List of Extras episodes

Series overview

Episodes

Series 1 (2005)

Jackie, who works on the set, invites Andy and Maggie to her birthday party. He fabricates a reason not to attend, but Maggie fails in her attempt to. He decides to go when he hears that the film's producer, Martin, will be there. At the party, Andy tries to ingratiate himself with Martin by pretending to share Martin's liking of Japanese cinema. Meanwhile, Maggie becomes attracted to John, who works on the production, but is put off when Andy points out he has one leg shorter than the other. In attempting to defend Maggie from accusations of ableism, Andy and Maggie leave after offending Martin's Japanese-American girlfriend with racist stereotypes.

Back on the set, Andy gets in an argument with Stiller just before shooting his scene, and Stiller kicks him off.

Atheist Andy claims to be Catholic when he is attracted to a Catholic fellow extra, whose sister (Francesca Martinez) has cerebral palsy, and asks him if he believes no one will have to deal with illnesses in Heaven. However, a "get together" with her and "some friends" turns out to be Bible study group and Andy's deceit is exposed, despite his efforts to conceal the truth.

Maggie comes to visit Andy during rehearsal and bumps into an old friend, Lizzie Bunton (Rebecca Gethings), who is dancing in the chorus line. Lizzie recalls how they first met working together on the BBC children's drama The Orphans of Penny Farthing Lane. Her closeted gay father, "Bunny" (Gerard Kelly), the play's director, is very controlling of Lizzie's life and treats her like a child. Lizzie invites Maggie to her 29th birthday party, which she reluctantly agrees to attend. She finds out on arrival she is 30 years younger than all the other guests. Bunny admonishes his daughter for messing up a rendition of "Making Your Mind Up" by Bucks Fizz during the party. Lizzie then tells Bunny she is not happy pursuing a showbiz career. Maggie is soon made to leave the party by Bunny after encouraging her friend to find her own way in life.

Maggie is attracted to a young mixed race actor, Dan (Michael Wildman). Despite some initial misunderstandings owing to her over-sensitivity about race, she successfully asks him out on a date, but when he sees her try to hide her golliwog, he ends the date early. When she chats with Jackson on set the day after, she confuses him with Laurence Fishburne. Andy tries to save the ailing conversation but instead makes things significantly worse, resulting in Andy forfeiting the line he had earlier managed to get with Jackson.

Additional celebrity guest star: Patrick Malahide

Andy is asked to rewrite his script with staff writer/producer Damon Beesley (Martin Savage) with a view to a pilot episode being filmed. But when Andy complains to Maggie about how annoyingly camp Damon can be, and she later repeats Andy's apparently homophobic remarks to Damon, the BBC threaten to pull the plug on Andy's show. A furious Andy berates Maggie at her flat, demanding she 'sort herself out' resulting in her clearing out her toys and straightening her hair. After Andy apologizes to Damon, Damon forgives him and work on the pilot resumes, and Andy and Maggie make peace. The conflict in the second series of the BBC meddling with Andy's sitcom is hinted at when Damon insists that Andy's old boss saying "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" should become a catchphrase for the show.

Series 2 (2006)

Andy's new sitcom, When The Whistle Blows, is being filmed. He is disappointed that his script has been reworked to include broad humour and an over-reliance on catchphrases. When his attempts to intervene result in him being threatened with the possibility of returning to the status of a mere extra, Andy backs down and agrees to make and star in a show he hates. Darren attempts to persuade Andy to give Shaun Williamson his role.

Andy takes Maggie out for a meal and inadvertently offends the mother of a teenager with Down syndrome, leading to an increasingly hysterical reaction in the British media, who take his comments out of context. Andy manages to quell the anger, but, back on the film set, he gets into a fight with actor Warwick Davis over remarks Andy privately made to Maggie – which she later repeats to Davis's fiancée. During the altercation, Andy accidentally knees Davis in the face knocking him out cold, leading to the loss of his bit part and further embarrassment from the tabloids.

