Series / Extras

Cringe Comedy Brit Com by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, starring Gervais as an out-of-work actor scraping by as an extra in the British film industry, with Ashley Jensen as his socially inept friend and fellow extra, and Merchant as his spectacularly incompetent agent. In the second season the story evolved as Gervais' character became the star of a popular but critically-reviled sitcom.

It had so many celebrity guests during its twelve episodes that the (officially untitled) episodes are often referred to by who was guest-starring. They were often playing absurd versions of themselves that were very conceited, vain or stupid.

Concluded with a Christmas Episode, which gave it an identical run to The Office.

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This show provides examples of:

• Adam Westing: Pretty much the sole purpose for any high profile guest star. Special mention has to go to Shaun "Barry off EastEnders" Williamson As Himself, Darren's only client besides Andy, whose entire character is based on the idea that he's only recognizable as his character from the show (he answers to "Barry" more often than his own name) and has accepted that he'll probably never get hired again.
• Always Someone Better: Greg is this to Andy, and he knows it. Even as a fellow extra he manages to get better roles than Andy. At the end of the series he receives the popular and critical acclaim that Andy craves but will probably never get.
• Artifact Title: The show was originally about two extras, hence the name. As of Season Two, Andy is no longer an extra. Although Maggie continues to work as an extra, it is no longer the main plotline of the show, and even so, there is only one of her.
• Author Tract: In the Christmas Episode. Andy Millman's breakdown on Big Brother and subsequent tirade against the empty pursuit of fame is expressing - nearly word for word - Gervais's own views on the subject as evidenced by many interviews.
• Bad Liar: Maggie. The only time she's half convincing is when she tries to spare Darren's feelings when he's dismissed by an increasingly cold and hostile Andy.
• Break the Cutie:
  • When a child extra in a war film trips up and ruins the shot by laughing, Ben Stiller snaps him out of it by asking how he would feel if he shot his mother in the face right in front of him. He even demonstrates with a prop gun.
  • Maggie in the Christmas Episode, who quits being an extra, moves into a horrible one-room flat, hovers near poverty and ends up bursting into tears in a Carphone Warehouse.
• Break the Haughty: Andy being publically humiliated into admitting that he actually doesn't have the leverage to cancel "his" sitcom as a protest against Executive Meddling.
  • Also, his agent Trey telling him in no uncertain terms that he can either have fame and money, or integrity and respect - because only a handful of people in the world get to have both. What does Andy want? He's forced to admit "fame and money" from between his clenched teeth.
• British Brevity: Just twelve episodes plus a Christmas special. Some Hollywood actors were hopeful that it would continue to a third season just so they could appear on the show. Robert De Niro, in particular, hoped to appear a second time because he felt his appearance didn't turn out as well as he'd hoped.
• Broken Pedestal: Implied to be the case for Maggie towards Orlando Bloom. She has a huge poster of him on her apartment wall in the first season, but is thoroughly unimpressed by his crass personality when she meets him off-camera and rejects his advances.
• Calculator Spelling: One episode has Darren Lamb being rather amused that he could spell out the word "BOOBS" (IE: 58008 upside-down) on a calculator.
• Camp Gay: Damon, the staff writer/producer for When the Whistle Blows. His campness irritates Andy so much that he mocks him behind his back, leading to an embarrassing confrontation. Also "Bunny" Bunton, the closeted theater director.
• Casanova Wannabe: Daniel Radcliffe hits on pretty much every woman he comes across, even an 80-something Diana Rigg.
• Catchphrase: "Are you having a laugh?" "Is he/she having a laugh?" It was originally meant as a one-time line put in by Andy for the show but the producer loved it so much that he decided to make it a catchphrase. It sold well on the sitcom, but when Andy tried to use it in a theatre production he just ruined (since he refused to engage in an on-stage kiss with the other male lead), the audience was silent, leaving Andy redfaced.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: One episode has Andy walk in on his agent masturbating to a pen with a naked woman's picture on it. His agent's secretary then comes in and takes the pen from him... and is also masturbating to it when Andy leaves. Hilariously invoked later on when Darren meets Robert De Niro after repeatedly failing to get Andy a meeting with him, and to pass the time, he shows De Niro the same pen. Later, Darren calls Andy and invites him for drinks with De Niro, and Maggie gets to come along; De Niro can be heard to enquire "Is it the lady from the pen?".
