Extras/Ross Kemp

Ross Kemp
Season 1, Episode 2
Airdate	July 28, 2005
Written by	Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Directed by	Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
← 1x01 Ben Stiller	1x03 → Kate Winslet
Extras — Season One

Ross Kemp is the second episode of the first season of Extras. Andy and Maggie are involved in a period piece about Horatio Nelson starring Ross Kemp. Kemp tries to impress Andy with his special training while Maggie has her eye on an intellectual cast member.

Cast: Ricky Gervais (Andy Millman), Ashley Jensen (Maggie Jacobs), Stephen Merchant (Agent), Shaun Pye (Greg), Shaun Williamson (Barry)

With: Ross Kemp, Vinnie Jones

Co-Stars: Raymond Coultard (Mark), Natasha Little (Lady Hamilton), Peter Sullivan (Film Director), Emma Thornett (Wardrobe Lady), Tony Way (Chef), Katherine Parkinson (Woman in queue), Emma Gilmour (Female extra), Barunka O'Shaugnessy (Woman extra)

Plot Overview

Andy tries to sneak into the background of a scene between Nelson and Lady Hamilton and gets annoyed when he hears the director calling him a "fat little extra". In the wardrobe department Maggie is told her breasts look rubbish and they need to look better if she's to be in the scene. Andy and Maggie discuss their problems while getting lunch from a not particularly hygiene conscious chef, and Maggie spots another person working on the show that catches her eye.

Greg chats to Andy at the catering table about his speaking role in a Vinnie Jones film in another studio, while Maggie embarrasses herself at the portable toilet in front of the man she likes. Andy meets Ross Kemp who tries to impress him with tales of how 'hard' he is and how he was in the SAS. After work he goes to meet his agent, Darren Lamb, who doesn't think there's enough demand for 'little 45-year-old blokes' in the business and suggests he throws in the towel.

While complaining to Maggie about Darren's incompetence she suggests asking Ross Kemp if he could help, while she thinks she's not smart enough for the intellectual seeming actor she likes. She builds up the courage to try and impress him by reading the Financial Times and showing him her prowess in the stock market (of which she has none), but he asks her out anyway. Andy meets Ross Kemp again and discusses Vinnie Jones in the other studio, Kemp says that Jones shouldn't be acting and that he could easily take him in a fight, more importantly to Andy he says he'll get him a line in the show. Greg comes to gloat to Andy again, and Andy says that he wouldn't want to do a film with a footballer in anyway, and that Ross Kemp would 'rip him apart' if he tried anything. Kemp hears about this and comes to Andy seeming scared, but he soon goes back to his macho façade talking about being in the 'Super Army Soldiers' (what he was told SAS stands for). When Vinnie catches up to him Kemp reveals himself to be a coward and Andy has to comfort him afterwards.

Notes

Music

Music this episode:

• Lauren Wood - Fallen

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Episode Order: Although originally broadcast second, this is actually the first episode according to the BBC episode guide and the DVD.

Allusions and References

• Ross Kemp: Ross Kemp played hard man Grant Mitchell on EastEnders and went on to play several tough characters in various ITV dramas before returning to Eastenders in 2006.

• Vinnie Jones: Vinnie Jones was a professional footballer who played most famously for Wimbledon F.C. and was a notorious 'hard man'. He went on to acting in roles that suited his hard image.

• Meryl Streep: Meryl Streep is an Academy Award winning actress.

Andy: I think Meyrl Streep went through a similar thing

• Lawrence Olivier: Lawrence Olivier is an Academy Award winning British actor who played Richard III in a film adaptation of the Shakespeare play.

Andy: I remember Lawrence Olivier having a rant in Richard III because they wanted to use stunt testicles

• Rainbow: Zippy was a character from the popular British children's television show Rainbow who had a rugby ball shaped head and a zip for a mouth.

Andy: He looks more like Zippy from Rainbow

• Pac-Man: Pac-Man is a popular old video game from the 1980s involving a yellow circle that eats dots.

Andy: Vin Diesel hasn't got a perfectly round little head that opens and shuts like Pac-Man

• Referenced Shows: Shows mentioned when the extras are discussing other jobs are The Bill, Casualty, Emmerdale, Silent Witness, and My Family.

• Barry: Shaun Williamson played Barry Evans in EastEnders from 1994 to 2004.

• Spandau Ballet: Maggie gets confused between the unrelated Ross Kemp and Martin Kemp, another EastEnders actor, and thinks that Ross was a member of the popular 1980s pop group Spandau Ballet.

Quotes

• After Andy makes sure he gets on screen in the background he overhears the director
  Director: We'll get out before that fat little extra gets his face in
• Andy: It's alright, it's not a pube, it's a dog hair everyone. I thought it was a pube, it's not, it's just a dog hair. If you do get a hair in there, he just gets it out with his big sausage fingers.
• Andy: Make sure the phone's on the hook then.
  Darren: You joke about it, it was unplugged for two days. No one noticed.
• Ross Kemp: I head-butted a horse once.
  Andy: He must have really annoyed you.