You cringed at David Brent. You came to love Michael Scott. (Or, the great secret agent Michael Scarn.) Now, get ready to meet Hannah Howard – the latest nightmare boss in a new take on The Office. The legendary comedy sitcom – which originated with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s 2001 mockumentary series in the UK, and spawned the mega-smash US version in 2005 – is now delivering a version from Australia, ready to send audiences to the corporate culture of Down Under. The series – officially titled The Office, but sure to be known as ‘The Australian Office’, or ‘The Office Australia’ once it arrives – is coming to Prime Video in the UK from 18 October.
This time, The Office won’t take place at a paper company like Wernham Hogg or Dunder Mifflin – it’ll be set at Flinley Craddock, a packaging company where major cuts are about to threaten the workforce. It’s up to Hannah Howard (played by Felicity Ward, who popped up in The Inbetweeners 2, and recently featured on Richard Osman’s House Of Games) to try and keep everything together. With an eight-episode run, this one looks set to operate more like the UK iteration rather than the lengthy seasons of the US version.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Hannah Howard is the managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick. When she gets news from Head Office that they will be shutting down her branch and making everyone work from home, she goes into survival mode, making promises she can’t keep in order to keep her ‘work family’ together. The staff of Flinley Craddick indulge her and must endure Hannah’s outlandish plots as they work toward the impossible targets that have been set for them.”
Does the world need another version of The Office? Will it live up to the other English-language versions (there are global takes on The Office aplenty, though none as famous as the US and UK takes)? It’s hard to say – but really, it all comes down to the writing and the characters. Remember, the The Office US really came into its own on Season 2, and sprang into one of the most beloved shows ever to grace the box. Here’s hoping the Australian version earns a handful of Dundies.