Ricky Dene Gervais ( ; born
25 June 1961) is an English
comedian, actor, film-maker and broadcaster.
Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his
television series
The Office and the subsequent
series
Extras, both of which he
co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator
Stephen Merchant. Besides writing
and directing the shows, Gervais played the lead roles of
David Brent in
The Office and
Andy Millman in
Extras.
Gervais has starred in
a number of Hollywood
films, assuming leading roles in Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying.
Gervais has performed on three sell-out
stand-up comedy tours, written the
best-selling
Flanimals book
series and starred with Merchant and
Karl Pilkington in his podcast
The Ricky Gervais Show.
He has accumulated a multitude of awards and honours throughout his
career, including seven
BAFTA Awards,
four
British Comedy Awards,
three
Golden Globes, two
Emmys and the 2006
Rose d'Or, as well as a
Screen Actors Guild Award
nomination.
Early life
Gervais,
along with siblings Larry, Marsha, and Bob, was born and raised in
the suburb of Whitley
in Reading, Berkshire
. Gervais's father, Jerry, a Franco-Ontarian, emigrated while on foreign
duty during the Second World War from
London,
Ontario
, Canada. Jerry met Gervais's mother, Eva,
during a
blackout, and they
settled in Whitley.
During
Xfm London's
The Ricky Gervais Show and in
further newspaper interviews with
The Independent, Gervais noted that he
believes his birth was unplanned due to the age difference between
his youngest sibling and himself. During one interview with
The
Independent, Gervais tells the author that even his mother
admitted his birth was unplanned. He has claimed that his father
was "drunk when he filled in the birth certificate", leading to the
unusual spelling of his middle name.
Gervais has stated that his upbringing and childhood were stable
and trauma-free, with a high level of honesty and openness between
his family members. He claims that his family, "much like
The Waltons", made fun of each other
regularly.
Gervais
attended Whitley Park Infants and Junior Schools and received his
secondary education at Ashmead Comprehensive School, before moving
on to University
College London
in 1979. He arrived to study
biology but changed to
philosophy after only two weeks and went on to
gain an
upper second-class honours degree in the
subject. It was during his time at UCL that he met
Jane Fallon.
Career
Music
In his final year in 1983 as a student at UCL, Gervais and his
friend
Bill Macrae formed a
pop duo,
Seona Dancing. They were signed by
London Records, which released two of their
singles—"More to Lose" and "Bitter Heart". The singles failed to
break the top 40—with "More to Lose" charting at number 117 and
"Bitter Heart" peaking at 70 in the UK singles charts.
Radio
Gervais subsequently worked as an
events manager for the
University of London Union (ULU),
where he continued working until he took a similar job as "head of
speech" at
Xfm London.
Needing an assistant, Gervais interviewed the first person whose
curriculum vitae he saw.
The CV belonged to
Stephen
Merchant. During the interview at a local pub, Gervais asked
Merchant to do "all the boring stuff" because of his experience in
media studies while Gervais
"mess[''ed''] around". Merchant agreed. In 1998, Gervais was made
redundant when the station was taken over by the
Capital Radio group.
Gervais was music adviser for the popular 1996–1997 BBC drama
This Life, which was being
produced by his girlfriend, Jane Fallon. He and Merchant also
contributed sketches to
BBC Radio 1's
The Breezeblock in 1999 and
2000.
After the first season of
The Office, Gervais and
Merchant returned to Xfm in November 2001 for a Saturday radio
show. The show ran intermittently until January 2004 with breaks of
1–3 months between new shows. This was their first time working
with
Karl Pilkington. Pilkington
produced the shows and later collaborated with them on their series
of
podcasts.
Podcast
On 5 December 2005,
Guardian
Unlimited began offering the first of twelve free weekly
podcasts featuring Gervais, Merchant, and Pilkington. Throughout
January and February 2006, the podcast was consistently ranked the
number-one podcast in the world; it appeared in the 2007
Guinness World Record for the world's
most-downloaded podcast, having gained an average of 261,670
downloads per episode during its first month. On 20 February 2006,
after the conclusion of the twelve-podcast series, it was announced
that all future episodes would be available from Audible.com at a
"nominal fee" (later, these had to be called
audiobooks in accordance with iTunes policy). Two
more series—each with six podcasts—were released between February
and September 2006.
