4. The Canary Wharf Show Was Filmed Around Working People
'Hey guys we have no money at all so let's shoot a terrible soap opera and pretended we are making Eastenders!' Canary Wharf the series was a bizarre affair with semi-famous bit part players from The Bill and cast-offs from Coronation Street acting in the very real offices that we worked in. I suppose this is obvious but since they didn't have the budget to hire extras this meant that everyone you saw in the background of the show were L!ve TV workers trying to do their jobs. With the exception of upper echelons who wore suits, us non-suited grunts all shared an open plan office with up to one hundred and fifty workers at various levels of power all lined up in a sweat shop style space with repetitious desks placed one after the other. Put a sewing machine on each desk and we could have all been pre-war seamstresses - Mirror communism at its finest. I was placed at the end presumably because I had the auspicious title of Director, but probably because it was the first desk freed up when I was hired. This also meant they liked to film there because of its easy access and thus my desk became the work station for a character in the show. I would come into work to find a small film crew and an actor sitting in my chair. At one point the action called for the character to check his voicemail which he did for real and wiped my messages during the take. Frustrated I went into the kitchen to get some coffee only to find Benny from Crossroads swigging out of my mug.