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91Èȱ¬ TWO orders extra Extras
Roly Keating, Controller of 91Èȱ¬ TWO, has commissioned a second series of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's hit new comedy, Extras.
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Says Roly Keating: "Extras sums up everything 91Èȱ¬ TWO comedy stands for - brilliant scripts, superb observation, subtle and sometimes very black humour.
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"I'm thrilled that Ricky and Stephen will be making a second series and that the audience will be able to share more of Andy and Maggie's excruciating experiences in the world of showbiz.
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"We've discussed ideas for the new series and the potential is huge!"
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Says Ricky Gervais: "It's a good job the 91Èȱ¬ offered us a second series, Stephen and I had already booked the studio and promised about 30 actors a job.
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"Mind you, we'd done that before the first series had been commissioned too.
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"The 91Èȱ¬ has never interfered on any level. We know how rare that is and thank them for always 'giving us enough rope'."
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Plus, in an unprecedented deal brokered by 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide in the United States, HBO has already taken up its option to co-produce a second series of Extras with the 91Èȱ¬ before transmission of the first series.
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The first series of Extras is due to transmit on HBO from 25 September 2005.
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Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Ashley Jensen will all feature in the second series, to transmit on 91Èȱ¬ TWO next year.
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Ricky plays Andy Millman who, in the current series, is an extra who spends most of his days hanging around with other extras envying the A-list stars.
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Stephen plays Andy's agent and Ashley plays his good friend and fellow extra, Maggie Jacobs.
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The first series, currently transmitting at 9.00pm on Thursdays on 91Èȱ¬ TWO, has received reviews to rival The Office and drawn double the usual audience to this slot - an average of 3.9m viewers and 19 per cent share for the first four episodes as opposed to the slot average of two million viewers and 9% share.
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The first four programmes featured cameo appearances from Ben Stiller, Ross Kemp, Kate Winslet and Les Dennis.
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This week's programme (Thursday 18 August) features Samuel L Jackson and sees Andy giving Maggie some advice about how to act around black people.
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Patrick Stewart features in the final programme on Thursday 25 August.
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Extras is a 91Èȱ¬ co-production with HBO, produced by Charlie Hanson and executive produced by 91Èȱ¬ Head of Comedy Entertainment, Jon Plowman.
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Notes to Editors
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For images please go to and type in the search term 'Extras Press Release'.
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