At the start of "The Office" David Brent is the Regional Manager of the Slough branch of the paper company Wernham-Hogg. Things soon go downhill for him, when his office merges with the Swindon branch the other manager is made his boss and then he is eventually fired and has to become a travelling salesman to make ends meet.

David Brent is an annoying man, who tells bad jokes and fails to get respect from his staff. He is an inept, egotistical, hypocritical, lying, two-faced, gauche individual, who constantly finds disaster and makes enormous faux-pas. If you look deeper, you see a rather lonely man, who lies to himself about how popular and talented he is.

Played perfectly by award-winning Ricky Gervais, the character of David Brent has very quickly become a sitcom favourite and almost a classic. The truth is there are so many people just like Brent he probably struck a cord with most of the audience.