1. It Knew When To Call It A Day
Fifteen episodes. Two series, two Christmas specials and a one-off for this year's Comic Relief. A running time of just under nine hours. That's it. By contrast, the US version has over a hundred episodes. Both Merchant and Gervais were very clear that their show would not, and should not, outstay its welcome but instead come to a natural end. They said that viewers would only accept the 'fly on the wall' premise for a short amount of time (indeed, one of the questions raised about the US version is ''They've been filming for so long, why don't the characters know they're on TV yet?'') and that it was better to leave on a high than run the series into the ground. Quality over quantity. But there is so much packed into those nine hours. Tragedy, comedy and all in between. The characters are not stock, sterotypical soundbites but familiar, fully-formed, flesh-and-blood. And although the Christmas specials have provided a sense of closure, the door remains forever ajar. As much as we would love the series to return- after all, David Brent exists even when the cameras aren't there- we know that, ultimately, it would never quite be the same.
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