In late 2006, three more free podcasts were released. Together
called "The Podfather Trilogy", they debuted individually at
Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. These three were known by
Ricky and Steve as "The Fourth season". In October 2007, another
free full-length podcast was released through iTunes; this podcast
was originally given out for free during a performance of Gervais's
Fame tour in London. On 25 November 2007, Gervais, Merchant, and
Pilkington released another free full-length podcast, which lasted
just over an hour.
In August 2008, Gervais, Merchant, and Pilkington recorded their
fifth season of audiobooks, totalling 4 chapters, which were
released on 16 September 2008.
Television
Gervais has contributed to the
BAFTA-winning
The Sketch Show (ITV),
penning several sketches. His mainstream-TV debut came in September
1998 as part of
Channel 4's "Comedy Lab"
series of pilots. His one-off show
Golden Years focused on a
David Bowie–obsessed character called
Clive Meadows. Gervais then came to much wider national attention
with an obnoxious, cutting persona featured in a topical slot that
replaced
Ali G's segments on the satirical
Channel 4 comedy programme
The
11 O'Clock Show in early 1999, in which his character used
as many
expletives as was possible and
produced an inordinate amount of politically incorrect statements.
Among the other regular featured comedians on the show was
Mackenzie Crook, later a co-star of
The Office. Two
years later, Gervais went on to present his own comedy
chat show for Channel 4 called
Meet Ricky Gervais; it was poorly
received and has since been mocked by Gervais himself.
Throughout this time, Gervais also wrote for the BBC sketch show
Bruiser and
The
Jim Tavare Show, and he had cameo
roles in Channel 4's sitcom
Spaced;
it is speculated that the cameo is indeed
The Office
character
David Brent. However, both
series of
Spaced finished airing before
The
Office premiered. Gervais also appeared in a few of Channel
4's 'Top 100...' list programmes, and he voiced the character of
Penguin in
Robbie the Reindeer's
Legend of the Lost Tribe. His voice was redubbed for the
US market.
On 5 January 2006, he interviewed
Larry
David in a one off special,
Ricky Gervais Meets...
Larry David. On 25 December and 26 December of the same
year, Channel 4 aired similar specials in which he interviewed the
actor/comedian
Christopher Guest
and comedian
Garry Shandling. There
are no plans for further episodes of "Meets...", although editions
with
John Cleese and
Matt Groening were recorded in 2006, for
broadcast in 2007. A source claimed, "The Shandling experience put
him off for good".
Gervais guest-starred in an episode of
The Simpsons entitled "
Homer Simpson, This Is Your
Wife", which aired on 26 March 2006 in the United States, on 23
April 2006 in the United Kingdom, and on 18 July 2006 in Australia.
He is the only British comic to write and star in a
Simpsons episode. The episode was the highest rated in
Sky One's history, arguably because of its
extensive promotion, which revolved around the angle that Gervais
was the episode's sole writer (and the first guest star on the show
to also receive a writing credit for the episode of his
appearance). Gervais clarified the extent of his input in a joint
interview (with Christopher Guest) for
Dazed and Confused
magazine (January 2006): "No, all I did was put down a load of
observations on an email and they made it look like a
Simpsons script. I'm going to get the credit, but I think
everyone in the industry knows it was a joint effort". Asked in a
separate interview about how his idea for the episode (in which
Homer swaps Marge on a
game show) came
about, Gervais replied:
- I've always been fascinated with reality game shows but I think it was my
girlfriend's idea. We watch Celebrity Big Brother at the
moment, we watch I'm a Celebrity, Get Me
out of Here... we watch all those reality TV shows —
The Office came out of those docu-soaps".
Gervais, a longstanding
Simpsons fan, presented a segment
to mark the show's 20th anniversary on
BBC
Two's
The Culture Show
on 16 June 2007.
Gervais has also guest-starred on
Alias (appearing in the third-season
episode "
Façade") as Daniel
Ryan, a former Royal Navy bomb-disposal specialist turned rogue
Irish Republican Army
bomb-maker. He has said about the appearance, "I did an episode of
Alias, and I can't watch it. Me being serious. I can't
watch it".
Gervais made a cameo appearance on
Saturday Night Live in a
Digital Short during which he claims that
The
Office was adapted from a Japanese program of the same name
(with
Steve Carell reprising his role
as Michael Scott). The sketch re-creates scenes from the American
and British pilot episode with Japanese elements (although in an
exaggerated way). "It's funny", Gervais laughs at the end, "because
it's racist".
