Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais

Date of birth: 25-06-1961

A late entrant to the world of comedy, Gervais only started to try to tap his talent for making people laugh in 1998, at the age of 36.

Before that, he had spent seven years spent as an entertainments manager for a student union.

And his initial ambitions were musical, playing in a failed Eighties band called Seona Dancing.

He later, briefly, managed the band Suede, before landing a job on London's XFM radio station where he started developing a taste for comedy, and a character called Seedy Boss who would later become The Office's David Brent.

 

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© Netflix / Matt Crockett

1.5m watch Ricky Gervais's Alley Cats

Almost all in the first week

A total of 1.5million UK viewers have watched episode one of Ricky Gervais’s animated comedy Alley Cats in its first 28 days.

Of those, 1.1million came in the first week, trailing off to just 400,000 thereafter – accordion to Barb data from overnights.tv, reported on trade website Broadcast.

The series also saw a drop-off over its six episodes, as is typical, with 1million watching the final instalment. 

Alley Cats launched on August 7 and featured many of Gervais’s usual collaborators including Tom Basden, Andrew Brooke, David Earl, Kerry Godliman, Jo Hartley and Diane Morgan.

But it was roundly slammed by critics (including Chortle).

The animation outperformed new US animated comedy Mating Season,  which drew 327,000 UK viewers after 28 days in May.

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Published: 4 Sep 2026

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