Gervais hits out at our ‘fame-hungry’ society

COMEDY star Ricky Gervais has criticised British culture for stifling aspiration and hit out at today’s “fame-hungry” society.

The creator of The Office and Extras, who has twice hosted the Golden Globes, said he had never wanted to become famous.

Gervais, 50, said British children are not encouraged to pursue their ambitions. He said: “I never really thought about even having a career…being a working-class Brit I believed it was better to never try than to try and run the risk of failing.

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Americans are brought up to believe they can be the president of the United States. British kids are told: ‘Don’t be stupid. It won’t happen for you.’”

Gervais said he did not try at school, despite being “the smartest kid in my class”. Gervais said his new comedy, Life’s Too Short, a mockumentary following Warwick Davis’s day-to-day life as a jobbing dwarf actor, “reflects the more modern age: desperate, fame-hungry monsters who will do anything to be on the telly”.

It features appearances from Johnny Depp, Sting, Steve Carrell and Helena Bonham Carter and begins on BBC2 later this year.