Boss: He's been shown to screw up almost as much as his employees.

Rita

Played By: Liza Tarbuck

• Deadpan Snarker
• Nice Girl
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: And in the final episode she gets engaged.
• Team Mom

Gobbler

Played By: Andrew Buckley

• Catchphrase: I don't get it.
• Comically Missing the Point: His catchphrase.
• Fat Idiot: The series ends with him getting hit in the head so hard it makes him intelligent.
• Fat Slob: Extends to his actor in one scene, as he takes several handfuls of sandwiches and fingers the remaining few.

Brains

Played By: Jamie Chapman

• Camp Gay: Turns out to be this in the series finale.
• Catchphrase: Becomes Ooh, bugger me!
• Flanderisation: See Camp Gay above.
• The Smart Guy: His whole gimmick is rattling off random facts using overly-large words in a non-masculine voice.

Kimberly

Played By: Sarah Moyle

Keith

Played By: Keith Chegwin

• Cloud Cuckoolander: Thanks to his actor never quite being able to get the mood of a scene down correctly.
• The Danza: Got turned into this after Chegwin couldn't understand why people were referring to him by his original character name, Alfie.invoked
• Mood Dissonance: He gleefully tells everyone that he just came back from his sister's funeral.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: Keith the fictional character is apparently mostly a nice guy. As soon as the cameras stop rolling, Keith Chegwin starts complaining about how the BBC is "still being run by Jews and queers," and claiming that black people aren't funny.
• Put on a Bus: A possibly unintended implication of the Christmas Special is that he never made it past the first series (and possibly not even the first episode) of When the Whistle Blows, since the character doesn't appear and isn't referenced. Considering his actor's behind-the-scenes behaviour, it wouldn't be surprising if he said the wrong thing and got fired.

Celebrity Appearances

Ben Stiller

Played By: As Himself

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
• Break the Haughty
• Compensating for Something: Heavily implied for his final gag. The only big romantic scores he can brag about are fictional ones from the films he acted in.
  Stiller: It still counts!!!!........It still counts....It does...
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Bullies his staff mercilessly, but has his ego broken down ridiculously easily by Andy.
• Jerkass
• Nerdy Bully: Andy calls him a nerd to his face, at which point Ben brags about how his list of rom-coms means he can count all of his attractive co-stars as if they were conquests. Then he mutters to himself they definitely count, revealing that even he's disappointed in himself.
• Playing Against Type: In-universe.
• Prima Donna Director: He's convinced that Dodgeball was a cinematic masterpiece that can be watched over and over without losing steam.
• Villainous Breakdown: Corners himself into one after Andy insults him, bragging indignantly until eventually he just walks off sheepishly, realising he's humiliated himself in front of his entire crew.

Ross Kemp

Played By: As Himself

• Miles Gloriosus: Ross brags about how his stint in the SAS makes him genuinely tougher than former football player Vinnie Jones, despite the obvious fact that Vinnie is bigger and more muscular than Ross is. When Vinne finds out, he tough-talks Ross into fearful silence.

Vinnie Jones

Played By: As Himself

• Evil Counterpart: To Ross Kemp.

Kate Winslet

Played By: As Himself

• Only In It For The Oscar
• Oscar Bait

Les Dennis

Played By: As Himself

• Despair Event Horizon: He has a full-on breakdown during a live performance of Aladdin.

• May–December Romance: He has a sexy fiance in her early 20s, although she's quite obviously a Golddigger.

Samuel L. Jackson

Played By: As Himself

• Celebrity Resemblance: Maggie mistakes him for Laurence Fishburne which has happened to Jackson in real life.
• Cowboy Cop: His character in the fictional movie he's filming.
• Fish out of Water: Again, his character in the fictional movie.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: While the character he plays is implied to be an anti-hero, Samuel acts perfectly chill when he's out of character. Even the tone-deaf comments about his race from Maggie and Andy don't rattle him as much as you'd expect any one of his characters to get.

Patrick Stewart

Played By: As Himself

• Cool Old Guy: He's introduced reading aloud a soliloquy from The Tempest and he helps talk Maggie into forgiving Andy when the latter is too shy to apologise on his own.
• Dirty Old Man: He's trying to his his own self-penned movie made, which can basically be described as a James Bond movie if Bond had the power to spontaneously make people's clothes fall off.
• Nice Guy: Despite his eccentricities, he's probably the celebrity who Andy has the most positive encounter with, and helps get the BBC to make When the Whistle Blows.

Orlando Bloom

Played By: As Himself

• Break the Haughty: Orlando finally gives up on trying to win Maggie when she tells him she wasn't impressed by his kiss.
• Casanova Wannabe: Downplayed, as while he does get a lot of female attention, Orland is deeply insecure that Johnny Depp could steal his thunder.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's bitterly jealous of Johnny Depp.
• Handsome Lech: He pesters Maggie into developing a crush on him, going as far as to demand she let him kiss her in the hopes this would have some hypnotic effect.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: He becomes fascinated by Maggie when she tells him that she doesn't find him attractive.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Orlando's treatment of Maggie is highly inappropriate, especially when he demands that she let him kiss her despite her lack of interest. If it wasn't for the fact that Maggie was so underwhelmed it broke his spirit, he'd look a lot more sinister.

David Bowie

Played By: As Himself

• Affably Evil: He brutally tears Andy apart via song, but does so in a jovial way while speaking pleasantly to his friends.
• The Bully: Writing a song about a real person which makes him out to be a Butt-Monkey is one thing, but performing it and inviting all of his friends to sing it right into Andy's face was just cruel.
• Jerkass: Constructs an entire song to destroy a man who idolizes him.

