Editing Ricky Gervais (section)

====Early television appearances====
[[File:RickyGervaisBAFTA07.jpg|thumb|upright|Gervais at the [[60th British Academy Film Awards]] in 2007]]
Gervais has contributed to the [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA]]-winning ''[[The Sketch Show]]'' (ITV), penning several sketches. His mainstream-TV on-screen debut came in September 1998 as part of [[Channel 4]]'s ''Comedy Lab'' series of pilots. His one-off show ''[[Golden Years (TV programme)|Golden Years]]'' focused on a [[David Bowie]]-obsessed character called Clive Meadows.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/pictures/the-long-funny-career-of-ricky-gervais-20110404/golden-years-1998-0520409Aa|title=The Long, Funny Career of Ricky Gervais|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|first=Tom |last=Eames|access-date=25 January 2015}}{{dead link|date=August 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Gervais then came to much wider national attention with an obnoxious, cutting persona featured in a topical slot that replaced [[Ali G]]'s segments on the satirical Channel 4 comedy programme ''[[The 11 O'Clock Show]]'' in early 1999, in which his character used as many expletives as was possible and produced an inordinate number of politically incorrect statements. Among the other regular featured comedians on the show was [[Mackenzie Crook]], later a co-star of ''[[The Office (UK TV series)|The Office]]''. Two years later, Gervais went on to present his comedy chat show for Channel 4 called ''[[Meet Ricky Gervais]]'', which was poorly received and cancelled after six episodes, and Gervais has since mocked it.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

Throughout this time, Gervais also wrote for the BBC sketch show ''[[Bruiser (TV series)|Bruiser]]'' and ''The [[Jim Tavaré|Jim Tavare]] Show''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/people/ricky_gervais_person_page.shtml|title=Comedy People A-Z Ricky Gervais|publisher=BBC|access-date=25 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924202642/http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/people/ricky_gervais_person_page.shtml|archive-date=24 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>