As The Office town named the unhappiest place to live

It already had a bad reputation, thanks largely to John  John Betjeman’s savage 1937 lines ‘Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now’.

But Ricky Gervais has been accused of putting another nail into the Berkshire town as it was named Britain’s biggest shithole.

In The Office, the comedian, who grew up in nearby Reading, depicted the town as being defined by dreary nightlife and dry industrial estates, 

Samina Hussain, founder of local charity Sakoon Through Cancer told the BBC: ‘The Office sitcom didn't help and sort of gave Slough a bad name.

‘The problem is, if you are given a bad name it sticks. No matter how you try to change that perception, it doesn't always follow through.’

A Rightmove survey just ranked Slough as the unhappiest place to live, a year after the Daily Telegraph named it as the UK's ugliest town.

In his David Brent guise, Gervais released a song supposedly singing the town’s praises with lines such as: ‘It keeps the businesses of Britain great / It’s got Europe's biggest trading estate’ and ‘Don't believe what the critics say / Like it's soulless and boring and grey / See for yourself, what are you waiting for? /We’re on the Bath road, that's the A4.’

Published: 28 Jan 2025