• Caustic Critic: Mark Kermode and Germaine Greer (playing themselves) are shown lambasting When the Whistle Blows on TV. And then there was this promotional clip for Extras itself.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Andy realizes over the course of the series, culminating in him expressing these sentiments in the finale on Celebrity Big Brother and instead of capitalizing on his Career Resurrection, he instead goes off with Maggie to Heathrow Airport.
• Celebrity Star: The show runs on this. Spoofed when Coldplay's Chris Martin gets an illogical guest spot on Andy's show. "What are you doing here, in a factory in Wigan? It's mental."
• Cerebus Syndrome: The last couple of episodes, especially the Christmas one, have fewer jokes as Andy transitions into full-on Jerkass, at least until he realizes the error of his ways by the end of the show.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Greg Lindley-Jones, Andy's Jerkass colleague. In the Christmas Episode, he rubs salt in Andy's wounds by achieving both of the things Andy wants and is bluntly informed he can never hope to have simultaneously: popular fame and a reputation as a serious and talented artist.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Daniel Radcliffe, of all people.
  • Also, Maggie who frequently comes up with extremely bizarre non sequiturs.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Warwick Davis gets violent when Andy makes a pass at his wife.
• Cringe Comedy: Every episode has at least one sequence that makes you want to curl up and die.
  • David Bowie's "serenade" to Andy.
  • Andy has a stab at theatre respectability by appearing in a play directed by Sir Ian McKellen, only to blow it big time when he can't kiss his male co-star in front of his manly school buddies.
  • The scene where Maggie tries to hide her beloved childhood golliwog doll from the black guy she's invited back to her flat has a shot at the title...
  • The scene where Andy tells Maggie to ask for his autograph in front of his attractive neighbor is almost unwatchable.
  • Les Dennis' incredibly pathetic appearance is exquisitely painful to watch.
  • Andy trying to pass himself off as a Catholic in front a room full of 'em while knowing almost nothing about the religion.
  • Andy's attempts to worm his way out of visiting a terminally ill child at the hospital.
  • Robert Lindsay cringing himself with his narcissism in front of the same ill child.
  • Maggie confusing Samuel L. Jackson as Laurence Fishburne is hard to watch...
  • Darren brings a prototype of a Ray Stokes doll to the BAFTA awards ceremony. Its voice box winds up malfunctioning and repeatedly saying the character's catchphrase very loudly, causing Richard Briers to destroy the doll and prompt a massive round of applause from the crowd while Andy, Darren, and Maggie sit in silence.
• The Cynic: Andy.
• Deconstructive Parody: Ross Kemp's appearance plays on - and deconstructs - his public image as a tough guy, and prompts the following gems:
  Kemp: I head-butted a horse once.
  Andy: Must've deserved it.
  Kemp: D'you know what S.A.S. stands for?
  Andy: Um...Special...? Air -
  Kemp: SUPER. ARMY. SOLDIERS.
  • Before he is confronted by an angry Vinnie Jones and almost soils himself, his hard man reputation in tatters.
• Dirty Old Man: Patrick Stewart. He shows Andy a screenplay he's written, which is entirely an excuse to ogle naked women.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Maggie inadvertently re-enacts the Rosa Parks incident by telling an actor, who happens to be black, to get off her bus (as the scripted actors and extras are meant to have different catering vans).
• Dumb Blonde:
  • Maggie, who is constantly slow on the uptake and extremely socially inept.
  • Also Darren Lamb, who is utterly incompetent as an agent, but just smart enough for Carphone Warehouse.
  • Keith Chegwin definitely qualifies in his portrayal of himself on When the Whistle Blows. When he has trouble responding to cues for his character, Alfie, Andy decides that it would be best to change the characters name to Keith. Hilarity continues.
• Dumbass Has a Point: As clueless as Maggie is, she's the one who allows Bunny's daughter to see how unhappy she is (though Bunny's family rapidly see Maggie off and whip his daughter back into line) as well as the person to finally point out to Andy that he'll never be able to achieve enough to satisfy himself.
  • Darren actually manages to convince Andy to stick with a play where he plays a gay man, pointing out how much acclaim Tom Hanks, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger received after doing Philadelphia and Brokeback Mountain respectively.
• The Eeyore: A one-off character, who is never named but is credited as "dullard", in the Samuel L Jackson episode, who manages to suck all the fun out of a room.
• Executive Meddling: In-universe; Andy's smart satirical show gets mutated by producers for mass appeal into a brainless catchphrase-driven piece of dreck. Andy's original concept is suspiciously similar to The Office, so When the Whistle Blows is a parody of what could have happened if it had been taken in the opposite direction.
