Ricky Gervais
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2007
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Ricky Gervais. 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.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Lilywhite by Cat Stevens Book: A coffee table book of art Luxury: Vat of novocaine - a non-addictive pain-killer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Krestey Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. |
| 0:05.0 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:08.0 | The program was originally broadcast in 2007. My cast away this week this week is Ricky Jervais. In just 12 episodes his show The Office changed the face of British |
| 0:34.5 | television comedy laying waste to the traditional sitcom props of |
| 0:38.2 | implausible characters, overblown punchlines, and phony laughter tracks. In David Brent he created the perfect comedy |
| 0:45.4 | anti-hero, marooned among the concrete and photocopiers of Slough, a risible company |
| 0:50.8 | drone drowning in management speak and self-delusion. |
| 0:54.1 | His toe-curling performance making excruciatingly compulsive viewing. |
| 0:58.6 | With seven BAFSA's two golden globes, sell out stand-up tours and now a thriving Hollywood career. |
| 1:04.2 | His place in the British comedy Hall of Fame is guaranteed. |
| 1:07.7 | Whether he'll want to be there is another question. |
| 1:09.9 | He is notably scathing about the celebrity culture of our time and uncommonly forthright in his views of fellow performers. |
| 1:17.0 | Ricky Jervais's empathy you've said is the very nub of human interaction. |
| 1:21.0 | How much do you empath emphasize with David Brent? |
| 1:23.0 | Quite a lot really because I think we've all got a little bit of David Brentness. We all want to be loved. |
| 1:28.8 | We all worried about how we're perceived and we've all got a you know the blind spot. I think it's monstrous |
| 1:35.2 | in David Brent but um by definition we never know about our own blind spot. |
| 1:41.1 | David Brent has become a massive cultural figure. |
| 1:44.0 | I mean people sort of quote him and they do impersonations for the very few people who are unaware |
| 1:48.4 | of who he is. |
| 1:49.4 | Can you describe the character? |
| 1:50.4 | He's middle everything. |
... |
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