Extras: Patrick Stewart (2005)

Member Rating:

Andy (Ricky Gervais) and Maggie (Ashley Jensen) are extras on the set of a very serious Patrick Stewart film. Andy's nemesis, Greg (Shaun Pye), is also there, and he has a line, much to Andy's chagrin. Andy drops by Patrick Stewart's trailer in a desperate effort to further his career. Stewart understands the challenge faced by struggling actors and is quite welcoming. When Andy tells Stewart about his sitcom script, Stewart goes into great detail about the screenplay he's working on, about a man (to be played by Stewart) who can control the world with his mind, and mainly uses that power to make women's clothes fall off. Later, Andy's agent (Stephen Merchant) calls him in, and tells him that the BBC is interested in his sitcom. The agent tries to get Andy to consider his client Shaun Williamson, now working as a handyman at the agency, for the lead role, instead of Andy playing it himself as intended. Despite the agent's ineptitude, Andy's meeting with producer Iain (Guy Henry) and flamboyantly gay script editor Damon (Martin Savage) goes quite well, and Andy starts working with Damon to tighten up the pilot script. First, of course, he has to drop by the set to tell Maggie the good news, and rub it in the faces of his fellow extras, particularly Greg. While Damon is out on a coffee break, Maggie visits, and Andy jokingly complains about his writing partner. "No one needs to be that gay." Maggie runs into Damon on her way out, and suggests he "might want to tone it down a bit," which leads to all kinds of problems. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi