David Brent: Life on the Road Directed byRicky Gervais Produced byRicky Gervais Charlie Hanson Written byRicky Gervais Starring Ricky Gervais Ben Bailey Smith CinematographyRemi Adefarasin Production company Entertainment One BBC Films Distributed byEntertainment One Release date 19 August 2016 Running time 96 minutes CountryUnited Kingdom LanguageEnglish Budget£10,000,000 Box office£3,511,343 David Brent: Life on the Road is a 2016 British mockumentary comedy film written, dir…
Brent is a white-collar office middle-manager and the principal character of the series. In each episode he plays the guitar, gives tips on how to play and answers fan questions. At several points, the audience is prompted to feel sympathetic towards Brent. He has a consistent need to be acknowledged as a Brent has a tendency to promote himself as an intelligent and politically correct man, but often demonstrates an unwittingly offensive attitude towards ethnic minorities, disabled people and women. He is the general manager of the Slough branch of Wernham-Hogg paper merchants and the boss to most other characters in the series. These are the few times Brent is seen trying to hold on in the face of a somewhat bleak situation. This is especially true in the final episode of the second series — as Brent faces redundancy — and in parts of the Christmas special where he is seen struggling with life after losing his job and his fifteen minutes of fame (thus acknowledging that the supposed "documentary" filmed at Wernham-Hogg has been shown on television). The film was released on 19 August 2016 in the UK by Fifteen years after his appearance in the BBC2 "documentary" series Desperate to resume his music career and sign a record deal, Brent takes a month of unpaid leave and uses money from his pension to pay his fellow band members (As the tour wears on, the band and crew refuse to socialise with Brent (unless he pays them to do so), and even make him drive behind the tour bus claiming there is no room for him. A key aspect of the character of Brent is his obliviousness to how other people actually see him, causing him to lash out whenever the veil of ignorance and vanity he maintains is pierced. Brent returns to Lavichem to the delight of Pauline, Karen and Nigel.
For the song by The Kinks, see Gervais announced that he would release the film's soundtrack album under Brent's recording label Juxtaposition Records.On 20 October 2015, Gervais published an exclusive photo of Brent on the set of his music video shoot for his song "Lady Gypsy".In May 2016, Gervais announced that Brent would be releasing a single in July ahead of the film release,Principal photography began in November 2015, with Gervais directing as well as starring. The Christmas special also reveals that Brent owns a pet Labrador retriever called Nelson, which he named after Brent's character was deliberately made more sympathetic as the show progressed, generating pathos from a superficially grotesque character in the manner of British comedy classics such as Due to the popularity of the show, Brent's persona has entered British office-life culture as the epitome of the "bad boss". Brent's future appears happier at the end of the Christmas special, when his lively and attractive blind date appears to genuinely enjoy his company. Brent claims that his presence is 'good for morale' and in perhaps his saddest moment he asks all of the staff to come out with him for a drink to which no one responds, his request descends into begging as he offers multiple days as options only to realise that no one wants anything to do with him at all, eventually prompting Tim to take him up on his offer out of pity. Brent often asks other characters how old they think he is, only to be dismayed and offended when their guesses—even when accurate (39)—are older than he wishes to hear. The band plays one final show, and then reluctantly join Brent for a drink. He said, "Managing a Premiership football team is a bit like running a successful paper merchants. "Life on the Road" redirects here.