Australian remake of The Office seeks a female lead

Australia is making its own version of The Office – with a female boss.

The new version will stream on Amazon’s Prime Video service, more than 20 years after Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s original aired on the BBC.

Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper reports that actresses including Kath & Kim’s Magda Szubanski, Wentworth's Katrina Milosevic and Muriel's Wedding actress Rachel Griffiths have all been approached.

However, no casting has yet been confirmed.

Local versions of the Office have been made in Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Poland, Sweden – and, of course, America with Steve Carell taking the lead role.

But in none of them has the central character been female. Indeed, David Brent’s cack-handed attempts to paint himself as a feminist was one of the running jokes of the BBC original, which ran from 2001 to 2003.

At one point stand-up Jim Jefferies has been linked to the Australian reboot, although that now seems to be off the cards.

Published: 22 Feb 2022