Extras Christmas Special

Special
Andy in the diary room.
Episode no.	13
Original airdate	16 December 2007 (HBO) 27 December 2007 (BBC)
Written by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Directed by	Ricky Gervais Stephen Merchant
Guest stars	George Michael Clive Owen Gordon Ramsay David Tennant

The Extras Christmas Special is the final feature length installment of the BBC/HBO series Extras. It acts as a natural conclusion to the programme after the two preceding series, in the same manner as The Office Christmas Specials. 5.3 million people viewed it when it aired on BBC One.

Plot

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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Back to the Ivy, then?

Though When The Whistle Blows has bought him fame and fortune, a visit to a supermarket with Maggie brings Andy face to face with the downside to his success. A Ray Stokes doll is on sale, and, if the smug shop assistant is to be believed, is not selling well.

Strolling past a TV display, Andy learns of Greg’s starring role as Percy Shelley alongside Clive Owen in the new Byron biopic. Maggie is more impressed than Andy at this development.

This seems to act as a catalyst for Andy’s realisation that he is not in the place he aspires to be in his career. Rather than being content at his upmarket flat on Hampstead Heath or his VIP status at The Ivy Restaurant, he instead takes it upon himself to expand his acting horizons, seeking the more artistically satisfying roles he yearned for in the beginning.

He's fired me?

A chance meeting with Greg’s agent Tre Cooper gives Andy the ray of hope he needed. Deciding to use Tre to further his career, Andy fires Darren and quits the sitcom to allow himself to concentrate on the more prestigious roles that will undoubtedly come to him. However, Andy and Tre are soon in discussion as to how to boost his public profile via appearances on reality TV shows and other low brow programming. At this point, Andy’s artistic integrity is still a forethought and he proceeds to wait for more important roles to flood in. This burst of focus toward his acting career causes him to lose touch with Maggie, who has fallen on hard times. After relying on extras work for so long she finally quits after being humiliated on the set of Clive Owen’s new film. Her lack of experience and qualifications means she can only get work as a cleaner, a decrease in monetary income forcing her to abandon her flat and move into a small bedsit in order to be able to afford rent. Her contact with Andy is increasingly dictated by his schedule, and she is left alone and unhappy with the turn her life has taken. Desperate for employment she visits Darren at the Carphone Warehouse, where he is now working alongside Dean Gaffney and Barry from EastEnders.

Andy’s unwillingness to subscribe to the media hungry celebrity culture he so despises causes his acting career to flounder. Tre has seemingly lost interest in Andy’s career, causing him to accept the low brow roles he initially declined, and thus beginning his downward spiral into self obsession, constantly trying to remain in the public eye. This leads to an altercation between Andy and Tre, where his two options are made clear: either do as Tre says to stay rich and famous, or lose his profile by chasing credibility and respect. Andy chooses fame, a decision made all the more painful due to the fact that this meeting takes place in front of Greg, whose successful career Andy has envied from the start.

Tre’s position lands Andy a spot in the latest Celebrity Big Brother, but he quickly comes to terms with the fact that this is not where he wants to be, and after several exchanges with the other housemates about their lack of dignity, he finally buckles under the emotional pressure and makes a tearful and heartfelt speech about his views on celebrity culture, and he apologises to Maggie who has been watching him at home for the duration of his time in the house. He leaves the show.

In an ironic twist of fate, this speech brings him more media attention and respect than he could ever have gained just by struggling to fulfill his career. Before a press conference Andy causes a scene yet again whereby he escapes unseen to Maggie, who is waiting for him. Together they drive towards the airport, engaging in the inane chat that cemented their friendship in the first place.

Quotes

• Man: Which role are you going for?
  Andy: Henry Milligan.
  Greg: Hang on, you can’t be Henry Milligan, it says here age 36.
  Andy: Yeah, I took that as being mid to late 30’s.
  Greg: We’ll change it to late 30’s. Hang on, you can’t be Henry Milligan, it says here late 30’s.
• Greg: Yeah, look at his belly, Andy has your diaphragm just collapsed?
• Clive Owen: I’m not very happy with this… No I mean this one being the prostitute. I wouldn’t pay for that.
• Clive Owen: Well I’m telling you if I just slept with that, I wouldn’t throw the food on the floor I’d throw it in her face.
  Woman: Ok what food would you throw cause I can get props on to that?
  Clive Owen: Well I think it should be like some kind of gruel as if I found some oats on the stable floor. Just mix it with some shit and like, wet cabbage. What would be great is when it plaps into her face it just sort of looks like a rancid cow pie.

I wouldn't pay for that.

