In Britain's Best Sitcom in the last (March 2004) Transit, Paul Newman looked into the charts of Blackadder and The Good Life. This follow up considers the horoscopes of recent TV sitcom phenomenum The Office and the solar chart of co-writer and star Ricky Gervais. Going rather out on a limb, I include some thoughts on how this astrology seems to relate to the zeitgeist - the spirit of the time - in which the show is set. I've done this because I feel that TV shows, particularly shows as popular and successful as this one, act as interesting social and political barometers, not because I have any particular political axe to grind. I'm also very interested in what other astrologers see in the charts discussed and welcome further debate.
When a programme connects with an audience to the point it becomes a 'must see' cultural phenomenum, speculation on what the programme is saying at a deeper level is rife. The Office was such a programme. People found it a squeamishly familiar portrait of working life - very funny but also extremely close to the bone. While some characters in the show are quite excessive and others easy to identify with, they all have familiar traits and ring true. Brilliantly put together, the show hit an audience bull's-eye and through word-of-mouth grew into a massive success. The first series' DVD/video release became Britain's biggest, fastest selling non-film title. Such popularity betrays an audience that felt the depth as well as the humour of what they were watching.
But what is The Office really saying at that 'deeper level'? Theories may abound, theses may be written, but as astrologers we have a unique and privileged x-ray view into this. With the chart of the show we are able to look, as it were, under the bonnet of the programme, check its starry nuts 'n' bolts and then speculate on the links between stars, show and our personal perceptions.
The Office - First Episode 9th July 2001 21.30 BST London

The chart for the programme has several strong features:
Cancer-Capricorn Polarity
The Capricorn Ascendant of the chart is indicative of the environment in which The Office is set. The programme's opening credits run over a continuous shot of commuter traffic on a drab roundabout during an unspectacularly overcast day, showing cars and a bus station but no people. During the show we see various bits of office equipment working away, apparently automated. The major part of the action takes place inside the office itself. Here the workers, employees of a paper company are required to perform to their job specifications and roles. They wear smart office clothes and endeavour to speak the specialised language of the workplace. Occasionally we see the hierarchy of the firm overtly at work, when a smartly dressed character from the office visits the warehouse manual workers, or when an external boss comes to visit the manager.
Ambition, hierarchy and power are big themes in the show, as is the need to fit in at work. Of the four central characters, two - David Brent and Gareth Keenan - are very involved with ideas of power, pecking order and leadership and two try to ignore it; Tim wonders why he is working where he is and Dawn harbours artistic ambitions.
Characters are never shown at home, or even relaxing in the absence of their colleagues. What we see are their working selves, obliged to act as competent professionals, taking part in things like training sessions and staff appraisals. Even when they escape the work place to pub or club, relationships between colleagues are centre stage. This echoes the Capricorn ascendant, yet the show and its star both have the Sun in Cancer - the opposing principle must be alive and well somewhere in the show. It is; the flip side of the Capricornian straightjacket of work, order and responsibility, Cancer's need for connection, intimacy, nurturing and love brews in this apparently ordered world of work. Through the concrete slabs of Capricornian conformity strange plants of distorted emotions push their way to the light, disrupting any hope of an ordered working world. This contrast of Cancer Sun opposing the Capricorn ascendent in the chart is the major engine of comedy and pathos on screen. The audience is alert to the flirtations, sarky comments, meaningful looks, poor jokes and tragic dance routines with which these poor souls stuck in a nine-to-five prison try to connect with each other and escape the monotony. To the viewer The Office is as much about David Brent's desperate need to be liked, Tim and Dawn's attraction and Gareth's complete lack of social skill as it is about Brent being a failure as a new man or laughable when attempting to be 'politically correct'. The comedy and tragedy concern the overly needy human soul being brought into the workplace; the impossibility of the workplace ever completely repressing human instinct; in astrological terms a clash of the Moon with Saturn, Cancer with Capricorn.
