This first episode of this documentary season, looking at modern "comedy heroes", focused on writer/actor Ricky Gervais – who has achieved worldwide fame in 5 years as the co-creator of The Office and Extras.
Gervais is a real "like him, or hate him" kind of guy, but its undeniable The Office (2001) was a significant achievement in comedy, and undoubtedly one of the best sitcoms of all time. Gervais has never topped his performance as office manager David Brent (and I doubt he ever will), although he's rarely put a foot wrong since...
Extras was a pretty solid sitcom for the most part, his podcasts (with colleagues Stephen Merchant and Karl Pikington) became essential listening around the world, he's had three successful stand-up tours (Animals
/Politics/Fame), written best-selling children's books Flanimals, and has recently started moving into films – with small roles in Night At The Museum, For Your Consideration and Stardust. He's set to make his leading role debut in Ghost Town this year, playing a man who has a near-death experience that leaves him able to see ghosts…He's the perfect candidate for a documentary focusing on new comedy talent. Indeed, it was getting rather tedious seeing Peter Sellers, John Cleese, Spike Milligan and Pete Cook documentaries. I think this series is a good idea, but its problem is obvious from the outset: we're already overwhelmed by information regarding its stars.
Did we learn anything from this documentary? Not particularly. The majority of the audience will be Ricky Gervais fans who know all this stuff anyway – so it basically amounted to lots of clips and "talking heads" raving about how brilliant Ricky is.
I found it quite interesting to see Billy Connolly profess his love for The Office and Ricky's stand-up material, although it was more enlightening to see US comedian Chris Rock, Spinal Tap's Christopher Guest and Simpsons creator Matt Groening spew their adoration.
As expected, it was all a bit of a love-fest, even if Ricky's friends make a point to criticize his childish behaviour and extremely irritating personality. The documentary comes at a time when there the beginnings of a Gervais backlash in the UK (after his woeful performances at the Live Earth and Princess Di concerts last summer) but that was somewhat neutered by a decent Extras Christmas Special swansong.
In some ways, this documentary reminded us of just how influential Gervais (and The Office, perhaps more so) has been on world comedy. I personally think Ricky Gervais is worthy of being called "a new comedy hero"; he's someone who admirably refused to milk The Office dry and take the cash, and has actually become the first comedian to successfully transfer their humour to multiple formats: TV, film, stage, the internet, books, etc…
He's still hugely overexposed, often quite smug, and his comedy plays to a narrow field -- but when you're scooping major awards like Emmys and BAFTAs, it's kind of understandable. He's actually very down-to-earth, considering he's a multi-millionaire who hangs out with David Bowie, appeared in a Simpsons episode he wrote, and is a regular interviewee of David Letterman these days.
I just wish the adoration was more about his work again, and less about his own celebrity. This documentary doesn't help matters, but I really hope he manages to disappear into writing and acting again soon…
22 February 2008
Channel 4, 9.00 pm