In January 2009, Gervais was interviewed by
James Lipton for Season 15 of BravoTV's
Inside the Actors
Studio. As of November 2009, he has also appeared 14 times
on
The Late Show
With David Letterman.
Gervais will host the 2010
Golden
Globes, making him the first master of ceremonies since 1995.
He stated: "I have resisted many other offers like this, but there
are just some things you don't turn down."
The Office
In August 1999, while on a BBC production course, Stephen Merchant
had to make his own short subject. He chose to make a docu-soap
parody, set in an office. This sketch later formed the basis of the
interview
episode. With help from
Ash Atalla,
Merchant passed this tape on to the BBC's Head of Entertainment
Paul Jackson at the
Edinburgh Fringe, who then passed it on to
Head of Comedy
Jon Plowman, who
eventually commissioned a full-pilot script from Merchant and
Gervais. However the BBC at first misunderstood the true concept of
the series. They were keen for the series to have a narration akin
to many of the docusoaps that were being screened in the UK at this
time. They also favoured a laughter track the like of which Gervais
and Merchant despised. To top things off the corporation wished to
pack the series with established names:
John Thomson or
Neil Morrissey as
David Brent,
Reece
Shearsmith or
Alan Davies as Tim,
and as mentioned by Lucy Davis on a DVD extra feature,
Nadia Sawalha as Dawn. Gervais and Merchant
balked at all the suggestions, and, inspired by
Sylvester Stallone's determination not to
sell the rights to
Rocky without the promise
of playing the role himself, Gervais held out to play the role of
Brent himself, have total casting control, the narration and
laughter track scrapped, and of course he and Merchant would direct
every episode themselves.
The first six-episode series of
The Office aired in the UK in
July and August 2001 to little fanfare or attention. Word-of-mouth,
repeats, and DVDs helped spread the word, building up huge momentum
and anticipation for the second series, also comprising six
episodes, in September 2002. The second series topped the BBC Two
ratings, and the show then switched to
BBC
One in December 2003 for its final two special episodes.
The Office has since been remade for audiences in
France,
Germany,
Quebec,
and the
United States.
Gervais and Merchant are producers of the American version, and
they also co-wrote the episode "
The
Convict" for the show's third season.
Extras
Extras had its debut on
the BBC on 21 July 2005; it received its premiere on HBO in the
United States in September 2005. Written and directed by Ricky
Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the sitcom ran for twelve episodes
and starred Gervais as Andy Millman, a
background artist. Millman is more self-aware
and intentionally humorous than Gervais's
The Office
character David Brent.
Guest stars on the first series of
Extras include
Ross Kemp,
Les Dennis,
Patrick Stewart,
Vinnie Jones,
Samuel L. Jackson,
Ben
Stiller,
Kate Winslet, and
Francesca Martinez. A second series began
on 14 September 2006 in the UK and featured appearances by
Daniel Radcliffe,
Orlando Bloom,
Sir Ian
McKellen,
Chris Martin,
Keith Chegwin,
Robert Lindsay,
Warwick Davis,
Ronnie Corbett,
Stephen Fry,
Richard
Briers,
Patricia Potter,
Sophia Myles,
Moira Stuart,
David
Bowie,
Kate Winslet,
Robert De Niro, and
Jonathan Ross.
A Christmas special of Extras aired on 27 December 2007 in the UK
and on 16 December 2007 in the US, featuring guest appearances by
George Michael,
Clive Owen,
Gordon
Ramsay,
Jonathan Ross, and
David Tennant.
On 10 June 2006, Gervais and Merchant were seen in a specially
filmed promotional sketch for
Extras
2 in the middle of
BBC One's
World Cup football coverage. This time, Gervais did
not perform his famous dance. Instead, Merchant did a take-off of
the
Crouch Dance,
recently popularised by
England striker Peter
Crouch.
Some have suggested that Gervais is influenced by
Curb Your Enthusiasm and
The Larry Sanders
Show in making
Extras, particularly in the format
of celebrities making fools of themselves or subverting their
public personas, and in the Gervais
joke of
someone making inappropriate remarks in front of a member of a
minority. He has interviewed both
Larry David and
Garry
Shandling, creators of these shows, on
Ricky Gervais
Meets... .
Extras was awarded the
Golden Globe
award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy on 14
January 2008.
