Ready When You Are, Mr Spielberg! ; As Ricky Gervais's New Show Focuses On the Role of the Humble Film Extra, We Dispatch a Decidedly Unthespian Writer to Find Out What Life Is Like As a 'Supporting Actor'

Summary

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THE voice on the phone is matter of fact: 'I'm calling to discuss your costume.' It's the Wardrobe Mistress from The Bill, and since I am about to become an extra on the show, she needs to know what I'll look like. I sprint towards my wardrobe and start rifling.

What should I wear? My Vivienne Westwood suit? A Donna Karan cocktail dress?

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Extract

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Ready When You Are, Mr Spielberg! ; As Ricky Gervais's New Show Focuses On the Role of the Humble Film Extra, We Dispatch a Decidedly Unthespian Writer to Find Out What Life Is Like As a 'Supporting Actor'

Come to think of it, who am I playing? I'd quite like to play a corpse. But a corpse won't have any lines. What about a wealthy gangster's moll?

'You're going to be an extra in a pub scene,' she says evenly. 'Do you have any jeans?' This wasn't quite the glamorous entree to the acting world I had imagined, but then when you are a 'supporting actor' - the new PC description for an extra - you have to start at the bottom.

So why am I doing it? Ricky Gervais's new comedy, Extras, began on BBC2 last night with a stellar cast playing various extras, but I've come to find out what it's really like by spending a...

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