Co–nominee Stephen Fry wins the award in Andy's category and privately rebukes Andy for his sitcom's use of laugh tracks, silly wigs and catchphrases. Darren then manages to get himself and Andy banned from all BAFTA events when they are caught alongside a drug-taking Ronnie Corbett.

Despite making excuses, Andy is coerced into visiting a boy who is in hospital with cancer and asks Maggie to go with him. Robert Lindsay, who appeared on the Ross show with Andy, is incensed that he, the more famous and talented actor (according to him), was not asked to visit the ailing child and gate-crashes the scheduled visit. Lindsay becomes livid when the sick child shows no recognition of Lindsay's earlier work, especially his appearances as Wolfie on 1970s sitcom Citizen Smith.

Just as Andy is about to fire Darren when he catches him masturbating over a pornographic pen, Darren tells Andy he has arranged a meeting with De Niro. The meeting time conflicts with one of Andy's scheduled visits to the sick boy, but guilt at the burden he is imposing on Maggie combined with his suspicion of Darren's empty promises forces Andy to keep his appointment with the boy at the cost of meeting De Niro. Lamb is able to pacify De Niro with the pornographic pen, and, at the hospital, Andy receives a call from Lamb and De Niro, who invite Andy to meet up at a pub, which he and Maggie accept.

Christmas special (2007)

(UK)

Andy's new agent Tre Cooper's plan is to get Andy "to the top of the B-list" as soon as possible. However, Andy refuses to resort to appearing on red carpets and being photographed with a famous girl on his arm. Things are made worse when Andy's attempt to appear sophisticated during an interview backfire leaving him looking foolish. Andy also completely fails to notice things aren't going nearly as well for Maggie. Although Tre secures her a small part in Clive Owen's new film, she decides to stop being an extra after Owen and the director come up with a bit of staging that involves Owen flinging manure in Maggie's face. With no experience in any other line of work, Maggie has to resort to being a cleaner to pay the rent, which she can no longer afford, and so is forced to move from her flat to a dingy little bedsit. Since Andy now phones only when he needs her to help him with some scheme or other, Maggie is left entirely to her own devices. Nearly destitute and thoroughly despondent, she pops in at Darren's new (and former) employer, the Carphone Warehouse, to see whether he can offer her a place alongside former EastEnders co-stars Shaun Williamson and Dean Gaffney, who have also resorted to working there.

With a decent agent on board, Andy abruptly quits his sitcom, which infuriates the head of BBC comedy. Although he expects himself to be inundated with acting offers, he instead finds himself with even less work than he had before he fired Darren. Tre won't return his calls, so Andy is forced to accept acting gigs that he sneered at only a few months ago (specifically, roles on Doctor Who and Hotel Babylon) just to keep himself in the public eye. Andy finally manages to track down his agent, who tells Andy that he will never be able to have the career he wants and forces him to choose between either "fame and fortune" or "integrity and respect," but not both together. Andy chooses fame and fortune and begs Tre to pull whatever strings are necessary in order to get him back on television.

Andy finds that the strings Tre has offered to pull land him in the latest cast of Celebrity Big Brother, but Andy has no idea who anybody else is (apart from Lionel Blair); the other house members include June Sarpong, Lisa Scott-Lee, X-Factor finalist Chico Slimani, a woman who leaked a sex tape of herself on the Internet, and a mother whose son was murdered. He quickly realises that by appearing on a show in which everyone is so desperate for fame that they voluntarily "hand in their dignity at the door", rather than bolster his career, what he's actually done is just the opposite. After making an impassioned speech to this effect on camera, at the same time using the opportunity to make a heartfelt and tearful apology to Maggie, who is watching at home, Andy walks off the show.

Ironically, Andy's Big Brother speech gives him exactly the kind of attention and respect he's always wanted. Although he finds himself suddenly a media darling, with his agent fielding calls from the likes of Elton John and David Beckham, Andy decides that the only place he really wants to be is anywhere Maggie wants to go. Happily reunited, the two drive off down the motorway towards Heathrow Airport.

References

References

1. "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". Barb.co.uk.