A column about the common conundrums of humdrum office life couldn’t pass by news that one of the most renowned observational comedies on the subject is being remade. Filming has reportedly begun on the latest incarnation of The Office, originally a BBC series that aired in 2001, which later found a global audience in a US remake starring Steve Carell. Given the latter’s near universal acclaim and ongoing popularity nearly 20 years after it began, can a new iteration hope to recapture the edge and charm of its predecessors?

Certainly, offices themselves have changed. The iPhone didn’t launch until two years after we were introduced to Michael Scott, Facebook still had a definitive article, and software applications like Microsoft Office or Adobe InDesign were things you paid a once-off fee for and installed from a CD. Monthly licensing fees for something as straightforward as a spreadsheet programme would have seemed as diabolically unlikely as 100Gbps broadband for less than R1 000. Also inconceivable would be the idea that graphics and AI chip design firm Nvidia would briefly be the world’s most valuable company – at the time it was utterly unheard of unless you were an avid PC gamer.