Extras

They put stickers on sometimes, mostly just saying HD, but not massive, and they tend to be on the encasement of the screens (the plastic at the side) not the screen itself.

EDIT:

Also, I know what you mean about the BBC not saying the product names, but still showing them.

ie: Chris Moyles podcast: not allowed to say iPod, but rather "MP3 player" yet the BBC have chosen a device with a screen at the top, with a circular selection device and central button (aka an ipod) as it's "podcast icon" on most of the sites

A brilliant brilliant special. It's odd really, because i think Extras is brilliantly written and acted by Ricky Gervais, yet i can't stand him outside of it.

It's weird really, just look at his performance at the Diana Concert, you could have imagined it was Andy Milman himself doing that appearance if his 'sitcom' was 'The Office'. Almost as if Andy could have walked on stage, realised he had nothing planned (Like Ricky did) and just shout "Is he 'avin a laff' a few times, just like Ricky did by doing the dance.

I'm not knocking Gervais for the sake of it as I'm a huge fan of most of his work, but I found the show a pretty dreary and long-winded affair with very few laughs (although I suspect that's got much to do with "building your hopes up" syndrome, because of all the hype).

Highlights for me were Gordon Ramsay's "You're a has-been!" (Ramsay was superb considering he's not even an actor) and the bird song, accompanied by Gervais's facial expression, when the slut on Celeb BB revealed who she'd sh@gged.

Production values were a bit patchy, I thought. The mock BB house looked too small and unconvincing to any serious BB fan, which was a shame given the huge budgets spent on making things look 'real' in the previous two series.

Am I the only one who thinks Gervais's sermon about the cult of modern celebrity was a case of stating the bleedin' obvious? Virtually everyone who's ever watched any celeb reality show, or appeared on it, already knows (and agrees with) everything he said. But Gervais delivered the philosophy as if he was the first person to come up with it!

The endless references to Andy Millman's 'journey' from desperate nobody, to arrogant celeb with inflated sense of talent, to humble has-been looking for redemption, were too obvious and overstated. And the scene where Millman tried to impress the Guardian interviewer was stupidly overplayed, and the concept had already been done several times in The Office with far more subtlety.

missed it

when is it repeated

iPlayer? TVCatchup.com?

It's repeated later today on BBC One if you don't mind the Sign language in the corner or on Sunday evening at 9pm on BBC Two.

Has anyone compiled a list of differences between the BBC version and the HBO version?

I've always wondered what American viewers make of references to Jade Goody's mum or Ronnie Corbett.

Does the show still work without 'getting' all the references? I know there are references in The Simpsons that I don't get, as well as others that I didn't get the first time I saw the episode but due to increased exposure to American culture I now understand.

The HBO version replaced the Jade Goody joke with a Seinfeld Kramer doll i think, and the 'Same Difference' gag was replaced too. I think the more obscure British references are replaced, but not the big ones like Jonathan Ross or Doctor Who or anything like that.

It went the other way for me.

I'd been reading constant interviews with Ricky saying he'd taken Andy to a dark place, that it wasn't going to be a gag-fest, that it was going to have a heart, and feared the worst.

I came in with low expectations, and was pleasantly surprised.

Things like the Dean Gaffney cameo (one of the highlights for me)would have gone right over their heads though surely

I suppose, but then there are hundreds of references in Family Guy that i don't understand, doesn't stop me enjoying the show As long as Gaffney role wasn't completely dependent on people knowing who he was, it was ok. To the Americans, he could have just been another extra, a friend of Barry who just happen to have to work at Carphone Warehouse too

thanks for that, I'll catch it on Sunday