• Faceplanting into Food: Andy goes out to dinner with a fellow extra. The man's demeanour proves to be too much, so a frustrated Andy twice plunges his face into his soup after being invited to We Will Rock You, before abruptly leaving.
• Fan Myopia: In-Universe, no one has ever heard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so Patrick Stewart has to keep reminding them when he says "Make it so".
• Green-Eyed Monster: Orlando Bloom seethes with jealousy over Johnny Depp:
  Ooh, look at me, I make art house movies! Ooh, I've got scissors for hands! Willy Wonka? Johnny Wanker!
• Grammar Nazi: Diana Rigg repeatedly corrects Daniel Radcliffe on the correct way to ask for the errant condom he accidentally fired at her head.
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Andy asks Maggie if she likes his new sitcom:
  "Too long a pause! If you're going to lie, lie well!"
• Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Patrick Stewart's blatant Author Avatar Parody Sue, who only exists so Patrick can be the best at everything and get to see women naked.
• Idiot Ball: Every single time Andy enlists Maggie with a scheme to bolster his image in a social situation, she fails miserably at keeping up the charade and embarrasses him to the core. He is fully aware of how bad she is at this, frequently comments on her social ineptitude, and suffers at length because of it. Now granted, she is his Only Friend, but he's clearly sabotaging himself every time he ropes her in.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Orlando Bloom becomes fascinated by Maggie because she claims she doesn't find him attractive. He spends the rest of the episode trying to woo her.
• It's All About Me: Most of the featured guest stars display some degree of this. Andy himself sometimes qualifies, especially in the Christmas special.
• Jerkass: The Newspaper writer in the “Daniel Radcliffe” episode who blatantly lied about Andy’s incident with the down syndrome teenager in the restaurant even after Andy clarified what happened.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Andy is definitely an asshole, but he is significantly less of an ass than those around him think he is. And he has occasionally shown himself to be caring, creative, and even tender (at least to Maggie).
• Kafka Komedy
• Karma Houdini: Bunny's bullying of his daughter will continue without payback, after Maggie's attempt at calling him out on it only leads to his family seeing her off.
  • The newspaper writer who blatantly writes a libelous story which misrepresents and even up straight fabricates several facts about Andy’s incident in the restaurant with the disabled teenager, which he gets away with without any repercussions.
• Kick the Dog: Andy has an extra fired when he approaches him to ask for a line in the show.
• Kick the Morality Pet: Andy becomes particularly cruel to Maggie in the Christmas Special eventually ending their friendship, after a serious Humiliation Conga he ended up tearfully apologizing on Celebrity Big Brother.
• Method Acting: Deliciously parodied In-Universe. Ian McKellen's acting method is to pretend to be like the person he is portraying, and imagine how that character would act in that situation.
  "If we were to draw a graph of my process, of my method, it would be something like this: Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian, action, wizard YOU SHALL NOT PASS!, cut. Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian.
• The Millstone: Darren Lamb. And occasionally Andy himself.
• Money, Dear Boy: Parodied In-Universe by Chris Martin of Coldplay: he's spends every scene he is in plugging their (then) new greatest hits album on everything from a sitcom to a public service announcement about starving children to his shirt.
• No Fame, No Wealth, No Service:
  • In one episode, Andy is able to use his newfound fame to get into the VIP area of a club, only to be thrown out when David Bowie and his entourage arrive. When he tries to get back in, the bouncer refuses because he's still never heard of him.
  • In the Christmas special, Andy's ability to get a reservation at the Ivy is used to indicate how his career is going at any given point.
• No Title: To the episodes.
• The Nudifier: Patrick Stewart wants to make a movie in which he plays a character with awesome psychic powers... that are used solely to cause women's clothes to fall off.
• Of Corsets Funny: Andy wears a girdle to an audition to look younger and fitter than he is. It does not go well.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Shaun Williamson is called Barry by all of the characters except Andy.
• Only Sane Man: Andy
• Oscar Bait: In-Universe, Kate Winslet stars in a Holocaust film for the sole reason that it's a guaranteed Oscar. She also points out that "playing a mental" is another way to get on the Academy's shortlist. When Winslet won an actual Oscar for her role as an illiterate Love Interest in Holocaust drama The Reader, Gervais didn't hesitate to remind her of her role in the show.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Happens in-show to Andy playing Ray when the futility of what he's doing saps his focus. Especially noticeable when Chris Martin cameos.