Daniel Radcliffe

Played By: As Himself

• Casanova Wannabe: Tries chatting up just about every woman on the set, which comes back to bite him big-style when he makes moves on Warwick Davis's wife...
• Compensating for Something: Goes out of his way to act like a grown-up to compensate for the fact that he's type cast as yet another geeky Kid Hero.
• Dirty Coward: He calls for his mum when Warwick comes after him for trying to flirt with his fiancee.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: He keeps a condom on him at all times and with absolutely no prompting brags about how he's done it with a girl "intercourse-wise".
• Karma Houdini: ...but fortunately for Daniel, Andy unwittingly provides the mother of all distractions by accidentally knocking Warwick out.
• Typecasting: Was playing a Harry Potter type Kid Hero in a fantasy story that even him wearing the iconic glasses, much to his dismay.

Chris Martin

Played By: As Himself

• The Cameo: He invites himself onto the set of When the Whistle Blows so he can promote his Greatest Hits album. Andy immediately points out how little sense it would make for a popular musician to appear out of nowhere, but Chris doesn't sweat those details. The reviews certainly did, though.
• Hypocrite: Despite being a vegetarian, he off-handedly mentions that, "Gwyneth's making drumsticks"
• Only in It for the Money: He wears a promotional shirt for his band's new album while doing a charity advert.

Stephen Fry

Played By: As Himself

• Worthy Opponent: One of his comedy shows easily defeats When The Whistle Blows in the BAFTAs, and it's obvious that deep down, Andy admires Stephen's brand of comedy far more than he does his own show. Despite this, Andy still has to defend the show to Stephen, if only to keep up appearances.

Richard Briers

Played By: As Himself

• Precision F-Strike: While Richard is giving a dignified, heartfelt speech about a recently-deceased producer, Darren gets out a box of Ray Stokes dolls and inadvertently causes one of them to repeat Ray's catchphrase endlessly. Richard takes this about as well as you'd expect, destroys the doll and openly calls it "tacky shit," getting a round of applause from the BAFTA attendees.

Ronnie Corbett

Played By: As Himself

• All for Nothing: Ronnie refuses to tell the BAFTA coordinator who sold him drugs, which gets him a lifetime ban from just about every BAFTA award, dragging Andy along with him just for being nearby. The Stinger of that episode ends with a woman getting searched by the police and it's strongly implied she was Ronnie's dealer, so ratting her out would have actually been the more prudent choice.
• Cool Old Guy: While he did screw over Andy's prospects, it's important to remember this was unintentional and he was trying to protect the anonymity of his drug dealer.
• Karma Houdini: Thanks to being in the presence of Ronnie and a bag of cocaine for just the wrong few seconds, Andy (and technically Darren, though it'd be less of a problem for him even if he were a competent agent) ends up with a lifetime ban from the BAFTA awards, made permanently ineligible for BAFTA consideration, and threatened with being shopped to the police if he ever tries to protest his ban. Ronnie gets off much lighter in comparison.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: A variation. While he initially gets handed the same blanket BAFTA ban as Andy, he's able to negotiate it down to only being allowed to attend the Welsh BAFTAs for a few years.

Sir Ian McKellen

Played By: As Himself

• Captain Obvious: Ian would have you know that acting involves pretending to be someone else. Also, you have to learn your lines because carrying scripts around would ruin the illusion.
• Cool Old Guy: Well, he's Sir Ian McKellen.
• Nice Guy: Despite his Captain Obvious tendencies, he's a pretty genial fellow.
• Straight Gay

Robert De Niro

Played By: As Himself

• Advertised Extra: Any international releases of the series will have you believe he's going to have a larger cameo than what was delivered.
• The Cameo: His role is tiny, and simply involves being inordinately amused by a pen (with a naked lady on it).
• Hidden Depths: He seems to get along pretty well with Darren.
• Not So Stoic: He seems to be very no-nonsense at first and Darren is visibly sweating when Andy is late to their meeting, but as soon as Darren pulls out his nudie-pen he immediately lightens up and hangs out with Darren at the pub.
• The Quiet One: He has little-to-no dialogue.

Robert Lindsay

Played By: As Himself

• It's All About Me: He's an extreme narcissist.
• Jerkass: Tells a terminally ill boy to fuck off.

Jonathan Ross

Played By: As Himself

• Elmer Fudd Syndrome: Just like in real life, Ross pronounces Rs as Ws.
• Manchild: Like in real life, Ross is a toy collector. He also has super-soaker fights with Andy.

Clive Owen

Played By: As Himself

• Jerkass: A strong contender for the biggest Jerkass in the entire series, as his behaviour toward Maggie is enough to finally call it quits on her acting career.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Not that he's some obscure small-time actor by any means, but he's way too full of himself.
• Wag the Director: [1]. Upon being told his character would have just finished having sex with a prostitute played by Maggie, he complains that she's nowhere near attractive enough for him and states that the only way he could conceivably sleep with a woman who looks like Maggie is if he refuses to pay her and throws horse dung in her face afterwards. The director complies, then when Maggie expresses her discomfort he tells he to put up or shut up.

Lionel Blair

Played By: As Himself

• Money, Dear Boy: Admits that this is about the only thing which keeps him going in life.invoked
• Only Sane Man: He's the only other Celebrity Big Brother housemate that Andy feels even deserves the title of "celebrity," let alone has any respect for.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: The peak of his relevance happened decades ago and his aging body means he can't tapdance as often as he used to. He pushes himself regardless because if he does rest, he'll disappear into the background.

Dean Gaffney

Played By: As Himself

• Butt-Monkey: He's an even more pathetic, less successful version of Shaun Williamson. Yes, let that sink in.
• True Companions: With Darren and Shaun in their new job at the Carphone Warehouse, to the extent that Stephen Merchant briefly considered writing a spin-off series featuring the trio.

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