Extras

Did anyone watch it? I thought it was absolutely brilliant especially the ending about culture of celebrity being parodied in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

Any opinions?

I reluctantly sat through ten minutes of Ricky "overated" Gervais last week to see the Celebrity Big Brother spoof - which to be fair to him was neatly done, if not the most original idea ever.



Will Ricky Gervais be playing Ricky Gervais in his next project?

I loved it, nice suitable ending to a brilliant and hilarious two series.

It was definally the one to watch this Christmas, much better than anything on BBC1 on Christmas Day really. I am amazed how he manages to get all the celebrities to send themselves up like that

The Celebrity Big Brother spoof was better than any of the real CBB and had bigger celebrities!

Indeed, although it wasn't wall to wall gags (as said by Gervais and Merhcnat), it was more of a TV Movie and I very much enjoyed it, it was a nice way to end the show.

Loved the Celebrity Big Brother bits, the near fight with Gordon Ramsay and The Carphone Warehouse trio.

The good thing is that it was a potshot at everyone.

The tabloids wouldn't exist without the public that buy them. The fame game wouldn't exist without the tabloids, and vice versa if celebrities refused to play the game, the papers wouldn't have as much to run on. Everyone's responsible. And Gervais clocked that.

Beyond that, he's admitted his own culpability. He's admitted Big Brother is a guilty pleasure of his. So it's not taken from a high horse either. It's not some embittered writer (see Brookside's closing speech), it's not some snob (see Maggie's line about 'you get six million viewers and then you complain it's the wrong six million') it's someone who's reached the top of the tree, looked down below and quite justifiably gone: "What the hell is all this about?"

I was worried about this. I thought it would turn into a 90 minute lecture. Instead we got a cracking comedy programme with a real message at its heart. Absolute genius, and good to see Ricky back at his best.

The ending and general thrust of the show was trailed as being downbeat (by those with their noses in the industry trough). Nothing like it. The surprisingly audacious attack on the industry brought tears of joy to my eyes- not that the comments will make any difference- and when the programme finished I realised I had been smiling for a long time.

I also enjoyed Hotel Babylon, Doctor Who and Robin Hood being dismissed for what they are.

Fantastic show, I am a huge fan of Gervais and Merchant and Karl Pilkington's guest appearance and they didn't disappoint.

The HBO version of Extras has already been uploaded to YouTube and I have tried my best to avoid spoilers.

Admittedly there was no fitting ending to the show but there didn't need to be - it finished with a message to industry and that was all it needed.

The CBB exaggeration was spot-on.

I have Gervais's Fame DVD (which I've yet to see) so no doubt there are hints to this in that.

Loved the episode tonight - fantastic.

I didn't like the Doctor Who part. C'mon it's Corny but not 'that' corny mr "High & mighty" gervais.

Did you not see the Christmas special?

His "attacks" on everything were spot on. A great 90 minutes of TV and by far the best show on TV this Christmas.

Yes, I thought the attacks were spot on

Another thing though, was it me, or was there blatant 'product placement' in the show.

First, the scene in John Lewis where a sticker on the screen of the Sony LCD TV they were viewing said 'Free Five Year Warranty'.
I've never seen any store stick stickers *on* the screens of their LCDs, it's a bad idea given the sensitive nature of the screens. It led me to think it was an added DOG in the footage fed to the screen ?

Secondly, the CPW scene and references.

The Beeb used to be paranoid about this sort of thing, c.f. Blue Peter sticking tape over Kelloggs cornflake packets, not using the word 'Sellotape' or 'Hoover' etc etc, or was it just me ?