Gervais Doesn't Deserve Globe

It's not exactly news that Ricky Gervais has won yet another award, this time a Golden Globe for Extras. As a fan, I'm certainly not averse to the idea of Gervais (who I consider to have one of the sharpest comedy brains of our generation) receiving due credit for his work. But I do feel, in this case, they got it wrong. Now, admittedly the competition wasn't all that strong (30 Rock, Californication, Entourage and Pushing Daisies were the rivals), but nevertheless I think at least one of these shows (namely Entourage) was a better all-round piece of television.

The US infatuation with anything touched by the hand of Gervais is getting a bit embarrassing. Witness for example his guest turn on The Simpsons, which turned out to be little more than a watered-down David Brent dancing to the same old tune. Or look at Stardust, where his cameo as a space-merchant was once again reduced to a series of Brent-ish facial expressions and grammatical punctuations that we've become so used to.

The rumour is that Ricky's next project with Stephen Merchant will be a straight drama. I've not doubt they are capable of handling a serious piece, and in fact I'm fairly confident they'll excel (my theory has always been that good comedians can always handle 'heavier' material but rarely does it work the other way round). But whether the US (and indeed for that matter the UK) sycophants will allow him to grow out of Brent remains to be seen. I'd hate to see him follow the path so sadly trodden by Steve Coogan.