• Clive Owen: Oh fuck off, I’m Clive Owen that’s mental!
• Andy: I’m not into that, I don’t want to do it that way.
  Tre: Do you want to get on the B-List or not?
  Andy: Yeah, but not the Hepatitis-B list.
• Maggie: Mr. Millman the phone call’s just come in.
  Andy: Oh who is it?
  Maggie: Is it Wiggly Scott?
• Maggie: I’m not an extra.
  Andy: No. You were.
  Maggie: And so were you.
• Maggie: No matter how successful you are, you’ll never be famous enough.
• Barry: Be careful, mate. Fame is a mask that eats into the face.
• Ramsey: Cock. Haven’t you had enough cheese sandwiches? Fat boy.
  Andy: You pound puppy faced git.
  Ramsey: You catchphrase shouting, wig wearing wannabe.
  Andy: You publicity hungry failed footballing fuck.
  Ramsey: You’re a has been. Go home.
  Andy: You think you’re so hard, don’t you? Cause you shout at people in kitchens. Who works in kitchens? Ooo women and gays, oh and the French. Oh you’re well hard.
  Ramsey: Let’s just leave it there, shall we? I don’t want to get into a fight I’ve heard your girdle can explode any minute.

Andy’s Big Brother Speech

I’m just sick of these celebrities just living their life out in the open, why would you do that? It’s like these pop stars who choose the perfect moment to go into rehab; they call their publicist before they call a taxi. Then they come out and they do their second autobiography, this one’s called Love Me Or I’ll Kill Myself, oh kill yourself then. And the papers lap it up they follow us round and that makes people think we’re important and that makes us think we’re important. If they stopped following us around, taking pictures of us people wouldn’t take to the streets going, “Ooo quick, I need a picture of Cameron Diaz with a pimple,” they wouldn’t care, they’d get on with something else. They’d get on with their lives. You open the paper and you see a picture of Lindsay Lohan getting out of a car and the headline is, “Cover up Lindsay we can see your knickers.” Of course you can see her knickers, your photographer is lying in the road pointing his camera up her dress to see her knickers. You’re literally the gutter press. And fuck you, the makers of this show as well. You can’t wash your hands of this. You can’t keep going, “Oh, it’s exploitation but it’s what the public want.” No. The Victorian freak show never went away, now it’s called Big Brother or X Factor where, in the preliminary rounds, we wheel out the bewildered to be sniggered at by multi-millionaires. And fuck you for watching this at home. Shame on you. And shame on me. I’m the worst of all cause I’m one of these people that goes, “Ooo I’m an entertainer. It’s in my blood.” Yeah, it’s in my blood cause a real job’s too hard. I would have loved to have been a doctor, too hard, didn’t want to put the work in. Love to be a war hero, I’m too scared. So I go, “Oh it’s what I do.” And I have someone bollocked if my cappuccino’s cold or if they look at me the wrong way. Do you know what a friend of mine once said? They said I’ll never be happy because I’ll never be famous enough and they were right. And if you’re watching this I’m so sorry. You’re my best friend, you’re my only friend. And you never did anything wrong. It was everything else. I’ll never do that again, I’ll never treat you like that again. It’s eating me up, you asked me a stupid question once, and I could have answered it and I didn’t cause I was… I’ll answer it now, I’d be the penguin cause I could eat the flying fish. I know what you’re thinking, why doesn’t the fish fly away? Well they can’t really fly, they sort of glide and flap, they should be called glidey flappy fish. I’m so sorry.

Awards and Acclaim

Stephen Merchant was nominated for a BAFTA in 2008 for his role as Darren Lamb.

Trivia

• Karl Pilkington appears as an autograph hunter outside the Ivy. Karl made a behind the scenes documentary about his time on set entitled ‘The Real Extras’.
• The soundtrack features the song ‘This Woman's Work’ by Kate Bush and ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ by The Smiths.
• It first aired in the USA on 16th December, and in the UK on the 27th.
• Barry’s quote about fame was mentioned as one of Stephen Merchant’s favourites on an Xfm radio show on 30 March 2002.
• The only actor to appear in both the Extras Christmas Special and The Office Christmas Special (apart from Gervais) was Steve Brody who played the estate agent in Extras and was David Brent’s agent in The Office.

Changes for America

• The t-shirt worn by a member of the studio audience was changed from Victoria Wood in the ASDA adverts to Sigourney Weaver in the DirectTV adverts.
• The doll that was outselling the Ray Stokes doll was changed from Jade Goody to Kramer.
• The doll that the shop owner ordered for the next Christmas was changed from Same Difference to Sanjaya.
• The journalist that Andy mentions in the Big Brother house was changed from Kate Adie to Katie Couric.
• The television presenter mentioned by Andy was changed from Jimmy Carr to Ryan Seacrest.
• During Andy’s Big Brother speech, the show X Factor was changed to American Idol.

Gallery

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  Andy's girdle.

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  The queer bench.

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  Karl Pilkington.

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  Ringtone dance.

• For more images go to: Gallery:Extras - Christmas Special