ricky and steve on writing
What other comedians or writers or characters influenced the humour of the show?
asked Alan King of Liverpool
Ricky and Steve: Laurel and Hardy, This Is Spinal Tap, The Simpsons, The Larry Sanders Show and Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads.
Ricky's favouite album is Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan. 'If You See Her Say Hello from Blood on the Tracks was the last song I played on Xfm before they sacked me,' he told The Guardian.
Are there any plans to make any more comedies written by both Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais?
asked Kieran Burke of Brighton
Ricky and Steve: Yes. We’re working on one at the moment (Feb 2004).
Who thought of that very subtle joke where Brent sees the Santa on the hat stand and his look seems to say 'that's not as funny as my stuffed toys'?
asked Archer of Richmond
Ricky and Steve: It was an ad-lib.
Were you scared about putting racism into your show?
asked Sam Thomas from Cornwall
Ricky and Steve: We don’t think any of the characters are really racist. We thought it was interesting to write about the hypocrisy of people who think they’re politically correct and the resultant awkwardness when they try too hard.
Following on from what Tim said, where do you think the main characters will be in ten years time?
asked Hannah of Coventry
Ricky and Steve: We’d rather leave that to your imagination.
Be pretentious and tell us about your aspirations with the writing. You've been compared to Arthur Miller and David Mamet. Did you intend to make a deep, intellectual point about office culture or in your minds were you just writing gags?
asked Jack M Dee of N'hants
Ricky and Steve: We just tried to put on screen an honest portrayal of our experiences and make people laugh at the same time.
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