Classic Desert Island Discs: Ricky Gervais

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2019

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

Another chance to listen to the comedian, Ricky Gervais speaking to Kirsty Young in 2007. In just twelve episodes, his show The Office changed the face of British television comedy. At its centre was the comic monster, David Brent, a middle-manager being filmed for a mock-documentary who saw the ever-present cameras as his route to popularity and fame. Ricky Gervais's performance was both excruciating and unmissable - one critic called the programme "among the most affecting and invigorating works of fiction since the turn of the century". As he discusses with Kirsty Young, comedy was the language he grew up with - the youngest of four children, being able to come up with a gag or a smart rejoinder was the linguistic currency of his home. That, he says, is where the 'show-off performer' was born. Now with seven Baftas, two Golden Globes and an Emmy to his name, Ricky Gervais is gratified that his work is recognised and says his aim has always been to bring art into comedy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:05.0	Lauren LeVernier, Desert Island Discs is taking its usual Easter break for the next few
0:09.6	weeks, so to keep you going until we're back on air, we'll be showcasing a few programs
0:13.8	from our back catalogue. As usual, as this is a podcast, the music has been shortened for
0:19.2	rights reasons. This week, the castaway is Ricky DuVase, who was interviewed by Kirste
0:24.1	Young in 2007.
0:30.0	My castaway this week is Ricky DuVase. In just 12 episodes, his show The Office changed
0:48.2	the face of British television comedy, laying waste to the traditional sitcom props of
0:52.6	implausible characters overblown punchlines and phony laughter tracks. In David Brent,
0:58.1	he created the perfect comedy anti-hero, marooned among the concrete and photocopiers
1:03.2	of slow, a visible company drone, drowning in management speak and self-delusion, his
1:08.6	toe-curling performance making excruciatingly compulsive viewing. With seven baffters, two
1:14.3	golden globes, sell-out stand-up tours, and now a thriving Hollywood career, his place
1:18.9	in the British comedy hall of fame is guaranteed. Whether he'll want to be there is another question.
1:24.4	He is notably skating about the celebrity culture of our time and uncommonly forthright
1:29.7	in his views of fellow performers. Ricky DuVase, empathy, you've said, is the very
1:34.0	nub of human interaction. How much do you empathise with David Brent?
1:38.2	Quite a lot, really, because I think we all got a little bit of David Brent in us. We
1:42.2	all want to be loved. We all worried about how we're perceived, and we've all got the
1:47.7	blind spot. I think it's monstrous in David Brent. But by definition, we never know about
1:54.1	our blind spot.
1:56.1	David Brent has become a massive cultural figure. People, sort of, quarter-manly do impersonations
	...

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