Frances Grant: Lights, camera, cringe

Ricky Jervais (second from right) mingles with Hollywood big-shots.

The most important thing about Ricky Gervais' long-awaited new show Extras (Prime, last night, 9.30) is not whether it is a worthy successor to The Office. After just one episode, it's too soon to tell. The question is how big a cushion should we have handy to hide behind on the sofa.

Will Gervais, the king of the comedy of excruciation, merely cause us the odd wince this time or again leave us writhing in full-blown mortification?

Does his new character, wannabe actor Andy Millman, look capable of the kind of social atrocities perpetrated by self-deluded office boss David Brent?

Last night's debut episode opened with a massacre from some unnamed Balkans-style conflict, a scene from a movie directed by Ben Stiller, playing himself as an obnoxious, box-office obsessed Hollywood ego, desperate to be Taken Seriously.

As the war scene played out, Andy was being regaled with the unwelcome details of his sexual conquest the night before from fellow extra Greg (Shaun Pye). The tone of outrageous insensitivity had been set.

Extras is high-concept comedy rather than the mockumentary format of The Office, and the cleverness of the concept - the star of the show is never the star of the show - raises all sorts of speculations.

Are the stars who appear in each episode really sending themselves up, or being sent up for wanting to be in on the charmed circle of Gervais' own stellar talents?

Which star has the biggest trailer on the set of Extras? And was that Extras extra, the woman with the strikingly odd haircut and glasses who kept pulling focus in the bar scene, directed to do that or was she a real-life extra desperate to be noticed, a la Andy? Yes, the ironies are layers deep.

As for Andy, because he looks and sounds just like Brent, it's easy to confuse the two at first. But gradually the differences emerged.

Andy is gauche and desperate but not as self-deluded. Whereas part of Brent's scariness was that he had the power, Andy has none and is therefore more self-aware and observant of the appallingness of others. His ordinary everyday ego is small-beer compared to the monstrosities all around him.

If Andy seemed muted at first, there was a wonderfully reassuring horror scene at the end where he made a complete git of himself trying to ingratiate himself with the producer by pretending to be a fellow Japanese cinema buff.

Andy has a promising nemesis in Greg, who gets better parts and always wins in their constant battle of one-upmanship.

But the real scene-stealer is Andy's mate, Maggie (Ashley Jensen), whose only ambition lies in which male she can shag. Maggie is much more than a dumb blonde, she takes the stereotype to levels of dimness even a black hole would be pressed to achieve.

Andy might be a far more pathetic creature than Brent, but, judging from the opening episode, the humour in Extras will be dark and savage. Politically correct sensitivities will be slaughtered here.