David Brent as a singing star? Sorry Ricky but you hit too many dud notes: BRIAN VINER winces as The Office star hits the big screen

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 David Brent: Life on the Road

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Like millions of others, I loved The Office, the BBC2 spoof documentary series about the Wernham Hogg paper company in Slough. It was brilliantly written, by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and exquisitely performed, not least by Gervais as the crass middle-manager, David Brent.

Alas, this big-screen ‘mockumentary’ sequel, written and directed by Gervais alone, is a slowly-unfolding disappointment. Comic characters conceived for TV very often misfire in the cinema, but there’s an even more worrying development here as the line between Gervais and his embarrassing alter ego, Brent, becomes blurred.

There was never any doubt, watching The Office, that Brent was the grotesque and Gervais the comedic mastermind inhabiting him. But here it is Gervais, not Brent, who strives too hard to be the centre of attention, whose lack of sensitivity grates, whose jokes fall flat.

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The line between Gervais and his embarrassing alter ego, Brent, becomes blurred in this big-screen ‘mockumentary’ sequel

In the film it is Gervais, not Brent, who strives too hard to be the centre of attention, whose lack of sensitivity grates, whose jokes fall flat

Comic characters conceived for TV very often misfire in the cinema

And when we see Brent as the front man in a band called Foregone Conclusion, it’s uncomfortably clear that Gervais, no less than Brent, rather fancies himself as a singer. You’re meant to watch and wince, of course. But by the end it wasn’t David I was wincing for.

At the start of the film, Brent is working as a humble rep in an office very much like that of Wernham Hogg, except this company is called Lavichem and specialises in lavatorial products, enabling some off-colour gags about sanitary towels. That is the first sign that Gervais, without Merchant to rein him in (the two are said to have fallen out), has lost a grip on the subtleties that characterised The Office.

Gervais with partner Jane Fallon: Without Merchant to rein him in he has lost a grip on the subtleties that characterised The Office

Rather unambitiously from a comedy point of view, the Lavichem office contains all the same character types as Wernham Hogg. Instead of Gareth, Brent’s ingratiating acolyte in The Office so memorably played by Mackenzie Crook, we have Nigel (Tom Bennett).

But Brent is having a mid-life wobble and needs something more. So he takes extended unpaid leave to try and make it as a pop star, emptying all his pension pots to fund Foregone Conclusion and take them on the road. 

Never mind that the road is only the A4, and the ‘tour’ confined merely to the Thames Valley. Or that a rapper sidekick, roundly patronised for being ‘mixed-race’, has more talent in one little finger than his self-styled mentor has in his entire tubby body.

It’s uncomfortably clear that Gervais, no less than Brent, rather fancies himself as a singer. You’re meant to watch and wince, of course. But by the end it wasn’t David I was wincing for

But Brent is having a mid-life wobble and needs something more. So he takes extended unpaid leave to try and make it as a pop star, emptying all his pension pots to fund Foregone Conclusion (pictured at the premiere) and take them on the road

Here it is Gervais, not Brent, who strives too hard to be the centre of attention, whose lack of sensitivity grates, whose jokes fall flat

Gervais with on-screen band (L-R) Ben Bailey Smith, Andy Burrows, Michael Clarke, Steve Clarke and Stuart Wilkinson: As in The Office, he reveals David to be essentially a sad character deserving of sympathy rather than revulsion. But it’s too late by then

Gervais as Brent: There are some genuine laughs along the way – he hasn’t lost his touch entirely

There are some genuine laughs along the way – Gervais hasn’t lost his touch entirely. But the film’s comedy is encapsulated less by its few really funny one-liners than by a clunky tattoo gag, in which he wants ‘Berkshire’ on his arm but ends up with… well, you can see the punchline coming from three counties away. An actual foregone conclusion.

Towards the end, Gervais, doubtless with an eye on the yuletide DVD market, tries to introduce some Christmas schmaltz. As in The Office, he reveals David to be essentially a sad character deserving of sympathy rather than revulsion. But it’s too late by then. And with Brent front and centre throughout, there is no room for the beguiling sub-plots, such as the awkward romance between Tim and Dawn, that helped make The Office such a joy.

Tim, of course, was played by Martin Freeman, who has since become a bona fide movie star. Who knows whether Gervais delights in Freeman’s success or resents it? We can, however, be fairly sure that he won’t like the suggestion that his film has too many dud notes, and that he needed Merchant alongside him to make it really sing.