All British Comedy Explained… to Abigoliah Schamaun, by Tom Salinsky

1.6: The Office. Released 18 December 2025.

Despite having hardly any experience in television, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created an indelible series which not only set the stage for a couple of decades of mockumentary and/or cringe comedy but which inspired versions in countries all over the world. We’re watching the first two episodes since this is an ongoing story. If you’d like to watch along, everything is available now on iPlayer.

Next time we’ll be watching The Day Today which is not currently streaming but many episodes and dozens of clips can be found on YouTube. There are only six episodes and we’re going to watch the third and the sixth.

Here’s a long list of social media systems where you can find the podcast and us.

The podcast

• https://substack.com/@allbritishcomedy
• Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/jnPC56
• allbritishcomedy@gmail.com
• https://allbritishcomedy.com
• https://www.youtube.com/@AllBritishComedyExplained
• https://www.instagram.com/britishcomedypod
• https://www.tiktok.com/@britishcomedypod
• https://bsky.app/profile/allbritishcomedy.bsky.social
• https://www.threads.com/@britishcomedypod
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/allbritishcomedy

Abigoliah Schamaun

• https://abigoliah.com
• https://www.youtube.com/Abigoliah
• https://www.instagram.com/abigoliah
• https://www.tiktok.com/@abigoliah

Tom Salinsky

• https://tomsalinsky.co.uk
• https://www.facebook.com/tomsalinsky
• https://www.instagram.com/tomsalinsky
• https://www.tiktok.com/@tomsalinsky1972
• https://bsky.app/profile/tomsalinsky.bsky.social
• https://www.threads.com/@tomsalinsky

All British Comedy Explained is produced by The Spontaneity Shop. If you enjoy this podcast, why not check out The Guilty Feminist with Deborah Frances-White, Tom’s other podcast Best Pick all about movies, or Abigoliah’s other podcast Neurodivergent Moments.

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