Scene and not heard: why AI could kill off the extra

As the BBC comedy ‘Extras’ turns 20, Nick Hilton looks at the quirks of a job that has been integral to the TV and film industry, and the threat it faces from tech innovations

- Nick Hilton

Supporting artists. Background performers. Walk-ons. Extras. There are many terms to describe the men and women who populate the world of film and TV. It is a strange life, integral to the production yet performed by a motley crew of students, retirees and semiprofessional thesps. Halfway between actors and scenery, this unromantic role has been jeopardised by the rise and rise of AI-generated imagery. It’s a turn of events few would have seen coming back in July 2005, when their industry was immortalised in one of the BBC’s most popular ever comedy series.

How do you follow the most acclaimed British sitcom since Fawlty Towers? That was the challenge for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant after The Office concluded in 2003. The answer was Extras, which premiered on BBC One 20 years ago this week. It centres on the travails of Andy Millman - played by Gervais - a serial “extra”, who spends his days on set chatting inanely with his best friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen), dreaming of getting his break, and badgering the show’s celebrity guests. The first series featured Hollywood superstars like Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet and Samuel L Jackson, highlighting the huge disparity between the A-listers and Andy’s cohort, who are treated largely as disposable, fleshy props.

“I think there was just a huge expectation that it was going to be as good as The Office,” says Shaun Pye, a comedy writer and actor who played Andy’s nemesis, Greg, in Extras. “Which put a bit of pressure on it!” With Extras, Gervais and Merchant were once again picking at a scab on the human condition: the desire to better your station. They depicted Andy held at arm’s length from happiness by his own ambition, and Maggie in a mirror crisis of her own romantic aspirations. Two decades later, it doesn’t have the same cult reputation as