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LONDON - It is not the usual stuff of celluloid blockbusters - a quirky "dramedy" about two 20-somethings in the 1970s who work as building society clerks in the dull suburban surrounds of Reading. Then again, nobody thought that about a comedy set in an office in Slough either.
But now Ricky Gervais has just finished writing the script for The Men at the Pru - a major feature film he describes as a cross between The Office and Mad Men.
The story is a "coming-of-age" tale about two friends who work for the Prudential, then a building society, amid the concrete "glamour" of the city where Gervais grew up. The idea first started as a television series, but has now morphed into a feature film which is due to begin filming next year.
Gervais and his creative partner, Stephen Merchant, visited the Pru's London headquarters in February. Jon Bunn, the PR director at the Prudential said: "They wanted to find out what the Prudential was like in years gone by.
"They looked at recruitment material, advertising, staff magazines and various other literature. There was also a recruitment advertisement that was shown in the local cinemain Reading which featured actual membersof staff.
"It was an induction video for the Prudential, about it being a good place to work, which they said in a 1970s kind of way," he said.
Gervais has said it would be set "in the 1970s in a seaside town the sexual revolution never hit ... I'd be a 45-year-old in 1970, so I'd be one of those people who thought the permissive society was disgusting.
"That's why we're losing our empire".
- INDEPENDENT