Stand-up comedy
Gervais made a few attempts at
stand-up in the late 1990s, but his first
successful show took place at the Cafe Royal, as part of the
2001 Edinburgh Festival
Fringe. Titled
Rubbernecker, the show also featured
Jimmy Carr,
Robin
Ince, and
Stephen
Merchant.
Gervais later toured the UK in 2003 with his stand-up show
Animals. The
Politics tour followed a year later.
Both of these shows were recorded for release on
DVD and television broadcast. The third part of the
themed live trilogy,
Fame,
took place in 2007.
It started in Glasgow in January and ended in
Sheffield
in April. Blackpool reported selling out of
tickets within 45 minutes of them going on sale. More dates were
added.
Gervais performing in 2007
Newsnight Review's panel saw
Animals during its Bloomsbury
run and covered it in January 2003.
They were
not favourable, with Private Eye
editor Ian Hislop being
the most explicit in his criticism. After this, Gervais
closed each show by calling Hislop an "ugly little pug-faced cunt".
Further coverage on Newsnight Review has been overwhelmingly
favourable, with the panelists playing themselves in promos for the
second series of
Extras. Panel regulars
Germaine Greer,
Mark
Kermode, and
Mark Lawson also
appeared as themselves reviewing
When The Whistle Blows in
a series episode. Critic Mark Lawson is a great admirer of Gervais
and Merchant, having interviewed them extensively for television,
print
Front Row, and the
Edinburgh
International Television Festival.
Fame was the subject of some
controversy in January 2007, when Gervais told a story, ostensibly
about how people will do anything to become famous, to a Scottish
audience. The story referred to a question asked of Gervais five
years earlier by a reporter: what could someone do to become famous
like you? To which he replied, "Go out and kill a prostitute". He
followed up with the
punchline, "I won't
do that bit in Ipswich", referring to the
December 2006 murders of five
prostitutes in Ipswich. The joke drew criticism from the father
of one of the victims Tania Nicol: "These days, they want to make a
joke out of anything. I feel he’s just being uncaring, quite
honestly". Gervais did not apologise but did defend himself: "I do
want people to know that that happened five years ago and is not
related to anything now. That is the problem with comedy, a joke
that is funny today can be a terrible
faux pas
tomorrow".
He has performed stand-up in the U.S. three times—he performed two
warm-up shows at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Center and headlined
David Bowie's High Line Festival in May
2007.
Gervais's
next show will be entitled Science, an eleven date tour
commences in August 2009 at the Scottish
Exhibition and Conference Centre
in Glasgow
.
In November 2009, he will headline the sixth annual New York Comedy
Festival at Carnegie Hall, New York.
Books
Flanimals
Gervais released a children's book in 2004,
Flanimals (illustrated by his friend Rob
Steen), which depicted nonsense animals. After the success of this
book, he released its sequel
More
Flanimals in 2005, with
Flanimals of the Deep coming the
next year. A new Flanimals book,
Day of the Bletching, was released
in October 2007.
Flanimals: Pop Up is to be published
later this year.
There is a wide range of Flanimals
merchandise available, including dolls and gift
cards. A six-part Flanimals TV series has been commissioned by ITV,
although Gervais had previously claimed signing a Hollywood movie
deal so that a
franchise could be
developed. "That way it stands a chance of being the next
Dr. Seuss or
Mr.
Men".
Other books
The Office scripts have been released in book form, with
Series 1 issued in 2002, and the remaining episodes following in
2003.
In late 2006, the
Extras script book was released, as well
as
The World of Karl
Pilkington presented by Gervais and Merchant. These were
essentially transcripts of
Xfm/
podcast routines performed by the three.
Film
Gervais's film career has included small roles as the voice of a
pigeon in 2005s
Valiant, as a
studio executive in 2006s
For Your Consideration,
as
museum director Dr. McPhee in 2006s
Night at the Museum and
its subsequent sequel
Night at the
Museum 2, and as "Ferdy the Fence" in the 2007 film
Stardust. His role in
Night at the Museum has proven to be one of Gervais's most
popular roles, with the movie
grossing $570 million worldwide.
At one point, Gervais was considered for a role in the
Tom Cruise movie
Mission: Impossible III, but it
never came to fruition – Gervais cited reasons for this, on
Friday Night with
Jonathan Ross: "It was a bigger part than I first
thought."
