THIS double disc features the six episodes created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the geniuses behind The Office.

The duo struck comedy gold with the documentary-style series about the employees of a Slough paper merchant and their hapless manager David Brent (Gervais).

In Extras, he plays Andy Millman, an actor who is desperate to become a household name but who fails to get any good parts because of his useless agent (Merchant).

Instead, Andy is a lowly film extra who tries in vain to get himself noticed on set, mainly by befriending anyone higher up the food chain than him and trying to blag himself a line or two. But he mostly hangs out with his friend and fellow extra Maggie (Ashley Jenson), a likeable yet slightly eccentric woman who is desperate for a boyfriend.

Each episode takes place on a different film set and features cameos from stars including Ben Stiller, Samuel L Jackson, Ross Kemp, Kate Winslet, Les Dennis and Patrick Stewart.

The premise of the show is that each star sends themselves up by playing a character who is dangerously similar to the way they have been portrayed in the media.

The best example of this is the Les Dennis episode, in which the entertainer bares his soul to Andy about his troubled career and love life - the result is hugely entertaining, yet in a truly cringeworthy way.

The series is clever, fresh and funny - in parts - and has picked up a record five nominations at the British Comedy Awards - but it doesn't top The Office, although this was always going to be a tough act to follow.

The DVD also includes outtakes, deleted scenes and documentaries entitled The Difficult Second Album, in which Merchant and Gervais discuss Extras in relation to The Office, Finding Leo, about trying to find a replacement after Jude Law pulled out, Leonardo Di Caprio being the favourite, and Taping Nigel, about editor Nigel Williams, which mainly involves dressing him up as an overgrown baby...

MC