GB News' Entertainment Editor explains why, while The Office may be celebrating turning a sprightly 25, the BBC's way of honouring the show proves it should be considering retirement

One of the best comedies ever to grace screens celebrated quite a milestone this week.

The Office turned 25, marking a quarter of a century since Ricky Gervais' socially inept, deluded, fame-hungry, and yet somehow misunderstood and endearing David Brent first hit screens.

A trailblazer for the small-screen mockumentary format, The Office premiered late on a weekday to a predictably modest audience on BBC Two.

Two and a half decades on, it has become a comedy behemoth. The benchmark to which all sitcoms aspire to reach.

The brainchild of Gervais and writing partner Stephen Merchant, The Office's run only consists of 14 episodes - two seasons and a two-parter Christmas special.

And yet it spawned a Brent-centric big-screen movie, remakes across the globe, and its US counterpart now even has its own spin-off in the form of The Paper.

So you would've thought those now in charge of its former home at the Beeb would want to celebrate one of its most successful tenants in style.

Gavin and Stacey is heralded as some sort of revolutionary piece of television-making, for instance. Following its finale, it received a feature-length send-off, and repeats of its Christmas specials still regularly make primetime on December 25 each year.

The Motherland/Amandaland franchise has become supposed evidence of how modern comedy isn't just sanitised dross, while Mrs Brown's Boys inexplicably remains a BBC darling, receiving primetime slots and repeat after repeat.

Meanwhile, Outnumbered's most recent comeback in 2024 was marketed as the event of the year.

The BBC did attempt to honour The Office in some way, however. Although its attempt makes a mockery of the success the sitcom is and was, and I suspect there's a reason why.

Namely Gervais. While the BBC has battled declining ratings, woke sanitisation of its shows, and scandal after scandal involving its talent, Gervais has moved on to much bigger and much better things since The Office shut its doors.

Record-breaking stand-up shows across the globe, several big-budget Netflix specials, and a handful of his very own award-winning series on the streaming service to boot.

All while refusing to mind his Ps and Qs like the fastidious execs at the Beeb would've undoubtedly liked if he remained under their watch.

Even the BBC's own new director-general has publicly derided the corporation's current state of affairs, making cuts left, right and centre, and branding the licence fee model "outdated".

Nevertheless, the BBC attempted to give The Office its flowers in the form of a 28-minute sit-down between sitcom stars Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Crook.

My gripes with the one-off special began before I'd even watched a minute, with the BBC marking 25 years of The Office by having Crook and Freeman reminisce as part of BBC Four's Remembers... series.

Relegated to just one in a collection of shorts rather than a standalone instalment? Very underwhelming.

The format? Crook and Freeman stare at one another, barely cracking a smile, while reliving a handful of snippets from their time on the sitcom.

Freeman even has time to bemoan Gervais and his claims that he and Merchant scripted the show with little room for improv.

Freeman said: "The writing they did was brilliant, but you only need to know us a little bit to know that we’re also in there.

"What slightly annoyed me at the time, but only slightly, was that when the scripts were published they weren’t the scripts, they were the transcriptions of what had been on the telly.

He even rather dryly admitted towards the end of the special that he was hard-pressed to "give Ricky credit for anything" as he praised his writing ability.

Of course, this is done rather tongue-in-cheek from the Sherlock star, but it seems a rather out-of-place given Gervais wasn't there to discuss or explain why.

Meanwhile, Crook spent a few minutes discussing his own writing ventures. I'm a fan of Dectectorists, don't get me wrong, but that's not the tidbit of gold I want from an already shorter-than-anticipated Office special.

The BBC's effort wasn't entirely awful. Spliced with highlights from the show and a few nuggets of previously secret information (Crook keeping hold of the developed photographs from the Red Nose Day scene is a great example), there are fleeting moments that draw a smile.

But it missed Gervais badly. Very badly. He reportedly turned down the chance due to scheduling conflicts, emphasising there was no apparent rift with the BBC.

The detrimental impact of Gervais' absence in the BBC's effort was hammered home further by his own hour-long lookback released on his YouTube channel.

And within the first minute, a dig at his former employers arose. "Hello and welcome to my YouTube channel," he began.

"I've had this channel for 20 years now, and I've done f*** all for it. Coincidentally, it's 25 years since The Office first aired, so I thought, 'Hold on, let's pick your 25 best Brent moments, Rick.'

"Here they are, me talking about them, briefly, showing you the clip... monetising them, at last," he added before letting out a signature guffaw.

What follows is nearly an hour of genuinely interesting tidbits about the writing process and behind-the-scenes antics, as well as reliving the 25 moments that remain a highlight for Gervais.

He proves he can still nail Brent's iconic look to the camera and remains as self-depricatively funny as ever.

However, Gervais' solo tribute special did miss the mark on a few things.

The order of the best bits is subjective. I can not agree with "your Swindon lot are little slugs" being at a lowly 24 on the list. Me and my friends repeat it to one another to this day.

However, it's not particularly fair to use that as a stick to beat him with. What can be used, however, is the absence of any mention of Merchant.

Merchant, while he may only feature on-screen sporadically as the "goggle-eyed" Oggy, AKA The Oggmonster, AKA Nathan, was just as integral to putting the show on track for global success.

He co-wrote and co-directed the show, more often than not having to encourage his collaborator Gervais to stop trying to purposefully make his co-stars laugh.

And yet Gervais avoids directly mentioning his fellow writer. And it's something that did not go amiss with viewers at home.

Gervais faced claims of "arrogance" by social media users for focussing on Brent's best moments and avoiding mention of Merchant. One user branded Merchant's "erasure" as "not a good look".

Another Redditor expanded further: "It’s actually quite sad that he can’t acknowledge him at all. It also seems to be something that’s been picked up (on) a lot."

And the taste turns sour further when you see Merchant took to his own social media page to remember the show with a clip of him reminiscing about how both he AND Gervais collaborated on the show.

Gervais poured salt in the wound further too, conducting an exclusive interview with Empire about the sitcom and once again neglecting to reference his co-writer.

Merchant and Gervais have been keen to emphasise previously that the breakdown in their relationship wasn't from a position of animosity, but rather circumstance.

Both men pursued different opportunities, with Merchant relocating to Hollywood to release his own comedy show Stateside, and Gervais staying put in his beloved "leafy Hampstead".

Therefore, the omission does leave a slight black mark on Gervais' attempts to honour the show he and Merchant brilliantly created.

All in all, though, Gervais' tribute to The Office proves triumphant over the BBC's rather half-hearted offering.

It may have been let down by the oversight of Merchant, but Gervais' chuckles, impressions, and insight make his YouTube special by far a more worthy love letter to The Office than what the BBC offered up, despite the resources at disposal.

Here's to another 25 years of Wernham Hogg and the Brentmeister General.