Gervais
starred in Ghost Town,
which was released on 19 September 2008, and was in Lowell,
Massachusetts
during May 2008 filming his next project,
The Invention of
Lying, starring himself, Jennifer Garner, Rob
Lowe, and Jason Bateman, with
appearances by Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Jeffrey
Tambor, and Roz Ryan. The
comedy, released in 2009, was co-written and co-directed by Gervais
and Matt Robinson.
Gervais and co-writer
Stephen
Merchant are currently working on a film called
Cemetery Junction, set in
1970s England, about class, love and fulfillment.
Other appearances
On 2 July
2005, Gervais appeared at the Live 8 event
held in Hyde Park,
London
, where he performed his famous dance. He
produced a series of short films for the cause, linked acts from
the studio with
Jonathan Ross, and
also introduced the group
R.E.M.
Gervais also has a role in the video game
Grand Theft Auto IV, as himself,
appearing in his role as a comedian in a comedy club, and as an
interviewee on radio station
We Know The Truth. For this,
a special 3-minute act was written, recorded and fully
motion-captured.
Boxing
In 2002, Gervais took part in a
charity boxing match
against
entrepreneur Grant Bovey —
known largely by the public due to his relationship with TV
personality
Anthea Turner. On his
Saturday afternoon Radio show on
Xfm
London Gervais and partners Merchant and Pilkington had
discussions on both Ricky's attitude towards boxing and training in
general, as well as his likelihood of victory against Bovey.
Initially, Merchant had questions as to why Gervais was
participating in the event, due to his dislike of slight pain and
his inexperience with fitness in general.
In the weeks before the event was scheduled to take place both
Merchant and Pilkington voiced their doubts as to his fitness due
to illness which he had sustained weeks before the event,
humorously, by stating that both they and Gervais's family had
written up a petition to the BBC stating "
Please do not let
this man box."
Gervais was trained for the three-round contest by famous boxing
trainer brothers
Frank and Eugene
Maloney, at their Fight Factory gymnasium. It was the second
televised charity boxing match, the first being
Bob Mortimer against
Les
Dennis, for
Comic Relief.
The fight was televised by the BBC, and Gervais came out on top by
a
split decision verdict. Gervais
later said that the experience was the 'most difficult thing' he
had ever done. He donated his £5,000 prize money to the training of
a
Macmillan
nurse.
Concert for Diana and Live Earth
On 1 July
2007, Gervais performed at the Concert
for Diana in Wembley
Stadium
, a music event celebrating the life of the late
Princess of Wales.
Towards the end of the event — after a pre-recorded
introduction from
Ben Stiller - Gervais
appeared along with fellow
Office star
Mackenzie Crook. They performed
Freelove Freeway, a song previously
heard in the fourth episode of series one of
The Office.
Due to a technical problem, Gervais then had to fill time until he
was able to re-introduce
Elton John to
close the show, so he did the
David
Brent dance again, as well as singing the "Little Fat Man" song
as performed by
David Bowie in episode
two of the second series of
Extras.
On 7 July
2007, Gervais appeared at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London. Gervais introduced
Rob Reiner appearing in the guise of spoof film
director Marty Di Bergi, who in turn introduced
Spinal Tap. At the start of the concert,
Radio 1 DJ
Chris
Moyles, who was acting as compère for part of the event,
announced that Gervais would be appearing and performing an
'extended 25-minute set', which ultimately failed to happen. It is
unclear whether this was meant as a joke, perhaps referring to the
time Gervais had to fill at the Concert for Diana the previous
Sunday, or if it was simply cut because of time constraints, but in
an off-stage segment later Moyles actually expressed disappointment
that it had not occurred. Gervais himself however did reference his
appearance at the Diana concert the previous week, saying, 'Now
listen, we're running late, so I'm gonna be off this stage in 30
seconds, whether Elton John is fucking ready or not,' making him
one of a number of people to swear on live TV at the event.
Personal life
Gervais
currently lives in Hampstead
, with his partner of 25 years, producer and
screenwriter Jane Fallon.
In August
2008, they bought a second home on the Upper East Side
of Manhattan
in New York
City
.
Gervais is a fervent supporter of
animal
rights, and has been a fan of
wildlife documentaries since he was a
child. He has spoken out against
fox
hunting and
bull fighting, and has
even written to
Gordon Brown urging him
to stop the use of
black bear
fur as caps for the
Foot Guards.
He revealed that he is an
atheist during a
2007 interview with
Kirsty Young for
Desert Island Discs, later
stating he lost his faith at age eight, and in June 2008 he became
an Honorary Associate of the
National Secular Society. He is
also a close friend of American comedian
Jon
Stewart and is a frequent guest on his program,
The Daily Show.
