Slough wants Gervais to repair its image

Ricky Gervais has been asked to champion a new drive to improve Slough's drab image.

Council chiefs have approached him because his comedy The Office is set on a characterless industrial estate in the Berkshire town.

They want to promote the green spaces and the area's other claims to fame -including the ice rink where Torvill and Dean practised and the factory where Mars bars are made.

But still the town is best known from poet laureate John Betjeman's stanza: "Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough/It isn't fit for humans now."

A council spokesman told the BBC: "As the country's most famous office manager we would be delighted if Ricky were to act as our unofficial cultural ambassador.

"The Office may poke fun at Slough but people here have quite a good sense of humour and we think it's great."

Ricky, who hails from nearby Reading, has been approached to open a new development in the town centre.

Excitingly, the 29-acre site offers "multimedia production spaces, flexible office accommodation, residential units and public transport interchanges".

Gervais has not yet responded to the invitation.

Published: 29 Aug 2002