BBC's 'Extras' and real life money

I was thinking about the comedy 'Extras' and the success achieved by Gervais's character Andy in the show. I can't remember the exact details of his show 'When the Whistle Blows', was it on a second or third series?

Anyway my question is this - If on average a writier gets £5000 per written episode, how was Andy able to afford to buy a nice house/apartment in a decent area and be able to lunch at the Ivy and similar up market expensive restaurants? That property would have been worth a fortune and I doubt that The Ivy does egg & chips for £3.99.

What is the reality of Andy's situation? would it be a case of £5000 per episode for series one, then once it took off big time could he then ask for say £50,000 per episode? (and could Merchant's agent really get this?)

Anyone know how it all works?

Def.

I also seem to recall him showing distaste for some When The Whistle Blows dolls? Maybe I'm making that up...

Anyway. Yeah, high interest bank account. Writing, starring, personal appearances, any such merchandising, and the rest. All adds up. Did we actually see the outside of his property though? Or any indication if he was renting or had bought? The former's cheaper in the short-term, but with that kind of job and fame, I doubt he'd have had much trouble in getting a nice big mortgage.

http://www.the-ivy.co.uk/index.asp?area=13&id=33

not that pricey

Like someone else said Andy Millman was also appearing in the show so would have been paid for that too and he would have got a good cut of the merchandising, DVD sales and if it was sold abroad.

He also worked for many years in a bank and already owned a flat. I always presumed this flat was owned outright, or had a very small mortgage, hence he was able to drop his salary to work as an extra. He would have most likely bought the flat for probably less than half he would have sold it for - giving him a very large deposit/small mortgage on the new flat. The new flat didn't look that luxurious or in that good an area so it wouldn't have been that expensive.

And as someone else pointed out exclusive restaurants, club, etc aren't necessarily expensive but are have long waiting lists and/or are picky about who they let in.

Btw this has got to be the weirdest thing I have thought about today.

£5,000 is a bit low. I got a commission from an independent production company about 2 years ago and the script fee was £6,500, payable in signature, first draft and acceptance stages. If it had gone into production (it didn't) a further £6,500 would be due to me on the "first day of principal photography" as an advance on repeat fees and various royalties. If it had been produced, as a joint owner of the format, I would be due further royalties from any subsequent exploitation of the format.
I'm no expert but comedy seems to attract more than the stated Guild minimum payments. Wish there was more transparency about the money side of things. It's the elephant in the room, everyone wants to know but nobody wants to talk about it.
Of course as a writer/performer the fictional Andy Millman would have attracted a much higher fee than a writer could hope for.

Though Millman had a contract with the BBC which pays notoriously less than the independant sector.

It was hardly a realistic show - he was able to direct some of the Chegwin episode, was having his catchphrase shouted at him in the street the next day, was able to take time off to do a play mid way through the run (without stopping it's cycle), was able to get BAFTA nominated despite it being a deliberately weak performance and only just midway through the first series...

Maybe Riki Gervais actually is Andy Millman and not the other way round. Ergo he is earning a small fortune appearing in Hollywood films, and as a sarky standup?

Didn't Millman have a executive producer role also? That would have got him some extra moolah. All BBC sitcoms get a repeat, don't they? They certainly used to (that's when Fools and Horses and The Office took off). UK Gold repeat fees.

It was on BBC1, wasn't it? So as it's more mainstream the fees may be higher and also may have longer series (8-10 episodes).

Just conjecture but it is a fictional question...

Dan

Deferenz the whole point of the Christmas special was that he had sold out.

Quote: ajp29 @ March 31, 2008, 2:05 PM

Deferenz the whole point of the Christmas special was that he had sold out.

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Yes ajp29, I know he'd sold out. But I was trying to find out where the dosh ££££ roles in from. The Chrimbo episode is but a memeory now but as a few people above reminded me, Andy hand his fingers in lots of pies so it's not just a case of money from his written scripts but from a number of other sources too.

Quote: swerytd @ March 31, 2008, 1:59 PM

Didn't Millman have a executive producer role also? That would have got him some extra moolah.

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Possibly - but for someone with no previous track record in television, it's a little hard to believe, as is him getting the lead role!

Quote: Antrax @ March 31, 2008, 3:18 PM

Possibly - but for someone with no previous track record in television, it's a little hard to believe, as is him getting the lead role!

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Stranger things have happened... look at the success of The Office...

kjs

I think Extras was purely a representation of different stages of Ricky's own career. You can make so many comparisons with The Office and other such events.

As Jasper Carrott once said in a stage show, you don't have to write it - just look around you.

And the funniest thing - the story that preceded that comment featured a psycho cat called Lollipop and his daughter, one Lucy Davis (Dawn).

Spooky, huh?

Quote: Griff @ March 31, 2008, 1:30 PM

I went to The Ivy once..... We were greeted by the sight of Big John McCririck (off Channel 4 racing) tucking into about five dinners at once while all the posh gravy got smeared into his disgusting sideburns.

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You were lucky to have caught him while he was at the top because look at him now his appearences have been cut on Channel 4 and his star has begun to fade. But at least you can tell your grandchildren that you once saw John McCririck when he was somebody - and boy did that man have some body!