Happy Birthday to David Brent & The Office

#RickyGervais #StephenMerchant #TheOffice

Today is a fascinating day. On the 8th of July 2001, the world knew nothing of David Brent, and Ricky Gervais was only a name few had uttered. Although tomorrow is the 10 Year Anniversary of BBC's The Office premiere, I like to think about THIS day, 10 years ago, and what the world was like.

The World Trade Center still stood in New York City.

Facebook was still 2 years away from being conceived in a dorm room

And the world knew nothing of David Brent, The Office, or largely, Ricky Gervais.

The reason this day is fascinating is because it was the day after today that the world would be different forever. Simply because of the success of The Office, Ricky Gervais became the gift that kept on giving, mainly along side co-writer and co-director, Stephen Merchant.

Tomorrow I will celebrate, but not simply an anniversary, or a birthday, but a day that will live in infamy. A day that started a chain reaction which left many peoples lives completely different, including mine.

From other successful shows as Golden Globe Award winning Extras, to podcasts before the term podcasts were coined and the discovery of Karl Pilkington, the works of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have clearly moved them into the category, 'pioneers of their industry'.

It's only fitting that their next project, is the first TV show collaboration since Extras, and continues down the mockumentary path. Although this time, Ricky and Steve play alter-egos of themselves alongside Warwick Davis.

I shall now post a series of images in memorium of the last 10 years.