His main friends are fellow
The Office and
Extras
co-writer and co-director and podcaster,
Stephen Merchant; fellow
The Ricky
Gervais Show star,
Karl
Pilkington;
Flanimals'
illustrator
Rob Steen; and comedian and
warm-up act,
Robin Ince.
Accolades
Gervais has received many awards for his work on
The
Office, most notably two
Golden
Globes (one for acting, one for the show itself), as well as
numerous
British
Academy Television Awards and
British Comedy Awards, amongst
others.
Gervais received an honorary award at the annual
Rose d'Or ceremony in Switzerland on 29 April
2006. The award is given to "an individual who has made an
exceptional contribution to the global entertainment
business".
On 16 September 2007, Gervais won an Emmy Award for Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role of Andy Millman on
Extras.
| Awarding Body/Event |
Awarded |
| Writers Guild of
America |
- 2007 Best Comedy Series "The Office" (U.S.)
|
| Rose d'Or |
- 2006 Honorary Rose for Exceptional Contribution to the Global
Entertainment Business
|
| Emmy Awards |
- 2007 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series "Extras"
- 2006 Best Writing for a Comedy "Extras"
- 2006 Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series "The Office" (U.S.)
- 2005 Best Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
“Office Special” (UK)
|
| Golden Globe |
- 2008 Best Television
Comedy or Musical (TV) Extras
- 2004 Best Actor —
Musical or Comedy (TV) The Office (UK)
- 2004 Best Television Comedy The Office (UK)
|
| Peabody Awards |
- 2004 Peabody Award “The Office” (UK)
|
| BAFTA Awards |
- 2007 Best Comedy Performance
- 2004 Best Comedy Performance
- 2004 Best Situation Comedy “The Office” (UK)
- 2003 Best Comedy Performance
- 2003 Situation Comedy Award “The Office” (UK)
- 2002 Best Comedy Performance
- 2002 Situation Comedy Award “The Office” (UK)
|
| Royal Television
Society |
- 2003 Best Comedy Performance for: "The Office" (UK)
|
| British Comedy Award |
- 2008 Best TV Comedy Actor
- 2004 Writer of the Year Ricky Gervais & Stephen
Merchant
- 2002 Best Comedy Actor
- 2002 Best Television Comedy “The Office” (UK)
- 2001 Best New Television Comedy “The Office” (UK)
|
| Broadcasting Press
Guild Awards |
- 2003 Writer's Award for: "The Office" (UK)
- 2002 Writer's Award for: "The Office" (UK)
|
Criticism and controversy
The Independent newspaper
has described Gervais as "obsessed by his own
celebrity", but adds, "Who wouldn't want to be
Peter Lawford in a comedy
Rat Pack?" in reference to
Ricky Gervais
Meets...; the article, however, also describes him as "a very
funny man" who "created one of the great
sitcoms".
The
Guardian's Chris Tryhorn explained the "few gripes" he had
with
Extras, "particularly in the second series". "You can
forgive Gervais a certain arrogance after the success of
The Office,
but..." He remarks on the confused tone of the series, taking in
the clash between the broad comedy of characters Barry (
Shaun Williamson) and Darren (
Stephen Merchant), and the apparent parody
of this style with
When The Whistle Blows, and "given
their total indulgence of Gervais, the BBC is portrayed as
interfering, its comedy department run by a rather crudely
stereotyped gay couple".
In September 2005, he caused mild controversy by recording a
radio advertisement for a
prostate cancer charity which was only
allowed to be broadcast from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. because of its
content. However, on 3 October 2005, the Radio Advertising
Clearance Centre announced that the advert could be broadcast
before 9pm, but stipulated that a "squish" noise should be
removed.
In February 2007, British ventriloquist
Keith Harris refused an invitation to appear on
the second series of
Extras, claiming that Gervais "wanted
me to be a
racist bigot" and describing the
script as "pure filth". When asked about Harris' refusal on
Friday Night with
Jonathan Ross, Gervais claimed that Harris simply "didn't
get it".
Keith Chegwin, who assumed
the role offered to Harris, said "the people who didn't get it
probably think
Johnny Depp really is a
pirate."
