Freeman’s point is not that the show was built from actors wandering in and making things up. That would be a very brave way to produce a precision-tooled sitcom. His complaint is more specific: some lines and moments did come from the actors, and he feels that has been flattened out over time.
What annoyed him about the published scripts
Freeman said his frustration grew when the scripts were later published, because he believed they reflected the finished episodes rather than the original written pages.
“What slightly annoyed me at the time is when the scripts were published, they weren’t the scripts. They were the transcriptions of what had been on television,” he said.
“So that annoyed me a little bit because, well, anyone who knows any of us knows that that line came from you in that moment, that line came from me.”
The actor, also known for Sherlock and roles in Marvel projects, was careful not to undercut the writing itself. He described Gervais and Merchant’s scripts as “brilliant” and “nicely loose,” giving the cast room to lean into the awkward silences, half-finished sentences, and office misery that made the show feel painfully real.
He added: “I can understand why there was a little bit of protection about that, because otherwise people would’ve gone: ‘Hey, you just rock up and you just make it all up,’ which clearly was not the case.
“The writing on it that they did was brilliant. But you only need to know us a little bit or know the process of it. We’re also in there, you know?
“It doesn’t mean it’s a co-credit. Doesn’t mean it’s improvised, but it’s nicely loose.”
What Ricky Gervais has said before
Gervais has previously pushed back against the idea that The Office was improvised. In a 2005 interview with NPR, he said: “People think The Office was improvised, but it’s all on the page.”
He explained that in the early stages, the team had tried a looser approach, with scripts that were “sort of 80 percent scripted” and room for improvisation. But he said the material written in advance usually held up better once the laughter on set had faded.
“We do that because what we found is that in the early days of The Office, we went in with it sort of 80 percent scripted and we did some things and then we improv’d and we did, you know, and it gets a laugh on the floor because it’s the first time they’ve heard it,” he said.
“But when you get back into the editing suite in the cold light of day, the written stuff is better.”
That gap between what gets a laugh during filming and what survives the edit is familiar in comedy. Less glamorous than the myth, yes, but probably more useful.
Who is joining the anniversary special
The new retrospective, Mackenzie Crook and Martin Freeman Remember… The Office, brings Freeman and Crook back together more than 15 years after they last saw each other, according to the programme synopsis.
The pair will share memories of working with Gervais, Merchant, and Davis, who played Tim’s love interest Dawn. Their on-screen relationship became one of the emotional anchors of the show, cutting through the cringe with just enough sincerity to make viewers keep watching through David Brent’s latest disaster.
The special also revisits the cast’s time at the fictional paper company Wernham Hogg and the atmosphere around a comedy that began modestly and it became a model for mockumentary sitcoms around the world.
Gervais, 65, is not taking part in the BBC reunion, and neither is Merchant. A source described Gervais’s absence as a “huge blow” for the broadcaster, though representatives for Gervais told Metro there was no rift between him and the BBC.
Instead, Gervais is marking the anniversary with his own YouTube special, which will also include his upcoming Netflix show Alley Cats and his stand-up tour, Legend.
Mackenzie Crook and Martin Freeman Remember… The Office airs tonight at 10pm on BBC Two and will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
