The Office Becomes Le Bureau For The French

Ricky Gervais is everywhere at the moment. His podcast is in the Guinness Book Of Records, he’s going to be on The Simpsons, and now his hit sitcom is going French and being made into Le Bureau.

Now that a French version of The Office is being made, it means that Ricky Gervais is basically going to get even richer and a bit more smug. But we can at least prepare ourselves for Le Bureau - the French for "Do the funny dance," is "Faire la danse drôle." That’ll come in handy in the next few months, trust us.

The Office (DVDs) is already the BBC’s most successful-ever comedy export.
As well as the two Golden Globes The Office won, it has also been sold
to 80 countries around the world and has been remade into a vastly
popular American series starring Steve Carrell - an episode of which
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have agreed to write.

And now comes the first non-English version of The Office - Le Bureau. According to the BBC:

Office manager David Brent is now Gilles Triquet -
played by Francois Berleand - and it is set in Villepinte, a business
park north of Paris. The original script, written by Gervais and his comedy partner Stephen Merchant, has been adapted into French.
Filming with the French cast - most of whom are unknown
actors - has just been completed and the show will hit the Canal +
network in the Spring.

Let’s
face it, we’re deeply unlikely to ever get to see Le Bureau, but it’s
fair to say that all of France will soon be chuckling to hilarious
lines like "Il a mis mon agrafeuse dans une gelée," "Je ne fais pas de
secondes peu soignées," and "Fondamentalement un refroidi hors amuseur."

Maybe
the success of Le Bureau will lead to Ricky Gervais letting the French
adapt his other stuff, like Extras and that bit of The 11 O’Clock Show he was in and his
record-breaking podcast - provided that there’s a bald French fool for
the French Ricky Gervais to take the piss out of, that is.

Read more:

The Office remade for French TV - BBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]