In July 2007, following Gervais' appearance at the memorial concert
for
Diana, Princess of
Wales,
The Guardian ran a column by
Daily Mirror television critic
Jim Shelley entitled "Call Me
Crazy... But Has Ricky Gervais Lost It?" This related to his
performance at the concert for Diana in which he had to fill time
after a technical fault in the sound system for
Elton John's performance. He was not allowed to
use material from his current stand-up show
Fame for legal reasons, so instead
performed his famous Brent Dance that the audience willed him to do
and sang the song "Little Fat Man" from
Extras series two
(originally performed by
David Bowie in
the series) before being told he could hand back to the BBC.
Gervais told British radio station Heart FM, "After the Diana
concert there was one guy — who works for a tabloid — and
he wrote that the crowd booed... they didn't boo, they loved it...
People love it when something goes wrong and I was standing there
and they demanded I do 'the robot dance' and it was funny."
The following week,
The Guardian noted that Gervais had
responded with "an exhilaratingly foul-mouthed tirade" on his
website, concluding with the words, "Yes I am resting on my fucking
laurels you cunt!" In this video Gervais mocked Jim Shelley typing
the words "Resting on his laurels" as Gervais jokingly lashed out
by stating he was resting on his laurels and that he was not going
to make another show for television, saying "What's the point? What
is there to beat?".
Filmography
Film
Television
References
- The Independent (2005) -- "His father, Jerry, was a
French-Canadian ... soldier stationed here during the war. He
met Eva, the comedian's mother, during a blackout and they settled
in Reading."
- The Independent (2005) -- "Ricky Gervais was born 44 years
ago, a mistake. "My mum told me that," he says. "She went 'You was
an accident'. I went 'Cheers!' Ha ha! A lot of honesty in my
family"
- Independent (2005). -- "The youngest, by some way, of four
brothers, his childhood was trauma-free. Like The Waltons, he says,
"If the Waltons took the piss out of each other. You had to be able
to answer back." The first time he did, he got a laugh and, his
family reasoned, "He'll be alright.""
- "Ricky Gervais: Grumpy middle-aged man",
The Daily Telegraph
- The Independent (2005). -- "Aged 21, he was in a band
himself, new romantics Seona Dancing. Their singles reached 117 and
70. The video for one, "Bitter Heart", was set in a
blacksmith's."
- The Observer (2005) "'Not at all,' he says. 'When I
was working at ULU I never thought, "This is shit" or "The money is
bad." I thought: "This is quite a good job." I suppose if all this
had not come along I might now have been a 43-year-old
entertainments manager. But that never worried me at the
time."
- The Observer (2005) "Instead of a stand-up career,
Gervais moved from ULU to a job as head of speech at the
alternative radio station Xfm."
- The Observer (2006). "Merchant was his deputy. Instead
of worrying too much about being heads of speech, they mostly
worked on little routines. Merchant was sometimes obliged to wheel
his boss around the office in his executive chair. 'I remember
going out for a drink with Steve early on,' Gervais says. 'I said
to him, "You've done media studies, you can do all the boring
stuff, all the filing, I'll mess around." He said: "OK." And that
was that."
- Deedes, Henry. (2007). "PANDORA: By George, we salute you for your
indefatigability", Independent News and Media Limited.
Retrieved on 22 July 2007.
- Edinburgh Festival 2001: More than The Office
comedian Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at
BNET.com
- E! News - Bowie Takes the High Line - David Bowie
Ricky Gervais
- Green, Graeme. (2007). "60 SECONDS: Ricky Gervais" Retrieved on
22 July 2007 from http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article.html?in_article_id=35340&in_page_id=11
METRO Newspaper
- Green, Graeme. (2007)., -- "Green: After having your own Simpsons episode and
working with Robert De Niro, are there any other big ambitions left
to fulfil? ... [Gervais:] I get
offered 50 diversions a day. I could be the guest on every panel
show or the butler in loads of films. But when The Simpsons calls
or Robert De Niro calls, you say ‘yes’ to them and ‘no’ to the
other 49."
- Gervais: I had to say sorry to vicar for joking at
my mother's funeral by James Tapper, Daily Mail (UK). 25 June
2007
- [1]Ricky's friends.
Interviews
- Time Magazine (2008). Renaissance Man: Ricky Gervais by Joel
Stein
- The Independent, et al. (2005). Ricky Gervais: My life as a
superstar Electronic Version
Independent News Media: United Kingdom
- The Guardian Newspaper, et al. (2005). "Second Coming"
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007: United
Kingdom
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