The Office returns for another series

He is the scourge of offices and factories up and down the country – the awful boss who cracks terrible jokes, thinks he is god’s gift to women and can still be one of the lads.

Everybody knows him and he was brought to life on screen by BBC Two’s spoof fly-on-the-wall documentary series The Office in the form of the exceptionally seedy David Brent – the head of a paper merchants in Slough.