Strong Mutability:
Mutable planets dominate the chart. Six sit opposite each other across Gemini-Sagittarius, while the Moon is in Pisces. This reflects the insecurity portrayed in the show. Jobs are lost through restructuring, relationships are in a state of flux and the boss is surely in a state of near nervous breakdown. Perhaps this also points to the insecurity of the working world in this country, where short-term contracts, takeovers and the like have become the norm.
Quadrants, Elements:
The second quadrant is occupied by the five planets in personal signs. This indicates that the show's dominant concerns are personal and subjective (lower hemisphere) relationship and response (Western hemisphere). Tellingly there are no planets in the third quadrant, which is all about objective social response - the absence of this quality drives many sitcoms and The Office is not an exception. Everyone in the show is trying to be cool and logical (Air) but they are actually driven by illogical needs and clannish instincts (Water).
The five planets in universal signs are in the Eastern, self-directed half of the chart. This can be read as indicating that forces beyond the local or even regional dominate events in this show. Here we see the idea of global factors dictating life to the individual. The mutable insecurity is added to by the push/pull of closures and contract work, indirectly caused by globalisation and other factors way beyond the control of anyone we see on screen.
Other Points
· The choice of setting the show at a paper merchant's is mirrored by the four planets in Gemini.

· The Sun is involved is biquintile both Uranus and Pluto, which are quintile each other. This resonates with the knowing angst portrayed in the series, the nihilism and aggression of many of characters. It also shows the crisis in identity seen in virtually all the male characters - a factor which is further reinforced by the prominent Mars-Pluto conjunction in Sagittarius. Another sitcom which played out Uranus/Pluto was The Young Ones. The chart for that programme has a Sun-Venus conjunction in Scorpio conjunct the midpoint; the themes of rebellion and identity crisis were strong here too, while nihilism and violence were overt and staple themes. Note also that George W Bush and Sylvester Stallone, born the same day, both have Uranus septile Pluto to the minute, with the Suns conjunct the midpoint.
· The Mercury opposition Chiron aspect is extremely powerful because these factors are on both the Sun/Moon and Ascendant/Midheaven midpoints. The powerful Mercury, dignified in Gemini is symbolic of the superb scripts, strong use of duality and layered meaning, not least between what is said and felt. This mercurial dualism and cleverness is also reflects the use of the fly-on-the-wall 'reality TV' style in presenting a black comedy. Chiron indicates the maverick nature and format of the programme; it points to the 'outsider' status of a show which was not expected to be a hit, yet went on to exceed all expectations.
· Moon in Pisces square Venus in Gemini. These are great significators for the two women in Tim's life; Dawn - artistic, caring, self-effacing and a martyr to her brutish boyfriend who she is scared to leave, and Rachel; flirtacious, chatty and flippant. Moon-Venus hard aspects generally indicate tension between wants (Venus) and needs (Moon), a theme in the show.
· This idea of planets as characters can be played around within this chart. For example, Mars conjunct Pluto can be seen as the frustrated Tim, who may be leaving to do a degree (the conjunction is in Sagittarius); Gareth, the Territorial Army man who 'can kill with his bare hands' and the laddish sexist clown Chris Finch.
· The absence of planets in Earth signs further increases the sense of insecurity and instability in the chart/show, which is populated by a good few characters with a tenuous grasp of the real world or how to behave at work.
· Sun in the 6th house. The themes of work and pecking order are central to the programme, so it's no surprise to find the Sun here. These are people not fulfilling their ambitions (10th house), but working for something much larger than themselves.
Ricky Gervais: 25th June 1961 Reading, UK (noon chart used - no birth-time known) Sources: various websites.

Gervais's chart has strong connections to the chart for the programme, not least because it also has a Cancer Sun and Moon in water (the Moon remained in Scorpio for the whole of his birth date). If like me you subscribe to the view that all performers portray facets of their own personality in the characters they play, you can have some fun looking for David Brent in this chart.