• Overly Long Gag: Patrick Stewart's scene, in which he explains the plot of his new screenplay, about a man with telekinetic powers. He describes four or five different scenes, and the punchline (he uses his powers to remove a woman's clothes) is the same every time.
• Pervert Dad: Bunny is repeatedly seen performing with his daughter in ways that make other characters cringe and look away. The fact that he's gay makes it even weirder.
• Pet the Dog: Greg is a grade-A asshole, but he didn't have to tell Maggie that she could apply for a supplementary performance fee (and in the same scene he makes Andy genuinely laugh).
• Platonic Life-Partners: Andy and Maggie have this vibe.
• Power Perversion Potential: Patrick Stewart's screenplay about a Reality Warper who spends the whole time using his powers to see women naked.
• Precision F-Strike: The first F-bomb in the series let viewers know exactly how much cringing they're in for:
  Ben Stiller: Would you stop going on about your FUCKING DEAD WIFE?
• Shout-Out: Darren and Barry scour the internet for good reviews of When The Whistle Blows, but accidentally find one for The Wind in the Willows, after mistaking a picture of Mr Toad for Andy. Mr Toad was a nickname given to another Ricky Gervais character.
• Show Within a Show: Virtually every episode is based around the making of one, although Andy's sitcom When the Whistle Blows is the only one we actually get to see.
• Smug Snake: Greg, who, though the show doesn't have any out-and-out villains, absolutely loves patronising Andy and making him jealous, and goes out of his way to embarrass him.
• Special Guest: Once an Episode. As noted above, Chris Martin's appearance is specifically parodying this concept.
• Spoiled Brat: Andy. He's always complaining about how much people have ruined his sitcom and how terrible his acting career is going, even though The BBC took the risk of letting a complete newcomer co-write and star in his own sitcom, when a massive percentage of aspiring actors don't even come close to that stage in their careers in their lives.
  • And even though he hates the sitcom and everything it stands for, he obviously has no objections when it comes to spending all of the money that it made him.
• Straight Gay: The BBC producer of When the Whistle Blows, revealing himself as such after Andy insults the Camp Gay staff writer Damon.
• Stylistic Suck: When the Whistle Blows relies on trite, sophomoric humor and general sitcom cliches. This, however, doesn't stop the general public from eating it up.
• Take That!:
  • When The Whistle Blows is this to shows who rely on wigs and catchphrases, and old-fashioned Work Coms with broad humor and obnoxious laugh tracks. It takes a special crack at dinnerladies, with one character obviously doing a Victoria Wood impression.
  • An affectionate and tongue-in-cheek one occurs when Patrick Stewart is utterly bewildered to learn that Andy isn't married, doesn't have a girlfriend, lives on his own... and doesn't watch Star Trek?
  • The Doctor Who parody in the Christmas Special bears more than a passing resemblance to 1984's "The Twin Dilemma," which is widely regarded as the worst-ever Doctor Who story. Stephen Merchant has hinted that this wasn't just a co-incidence.
  • Keith Chegwin challenges Andy to name a funny black person. Andy can, so Cheggers specifies a funny black British person. Andy can't. Then he sees a picture of Lenny Henry on the wall. He still can't.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Andy gets one from his replacement agent Trey in the Christmas Special, for wanting to be all things to all people instead of focusing either on being a mass-audience entertainer, or a respected niche artist.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Andy has his unlikeable side.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ben Stiller somehow manages to let himself get nudged into one of these when he's firing Andy; he just can't let Andy go without showing off, which backfires on him when it's pointed out that his constant boasting about his conquests leaves out one very important detail:
  Andy: Bye, nerd.
  Ben Stiller: Oh, I'm a nerd?!
  Andy: Yes, you are.
  Ben Stiller: I'm a nerd! I've kissed Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore! I, uh, I slapped Jennifer Aniston's butt!
  Maggie: In films.
  Ben Stiller: It still counts! [Stomps away, turns, realizes the entire cast and crew is staring at him; defensively] It still counts! ... It still counts. I did it. [Stomps off sheepishly]
• Waiting for a Break: Darren Lamb works at Carphone Warehouse on Saturdays as Maternity Leave cover, with the implication this is how he actually makes any money as he is a rather incompetent agent. Ironically usually it's agents who get people out of that situation, not in it themselves.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Keith Chegwin is established as a regular on When the Whistle Blows, but after his episode, he's never seen or mentioned again.

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