"He didn’t know what hit him. He only worked eight hours a day on The Office. He was used to starting at 10am and finishing at 6pm or something ludicrous like that. But we’d start at four in the afternoon and keep going until four or five the next morning. He was one very unhappy British person but it was just so much fun watching someone work the most hours he’d ever had to do in his life, and trying to cope with it.

"He’d say: ’This is what you guys do everyday? You’ve got to be kidding. Do you really keep this up for 22 episodes? I’m used to doing six episodes a year and then having a lie down’.

The new series of Alias is being screened on Bravo in the UK from this Sunday, March 14. The episode featuring Ricky is expected to go out in June.

Can Ricky win a BAFTA? - 02/04
After the double success at The Golden Globes in America, Ricky Gervais and his Office may be in the running to scoop a BAFTA for the third year in a row.

Ricky is back in the running for this year’s best comedy performance award at the Baftas, despite the BBC accidentally leaving him off the original nominations list. Ricky and the team were the surprise (and possibly surprised) hits of The Golden Globes Awards - winning Best TV Comedy and Best Comedy Actor for Ricky. Since then America has gone David Brent crazy - with a cameo role being lined up in The Simpsons. Ricky as David will apparently join Homer and Marge after getting lost on holiday in America. Can’t wait!

Mistakes made at the office - 15/01/04
Ricky Gervais may miss out on a BAFTA after his name was mistakenly ’left off’ a list of candidates.

It was expected to find Ricky’s name amongst those short listed for a BAFTA award for best comedy performer 2003. But MediaGuardian said he was missed off the list of nominees due to an administrative era at the BBC. Co-stars Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Crook reportedly are included on the list. It is not clear whether BAFTA rules will allow Ricky’s name to be added before the Jan 28th deadline for nominations. I wonder what David Brent might say about that...

Another award? - 27/03/03
Notting Hill comic Ricky Gervais is competing with Jonathon Ross and Stephen Fry to be named radio’s top presenter.

They are all in the running for the best entertainment title at the annual Sony Awards taking place May 8.

The Office no more - 09/01/03
Ricky Gervais has revealed that he and his writing partner Stephen Merchant have no plans for a third series of the Office.

The future of the hit comedy show, which is currently being remade for the US, had always been in doubt, as the end of the second series saw the odious David Brent (played by Gervais) sacked as the manager of a Slough paper firm. In various interviews Gervais, who was named this week in the Radio Times as the most powerful man in British Comedy, said that he would only continue with one-off specials of the comedy.

Ricky hails as Rocky - 30/12/02
Comedian Ricky Gervais admitted today that he winced at his "gruesome" boxing victory over Grant Bovey after watching it on TV.

The unlikely contest ended in a win on points for the 41-year-old star of BBC2 comedy The Office. It involved three hard-fought rounds of one and a half minutes each with Anthea Turner’s 40-year-old husband. Spectators at the fight at the BBC Television centre included Gervais’s girlfriend and cast members from The Office. The pre-recorded fight was broadcast on BBC2 last night and also showed the weeks of training both men went through. Gervais’s victory over Bovey landed him £5,000 to donate to his chosen charity, Macmillan Nurses. Frank and Eugene Maloney trained the comedian.