Summary
AT 6ft 7ins it would seem hard to overlook Stephen Merchant. But until this week this precocious comedy talent was usually overshadowed by his comedy partner and co-creator of The Office and Extras, Ricky Gervais. Yet Merchant was only 26 when he achieved his childhood ambition of writing a sitcom that would be spoken of in the same breath as Fawlty Towers. At 32 he is now a comedy force both here and in America, a star of the world's most downloaded podcast, The Ricky Gervais Show, and a heartthrob to female fans whose taste extends to blond men the size of telegraph poles.
Yet it was only this week that Merchant came into his own, beating Gervais to the title of Best TV Comedy Actor at the Comedy Awards for his performance as useless showbiz agent Darren Lamb in BBC2's Extras.See the full content of this document
Extract
Stephen Merchant: A Towering Talent
Gervais had been nominated in the same category for his starring role as Andy Millman, and was present at the event via satellite to offer some encouragement to Merchant. "A British Comedy Award, quite a prize," enthused Gervais. "Not to me, I've won American ones."
Unlike Gervais, Merchant's progress into the p...See the full content of this document
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