''Perfect World'' is a British sitcom that was first shown on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

in the UK from 25 February 2000 to 25 June 2001. The series starred

Paul Kaye Paul Kaye (born 15 December 1964) is an English comedian and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Thoros of Myr in the HBO fantasy series ''Game of Thrones'' (2013–17). He started as shock interviewer Dennis Pennis on ''The Sunday ...

as Bob Slay, an obnoxious, lazy and amoral phony marketing executive for a leading toiletries company. Yet Bob has a swish office and an attractive girlfriend, and is well regarded by his manager. The television series was written by Mark Grant (who would later go on to write ''Star'') and Mark Chapman who was a co-writer for the second series and provided additional material for the first series. Mark Chapman also directed the first series and produced both series with Nick Wood directing the second. The show's other producer was Lucy Robinson (who produced the first

Dennis Pennis Paul Kaye (born 15 December 1964) is an English comedian and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Thoros of Myr in the HBO fantasy series ''Game of Thrones'' (2013–17). He started as shock interviewer Dennis Pennis on ''The Sunday ...

instalment and played the mayoress in '' The Thin Blue Line'') and it had executive producers Danielle Lux (''

All About Me ''All About Me'' is a British television sitcom starring Jasper Carrott about a multicultural family living in Birmingham. It was broadcast on BBC One from 8 March 2002 to 29 October 2004. ''All About Me'' was created by Steven Knight, who also ...

'') and Charles Brand ('' The Comic Strip Presents...''). ''Perfect World'' was also broadcast in Australia on the

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

Cast

as Bob Slay *

Derren Litten Derren Ronald Litten (born 21 December 1970) is an English comedy writer, actor and director, best known as the creator and writer of the sitcom ''Benidorm''. He co-wrote ''The Catherine Tate Show'', in which he plays several characters in the ...

as Vaughan Rogers *

Nina Wadia Nina Wadia (born 18 December 1968) is a British actress. She is known for portraying Zainab Masood in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', Aunty Noor in '' Citizen Khan'', Mrs Hussein in the BBC comedy ''Still Open All Hours'' and for starring i ...

as Margaret (Maggie) Stone *

Michael Cochrane Michael Dundonald Cochrane (born 19 May 1947) is an English actor. He has played Oliver Sterling in the Radio 4 soap opera ''The Archers''. Early life Cochrane was born 19 May 1947, in Brighton, East Sussex. He was educated at Cranleigh Sc ...

as Terrence Bentley (Marketing Director) * Tasha de Vasconcelos as Lauren * Ekaterina Parfionova as Anna Molchanov * Dariel Pertwee as Briony * Hannah Storey as Julia

Episodes

Series 1 (2000)

Series 2 (2001)

Video and DVD releases

Perfect World series one was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in 2000, and rated 18 probably due to Paul Kaye saying the word "fuck" in the episode 'Love'. The video has been discontinued but a Region 2

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

box set containing both series one and two was due for release on 26 January 2009 by 2entertain, the joint venture by the

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

and Woolworths Group.

own 60% of

2entertain 2 Entertain Video Limited, trading as BBC Studios Home Entertainment, is a British video and music publisher founded in 2004 following the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International by BBC Worldwide and the Woolworths Group respec ...

, while Woolworths Group own 40%. However, the release was affected by the collapse of Woolworths in the UK and legal arguments and challenges by the

over the ownership of the rights over the recordings owned by

following the demise of Woolworths Group. The legal dispute centres on whether a licensing agreement between

and

lapsed when Woolworths Group went into administration.

Quotes and critical reception

said in an interview regarding the series: "I've never really worked in an office but it was the way I imagined you'd keep sane - I mean an office is sort of like an extended playground, isn't it? So the guy does absolutely no work and the only way he can relieve the tedium is by behaving despicably and I think the whole office would actually be sad if he left because it would suddenly be all very mundane. I mean I'm sure that's the case in a lot of real offices - it's like on reality-TV shows, everyone quite likes the bad guy in the Big Brother house, really." Tasche de Vasconcelos who plays Lauren in the first series said: "It's a great show, I'm just so proud to have been able to do it. It's brilliantly written". She later went on to describe Paul as "a wonderful actor and co-partner he was so professional". This is a review of the first episode of series one: "The stylish opening to this new office-centered, six-part situation comedy introduces Bob Slay, the ultimate marketing man.

(well known as spoof interviewer Dennis Pennis), stars as a slick and selfish operator with a saccharine tongue who occasionally justifies his behaviour in asides to the camera. His only real area of vulnerability is his parentage - he was abandoned as a baby. That makes him particularly nervous when he has to meet his gorgeous girlfriend Lauren's parents for the first time. The plotting is quite convoluted in this distinctly adults-only opener, but it has its moments. The best of them involve the marketing director, played by Michael Cochrane as a sex-mad monster who steals all the best lines. Even he confesses to being a little over-eager with Lauren's mother, played by Jan Harvey."

References

External links

* * DVD Rights owner

https://web.archive.org/web/20080509161030/http://www.2entertain.co.uk/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20070628212848/http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/p/perfectworld_66602780.shtml (NB: Site no longer available) {{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect World (Sitcom) 2000 British television series debuts 2001 British television series endings 2000s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms Television series by Banijay Television series by Tiger Aspect Productions British English-language television shows Television series produced at Pinewood Studios