Tim Canterbury

Infobox character | name = Tim Canterbury


first = "Pilot"
last = "Christmas Special Pt. 2"
cause =
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gender = Male
age = 29/30
occupation = Sales representative
title =
family =
spouse =
children =
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portrayer = Martin Freeman
creator = Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant

Tim Canterbury is a main character in the BBC sitcom "The Office", played by Martin Freeman. He is a 30-year-old sales representative for paper merchants Wernham Hogg and lives with his parents. He spent one year at a university before dropping out, and one day hopes to return to get a psychology degree. He has quite a self-deprecating and ironic sense of humour.

Canterbury flirts with, and feels great attraction to, receptionist Dawn Tinsley. His office nemesis is Gareth Keenan, with whom he regularly exchanges barbed banter and on whom he frequently plays practical jokes. His relationship with his boss David Brent is mixed; at times Tim seems to get along well with David, and often good-naturedly humours Brent's attempts at comedy and social interaction. However, like the other employees, he is just as often exasperated and annoyed by Brent's more extreme personality flaws.

In many ways, he is Brent's complete opposite. While Brent tends to annoy people with his incessant displays of vanity and childlike need to be loved, Tim is liked by almost everyone due largely to his humility, his sense of humour and his overall good-natured attitude.

Tim's equivalent in the American version of "The Office" is Jim Halpert. His French equivalents are Paul Delorme (played by Jeremie Elkaim) and Louis Tremblay.

Relationship with Dawn Tinsley

Aside from being her colleague and close friend, Tim harbours strong feelings for Dawn. Their relationship is seen to be very flirtatious at times. However, Dawn's engagement to Lee prevents them from becoming more than friends for quite some time. Their friendship seems to suffer after the episode "Training", in which Dawn and Lee are having problems. Tim consoles her throughout the episode, but mistakenly comes to the conclusion that Lee and Dawn have split. He then asks Dawn out on a date in front of everyone, where she tells him that she and Lee are still together. Embarrassed, Tim insists he was just asking her out as a friend.

During the second series Dawn and Tim remain friends, but don't seem to be as close anymore. Tim starts to take his job more seriously after being promoted and becomes somewhat distant toward Dawn at first. Tim also begins to date Rachel, one of the former Swindon employees, and Dawn grows jealous (along with Gareth, who claims he had feelings for Rachel before Tim). In the fifth episode of the second season, Dawn is selling kisses for Red Nose Day. After Tim makes a contribution, they share a kiss. Tim is then driven to choose between Rachel and Dawn, unaware of Dawn and Lee's plans to move to America. In the next episode he makes his decision, breaking up with Rachel. Tim soon discovers that Dawn is leaving for Florida with Lee. Initially Tim seems reluctant to say anything, but changes his mind during an interview with the camera crew and runs to tell Dawn how he feels. Their conversation is kept private as Tim takes off his mic, but he emerges unsuccessful and admits Dawn said no. The second series ends with both Dawn and Tim depressed.

Three years pass, with Tim remaining complacent in his job at Wernham-Hogg and Dawn existing unhappily with Lee in Florida. Dawn and Lee are flown back for the reunion, and she resumes her friendship with Tim briefly. When Dawn receives a Christmas present from Tim encouraging her to hold on to her dream of becoming an illustrator, she leaves Lee and returns to the Christmas party, where she and Tim kiss and finally become a couple.

Trivia

* Tim received Hat FM, a mesh baseball-style cap with a built in radio, from his mother for his 30th birthday.
* Gareth called Tim a "weird little bloke" with a "cartoon face" and said that "he looks like a Fisher Price man."
* Tim is left-handed.

Quotes

*"No, I don't talk about my love life for a very good reason, and that reason is I don't have one."
*"OK now guys, we're about to enter a warehouse environment now. I'll just warn you that some of the people in here will be working class. So there may be some arse cleavage. Just find a partner, hold hands and don't talk to anyone."
*"I think it was John Lennon who once said 'life is what happens when you're making other plans', and that's exactly the way I feel. Although he also said 'I am the walrus, I am the eggman', so I don't know what to believe."
*"I just think, well, I dunno, if you look at life like rolling a dice then my situation now, as it stands, yeah, it may only be a three. If I jack that in now, go for something bigger and better, yeah, I could easily roll a six. No problem. I could roll a six. I could also roll a one. Kay, so.. I think sometimes just leave the dice alone."
*"Gareth, it's only a trifling matter." (Said in relation to encasing Gareth's stapler in jelly)
*"My room has seen a lot of action, mainly dusting."
*"You're a cock, you're a cock, you're a cock."
*"The people you work with are people you were just throw together with. You know, you don't know them, it wasn't your choice, and yet you spend more time with them then you do your friends or your family. But probably all you've got in common is the fact that you walk around on the same bit of carpet for 8 hours a day. And so, obviously, when someone comes in who you... you have a connection with... yeah. And Dawn was a ray of sunshine in my life and it meant a lot. But, if I'm really being honest I never really thought it would have a happy ending. I don't know what a happy ending is. Life isn't about endings, is it? It's a series of moments. And umm... it's not if, you know, if you turn the camera off it's not an ending, is it. I'm still here, my life's not over. Come back, come back here in 10 years, see how I'm doing then. Cause I could be married with kids, you don't know. Life just goes on."