Stephen Merchant has shed light on his relationship with his former comedy partner Ricky Gervais, with whom he created The Office.
The Bristolian icon, 51, teamed with Ricky, 64, to create the 2001 classic – often deemed the greatest British comedy of all time – having met in 1997 when the former applied to be the former’s assistant at XFM.
After working together briefly, they began to collaborate on their comedy, however Stephen insisted that even at their closest, they lived ‘quite separate lives’, and nowadays he revealed: ‘We’re not in touch a great deal these days’.
Speaking to The Times, he insisted they would never revive the comedy, which has been adapted in 13 countries, but did not rule out working together again.
He said: ‘After we ended The Office, Ricky and I realised that we couldn’t compete with it and so we had to do something completely different. Would we work together again? Well, never say never, but we wouldn’t revive The Office.’
Stephen Merchant has shed light on his relationship with his former comedy partner Ricky Gervais, with whom he created The Office (Stephen pictured in 2018)
Stephen and Ricky created, wrote and directed mockumentary The Office. Ricky played the main character David Brent while Stephen had a fleeting cameo in the show as The Oggmonster (the duo pictured on the show in 2002)
Ricky (left) and Stephen (right) are pictured with stars of the show Martin Freeman (second left) and Lucy Davis (second right) and producer Ash Atalla (centre) at the 2004 Golden Globe Awards
Stephen and Ricky created, wrote and directed mockumentary The Office, which was released in 2001 and followed the day-to-day lives of office employees in the fictional Wernham Hogg paper company. Ricky played the main character David Brent.
On their relationship at the time and now, Stephen, who had a fleeting cameo in the show as The Oggmonster, detailed: ‘We’re not in touch a great deal these days but even at our closest we were living quite separate lives…
‘Ricky used to joke that he was 13 or 14 years older than me, just as I was discovering my favourite nightclub, he was discovering his favourite comfortable chair.’
The duo, who are producers on the US version of The Office, also worked together on The Ricky Gervais Show podcast and created further comedy shows Life’s Too Short, An Idiot Abroad and Extras, much to fans delight.
The Office has had versions in countries including Sweden, France, Germany, Quebec, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Israel, Poland and the US.
Speaking about the cultural impact of the programme, which featured two six-episode series and a two-part Christmas special, he said: ‘After the early success of The Office I was competing with myself for a while…
Stephen and Ricky are pictured in their scene together alongside Mackenzie Crook, who played the hapless Gareth Keenan
Tongues wagged in 2020, when Stephen sent a tweet that was deemed to be a swipe, in the wake of the release of Ricky’s hit After Life, which follows the story of an embittered widower played by writer and creator Ricky
‘It had such an impact and afterlife, with all the remakes around the world. I’ve seen the US version and a bit of the Australian one but not the others. Lots of people are doing covers of Wonderwall but Noel Gallagher isn’t listening to them all, is he?’
Tongues wagged in 2020, when Stephen sent a tweet that was deemed to be a swipe, in the wake of the release of Ricky’s hit After Life, which follows the story of an embittered widower played by writer and creator Ricky.
He wrote: ‘Watching old home movies of dead child/wife = inability to move on’, – in a nod to a trope that is heavily featured in After Life.
Following the headline-hitting tweet, Stephen said: ‘Whenever people stop working as closely together as they were, people immediately assume it’s ‘knives out’’.
He revealed he had not even seen the show and insisted they were not estranged: ‘Why would I [make a b****y subtweet]? It was such a strange idea to me, that I’d take a swipe at Ricky by doing a tweet, and [make] an abstract criticism of his show.’
Stephen and Ricky are pictured together in 2005’s Extras, which they wrote and created
Stephen is pictured in October last year
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