Stephen Merchant

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Interview: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant

Hit animated comedy The Ricky Gervais Show returns to UK screens this week with a second series!

The animated versions of Ricky Gervais's podcasts, featuring Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, return for a second run. The voice-over describes them as a "series of pointless conversations", which is about right. Still, they're funny men, it's not without charm, and the animations are amusing.

Series two for this Gervais vehicle, which has turned the podcasts Ricky did with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington into a Flintstones-style cartoon. First up, Karl pitches a film where the hero has a brain transplant, and there's more from Monkey News.

Karl Pilkington's star has risen since the first series of this Hanna-Barbera-style animation set to his podcasts with Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, mostly thanks to his excruciatingly funny Sky1 series An Idiot Abroad. There is an allusion to that new-found fame in this opener, in which Pilkington explains his latest, splendidly baffling film pitch that starts as a Frankenstein thriller and segues into a lesbian drama, and which Gervais and Merchant waste no time picking holes in. A lo-fi treat, as ever.

The Hanna-Barbera-style animated version of Ricky Gervais's podcast returns for a second series. The cartoon conversations focus mainly on Karl Pilkington's childlike ignorance and dopey ideas. As Gervais and Stephen Merchant goad him on, Pilkington lays out his daft theories while the other two shoot him down with the kind of merciless mockery that anywhere else would be considered bullying. It's a ritual that is easy to dislike but it delivers laughs. "It really is the ramblings of a mental case!" Gervais squeals, as Pilkington outlines his idea for a film about brain transplants starring Clive Warren (he means Owen) and Rebecca De Mornay. Odd casting aside, it's not a bad idea.

The animated version of Ricky Gervais's podcast, which featured Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington and earned a Guinness World Record for the most downloads, returns for a second series. It's the usual banter as Pilkington pitches a peculiar idea for a film and Merchant reads extracts from Pilkington's diary, in which he shares his thoughts about Australia, camping and the in-laws.

Karl Pilkington interview

Bod lookalike Karl Pilkington is the star of the show - and the butt of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's jokes. But who's really having the last laugh? TV Choice chatted to doleful Mancunian Karl to find out...

I met Ronnie Corbett once. It was during my time as a gossip columnist on this paper. I spotted him at a party and, somewhat starstruck, decided to approach and introduce myself. He was all right, I suppose, though not terribly polite. He didn't, he sniffed, read The Independent. More of a Telegraph man (must be the jokes). Anyway, he's 80 now, and BBC2 has devoted a few hours of scheduling to the occasion. First up was a rerun of The Two Ronnies Christmas Special from 1984, and then Being Ronnie Corbett, a fawning programme of dedications. We got Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Catherine Tate and Michael Palin, Miranda Hart, Rob Brydon, Stephen Merchant, and Bill Bailey. Even Bruce Forsyth put in an appearance. They all heaped praise on him, and deservedly so. After all, it wasn't them he was rude to at a party, was it? And he's jolly funny, or used to be, back in the day. Repeated clips of The Frost Report and The Two Ronnies were testimony to that. His more recent stuff, less so. That Extras sketch is great, of course - "a bit of whiz, you know? To blow away the cobwebs" - but, really, Ronnie, Little Britain? "I was just grateful to be included," was his explanation. And, to be honest, I believe him. This is a man whose raison d'être has been making people laugh; of course, he wants to keep up with the times. Why else would he agree to cuddle a half-naked Lucas in the least funny show on television?

The BBC is onto a good thing by celebrating this comedy legend while he's still very much alive and kicking. National treasures are usually whored out by broadcasters until every last drop of funny (and money) has been squeezed out of them, or ignored until they've passed away.

With its subject still in the land of the living, the mood of the programme was celebratory and jovial, with Corbett himself appearing as the star talking head. Of course there was plenty of retrospect as he looked back over his career, but the fact remains that Ronnie has clearly retained all his faculties and is still a very funny man.

For those who enjoy analysing and dissecting comedy - as opposed to merely laughing at it - it was a sweet little study of what makes this man so funny. His height (or lack thereof) is, of course, a major factor, but his natural talent is undeniable.

Corbett looked back fondly and honestly on his long career, with the help of more fashionable comedians like Stephen Merchant and Rob Brydon. Happily, given the many programmes the BBC is dedicating to him over Christmas, he suffers neither from the startling arrogance, nor from the false modesty that seems to afflict so many stars.

It's true that his particular style of comedy isn't to modern tastes and the old clips will look like camp variety acts to young eyes, but with everyone from Miranda Hart to Bill Bailey claiming to have been inspired by The Two Ronnies, it's hard to deny their appeal.

Given the insight promised by the title Being Ronnie Corbett, it's tempting to make a Ronnie-esque joke about what the weather's like down there for the vertically challenged comedian, but I won't. That doesn't count...