Martin Freeman has said his recollection of making the hit show The Office is different from that of creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
Gervais and Merchant have long been adamant that the groundbreaking BBC sitcom was entirely scripted, but Freeman, who played the self-deprecating Tim Canterbury, has a different recollection, saying it was “looser” than they suggested.
Freeman said he was left particularly frustrated when a book of the show’s scripts was released, filled with transcriptions of the lines that made it into the final episode, including his own improvisations.
The actor sat down with Mackenzie Crook, who played Gareth, on the BBC Two special Remember… The Office, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the show. In the one-off, Crook told Freeman: “Another thing people always ask you is how much was improvised – very little of it was because it was all there on the page.”
Freeman responded: “It was all there on the page. However, I think my true feeling about it is that when it became the monster that it did, because it sounded improvised, understandably Ricky and Stephen went, ‘No, none of it is improvised.’”
“What slightly annoyed me at the time, but only slightly at the time, is that when the scripts were published, they weren’t the scripts – they were the transcriptions of what had been on telly, so that annoyed me a little bit because anyone who knows any of us knows that line came from you in that moment, that line came from me.”
He continued: “It was loose, and that’s to Ricky and Stephen’s credit because the scripts were absolutely brilliant. It wasn’t improvised, but it was what I would call loose.”
Freeman argued that he “can understand why there was a little bit of protection about that because otherwise people would have gone, ‘Hey, you just rock up and just make it all up,’ which is clearly not the case”.
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“The writing on it was brilliant – but you only need to know us a little bit or know the process of it, to know we’re also in there. It doesn’t mean it’s a co-credit, it doesn’t mean it’s improvised; it’s nicely loose.”
The Independent has contacted Gervais and Merchant for comment.
Gervais, 65, was invited to take part in the BBC reunion episode, but told The Independent that he “was not available”. He stated that he nonetheless remains in contact with the broadcaster “all the time about The Office”.
The hit workplace mockumentary debuted in 2001 and aired for two six-episode series, with two additional Christmas specials.
Extras and After Life creator Gervais has announced that he will be celebrating 25 years of The Office with his own documentary set to debut on his YouTube channel.
While Gervais is keeping the full plan under wraps, he confirmed in his weekly livestream that the film will arrive on his YouTube channel around the exact date of The Office’s anniversary, which falls on Thursday (9 July).
Remember… The Office airs on BBC Two and iPlayer on Wednesday 8 July.