5 Reasons Neil Godwin was the True Villain of The Office

I recently rewatched the full run of the UK original 'The Office'- Series 1 and 2 plus the Christmas specials. It was a delight to revisit and a reminder of how groundbreaking the realistic dialogue and claustrophobic camerawork was in a time of polished, generic sitcoms.

One thing that struck me was something I missed on previous watches. The real bad guy that had been hiding in plain sight all along. A deeply insecure bully, with enough charm to creep his way into the favour of most of the other characters. A man with just enough superficial swagger to cover the ugly truth beneath.

Whilst Chris Finch was able to avoid the ire of the management by being a 'bloody good rep' and get away with his constant misogyny and general unpleasantness, he was at least overt with it. A knob maybe, but a knob happy to be out in the open (much like his own knob if his taxi nosh-off stories were to be believed).

David Brent is of course a prize prat too, but the entire arc of his character is built around his fall from power, his desperation as he loses his job and hits rock bottom, and his eventual glimpse of happiness as he doesn't completely screw up a date and tells Finchy to fuck off. We are made to dislike him, then pity him, and finally cheer for him. The beauty of the ending was that we didn't see him get married to a hot woman and takeover the company, because real life isn't like that. We just saw a sliver of hope that he might just be a bit less of a prannock in the future. The David Brent film did a sterling job of desecrating that by turning him into an even more cartoonish idiot, but the failings of that are for another time...

So who is the top bastard in Wernham Hogg? (Yes, I know I put it in the title, so there's no real jeopardy here.) It's everybody's favourite Armani clad Chad, Neil Godwin. Now maybe I'm giving too much credit to the writers here, and I've just created these subtexts, but I'd like to think they were clever enough to mean this. I admit that's hard to believe given Gervais' use of montages and general grief wanking to make an emotive point in most of the things he's done post- 'Extras', but let's give him and Merchant the benefit of the doubt and delve into the facts.

1) NEIL'S FRIENDSHIP WITH FINCHY

Neil presented himself as a progressive manager. Sensitive to the needs of his staff and always on the lookout for injustice. He joined Jennifer in taking David to task about telling a racist joke and never joined in with his other childish japes. So he would surely be the last person to be pally with the monstrous Finchy, right? Maybe he would humour Finchy a bit due to his sales numbers, but roll his eyes at the sexism and homophobia?

No, we find that he's not only good friends with Finchy, but completely fails to put him right after making comments about a colleague's breasts and delights in Finchy's cruel joke about David's date.

2) NEIL'S NEEDLESS SNIPING AT DAVID EVEN AFTER HE'S LOST HIS JOB

David's insubordination and jealousy of Neil in series 2 was no doubt relentless. Neil had every right to berate him over his behaviour, and was at his most relatable when he was giving David a dressing down. Calm, professional and clearly at the end of his tether. However, once David had lost his job and was obviously lonely and bored, you would expect a nice guy like Neil to feel some pity for him. Neil had won the war, David was finished.

Instead, we see Neil continue to quietly put the boot in. As well as bragging about his upcoming wedding to his GP fiance he repeatedly asked if David had a date for the party, knowing full well he didn't. By comparison, Gareth, the person who maybe should feel threatened by David's appearances back at the office, seemed relaxed and did show sympathy for David by helping with his dating profile, even if it was in his characteristically blunt way.

3) TIM ALMOST FELL FOR HIS BULLSHIT (BUT NOT QUITE)

Tim serves as an audience surrogate and is the Everyman stuck in a world of nonsense. He fights Gareth's pedantry with pranks, deflects the macho barbs of Finchy and Glynn with self deprecation, and is one of the only characters to sympathise with David's pleas as he is kicked out of the office for the last time, taking him up on the offer of a pint. Tim seems to look up to Neil from the day he takes over, and recognises Neil's outward professionalism.

However, Tim's reason for turning down Neil's offer of a promotion at the end of Series 2, and recommending Gareth, is never fully explained. Tim had been seen to u-turn on his plans to go back to university at the end of series 1 by taking the 'Senior Sales Clerk' job. If he had to 'leave the dice alone' as he put it, who can blame him for making as much as he can out of a boring job? So why would he not only turn down the option of even more money for a relatively easy job, but set up his nemesis to have it instead?

Was this just a mark of his insecurity and a way of showing his grudging respect for Gareth's work ethic, or did he start to see the truth about Neil? Was Neil a guy that would work him to the bone and throw him under the bus if something went wrong? If the better option was working under David or Gareth, then something must've been bothering him about Mr. Godwin. I'll admit, this one is a bit of a stretch, but the next point is a big one...

4) THE BOARD PREFERRED DAVID

David was chosen for promotion over Neil by a 5-2 vote of the board. 'That's a landslide'. Why on earth would they do this? There are a lot of suggestions that David had been good at his job before the documentary was made. He's picked up by the management consultants, and made the cover of 'Inside Paper'. Exactly what caused his slide into complacency isn't clear, and maybe it was his past performance that got the board's respect. But Jennifer would have been relaying issues with David's performance back to the board and had several clashes with him prior to this decision.

Perhaps this was more about the board not wanting Neil rather than them liking David? Was Neil seen as an ambitious creep who would be looking to stab them in the back and take over as soon as he had the chance? Did his charm and bullshitting only work on the staff below him? Given that his branch was being outperformed by a team which included Big Keith, it makes you wonder if he knew what he was doing at all.

5) HE'S MORE INTO R+B

Neil didn't know about Fleetwood Mac because he's 'more into R+B'. There are a lot of choices the writers could've gone with here. Hip-hop would've made him sound down with the youth and a bit of a bad boy, Classical would've painted him as an intellectual, or Jazz if he wanted come across as more of a music connoisseur.

When he says 'R+B', he wasn't talking about Fats Domino or Marvin Gaye. He meant the kind of sleazy, morally bankrupt, male dominated R+B which filled the charts in the early 2000s. The type of music that guys like Neil use to seduce his best mate's girlfriend after offering her a lift home. In reality, he would've be content with his Coldplay and U2 'best of' albums, but heard someone on a cool Channel 4 talk show say they were boring, so he's upped his game.

And this sums Neil up to a tee. He's the try hard corporate cardboard cut-out, with nothing going on behind the eyes. He's the teacher pretending to care about the kids but laughing along with the school bully when no one's looking. And his cake looked shit. I prefer a flan.