The strong water in the chart shows Brent's essentially emotional motivation. Beneath his attempts at 'comedy' and bluster, underneath the ineptitude, hypocrisy and inflated ego, lies a lost little boy, desperate to be loved and accepted by those he attempts to lead. But this man has little, if any, objectivity and comes across awkwardly in company. He cannot play the game at work. This is all shown by the lack of planets in air. When Brent attempts to entertain or joke with his workers he looks ridiculous and pathetic. He tries to convince himself he is a great comic talent. This is Gervais's humour, playing on a lack of objectivity (only one planet in an air sign) and social awkwardness (that planet is Jupiter, inconjunct Sun) and a cringe-worthy sense of humour (Jupiter in Aquarius - a singleton in air).
Gervais satirises the values of new men and the politically correct, showing these to be only hilariously ill-presented, meaningless words when spoken by a man like Brent, full of ingrained sexist, racist hang-ups and fears. This contradiction between surface and substance perhaps reflects the Sun in his chart being conjunct the midpoint of a wide Venus-Uranus square. So while Brent's ineffectuality can be seen through his Sun being on Mars/Neptune, which represents another fascinating point of departure, it is the Venus-Uranus theme that I choose to look into in more detail.
Tellingly, the Venus-Uranus theme has been prominent in the charts of many important British figures in recent times; perhaps most prominently in modern politics, where 'New' Labour rule. Indeed, there's an exact Venus-Uranus square in the chart of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown has Saturn and Mercury on their midpoint. Brown's arrival at the Treasury as Chancellor - symbolically the start of the current Government's fiscal policy - coincided with hard transits of Venus to his natal Uranus and Uranus to his natal Venus. The wide square in Gervais's chart became exact in the horoscope of another symbolic individual - Princess Diana, born a few days after him. For me these various manifestations have shown the sudden attraction and razzmatazz as well as the falseness and insecurity this combination can indicate. The personal boom-bust in Brent's life can be seen in other areas, not least the boom and bust of the 1980s and the potential for a bust in the current UK economy.
'New' Labour has now lost most of its initially attractive sheen, personal debt is at a record level as Britain lives on money that exists in theory only. Seeming to mirror this, Brent blows his redundancy money on making a terrible retro 1980s record and video. As a symbolic character of his generation I feel he punctures the myth of 'Cool Britannia', the idea that anything substantially changed in the 1980s and 90s, that the new boss is more caring, confident and helpful than the old. As a comedy and metaphor, The Office shows up the shiny modern working world and exciting new politics for what they are; the old dressed up to look new under a very thin façade. The Office shows the difference between rhetoric and body language can be as huge as the gap between manifesto pledge and actual policy. Brent's mid-life crisis and personal contradictions seem to parallel the crises and contradictions engulfing a government and society now undergoing a similar problems on a macro scale. 'Right-on' 1980s rhetoric clashing with actual policies, attitudes and actions as strongly as David Brent's management spiel contradicts his intentions and actions on the small screen. For Brent the credibility gap between this Venus-Uranus sheen and the real mess of his work in practice (he is the most inept of Cancer Sun leaders) ends with his sacking. In politics, Venus-Uranus has led to public relations and spin providing a shiny new version of the political game in this country.
The UK 1801 chart also has Venus in hard aspect to Uranus, and the synastry between this and Blair's chart is compellingly strong; Blair's Venus, Uranus and Jupiter are on the UK Sun/Moon midpoint. The positives of Venus-Uranus are staple British plus points and include a cultural inventiveness that until recently produced a cutting edge and profitable music scene. But when Venus-Uranus gets hijacked by public relations and spin, surely the party cannot last forever. The Office portrayed a microcosm of what can happen when the show gets seen through and tough issues reemerge, a process which the country and Prime Minister seems to be being brought increasingly to face.