See Ricky Gervais Croon for David Brent’s Hometown ‘Slough’
In the hilarious teaser for Ricky Gervais‘ upcoming Office spin-off David Brent: Life on the Road, Gervais (as Brent) romanticizes his mundane hometown of Slough. He performs a Bowie-esque ballad onstage, with backing band Foregone Conclusion rolling their eyes in annoyance.
“This next song is about the greatest place in the world: Slough,” Brent says to introduce the song. “Everything in this song is factually accurate. You might learn something as well.” The aspiring rock star/former Wernham-Hogg general manager croons about his city’s finest qualities: “More convenient than a Tesco Express/ close to Windsor, but the property’s less.”
“Slough, my kinda town/ I don’t know how anyone could put you down,” he sings over strings and piano, interspersed with aerial shots of the city. In a recent interview with The Sun, Gervais said he sent a demo version of “Slough” to Bowie and “he loved it … He said: ‘I’d like to hear a whole album of David Brent singing about provincial towns of Britain.'”
Life on the Road, which picks up 12 years after the BBC mockumentary, follows Brent through middling concerts as he tries to reinvent himself as a rock star. “I left Wernham-Hogg, and I found myself again,” Brent says in the film’s official trailer. “And I started to do what I do best: entertain … On the road is where I really come alive.”
That clip highlights Brent’s offensive lyrics and strange behavior, which start to irritate his bandmates and audiences alike. “I like making people feel,” he says. “I get inside your head, maybe get inside your heart.”
The film, written and directed by Gervais, will hit hit U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand theaters on August 19th. It will be available via Netflix in 2017.