Ricky Gervais: ‘British TV Is Rubbish’

Ricky Gervais - rotund funnyman and newly-proclaimed Lord Of The Podcasts - has launched a blistering attack on the lacklustre television of his homeland.

Comparing our mundane airwave schedules to that of the USA, Gervais remarked:

"It's different in America. They're ambitious, they're good, they're funny. They do stand-up, and by the time they're 31 they've got their own sitcom because they're good."

No doubt Gervais will come under fire for this outburst. He's successful (which, in case you didn't know, is widely heralded as a cultural crime in good old Blighty) and - most upsettingly of all - he's absolutely 100 percent correct in every way.While hecklerspray can't deny that America produces its fair share of drivel - i.e eyeball-meltingly inane cack such as Will And Grace - the scales are also invariably levelled out by legions of multi-layered, well-plotted and above all entertaining productions that Gervais is also kind enough to list:

"The Sopranos, 24, CSI, The Wire, bang! We've got nothing like that. Nothing! It's such a big gap.'

Feel like arguing? Please don't. Face it - what would you rather watch? My Family or Curb Your Enthusiasm? Heartbeat or Deadwood? Hollyoaks or Buffy The Vampire Slayer re-runs? When the most high-profile entertainers a nation can produce are Akira-demon-child lookalikes Ant And Dec, you know that you're plumbing the depths of the cultural doldrums. A point which Gervais very nicely makes as well:

"Comparing our celebrities to America is like comparing Blackpool to Las Vegas. It's division two."

By golly, the man is on form, isn't he? Well… not quite. He's simply taking the opinion of every discerning TV viewer across the land and hauling it into the public arena. Here's hoping that UK producers actually start paying attention.

Or - failing that - that Gervais ditches this pissy little island of ours for good and goes to work with the American big boys (you know, television networks who have funny ideas about 'funding', 'quality of writing' and 'not employing catastrophically bad non-performers such as Robson Green and the annoying fat bloke from the Halifax adverts.'

Anyway. Please excuse us. There's an episode of Dog Borstal starting on BBC Three now.

Read More:

Gervais Slams UK Entertainment Indsutry - Breaking News

[story by C J Davies]