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Derek (Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington Sitcom)

  • 20-03-2012 4:38pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 84,319 ✭✭✭✭JP Liz V1


    http://www.digitalspy.ie/tv/news/a371991/ricky-gervaiss-derek-noakes-sitcom-pilot-to-air-on-channel-4-in-april.html
    Ricky Gervais sitcom pilot Derek will be screened on Channel 4 in April, it has been announced.
    The Office creator is hoping that the nursing home-centred comedy, which also stars Karl Pilkington in his first acting role, is commissioned for a full series.
    However, BAFTA is billing its screening in London, on Tuesday, March 27, as "a one-off comedy drama".
    A Channel 4 spokesperson said: "Channel 4 is very excited to be working with Ricky Gervais on this new project and it's wrong to say we have rejected a series.
    "The pilot will be on TV in April and then there'll be further discussions about the potential for a full series."
    Derek Noakes, to be played by Gervais, is described by BAFTA as "a tender, innocent man whose love for his job and the people he cares for shines through".
    "He's 49 years old and loves animals, Rolf Harris, Jesus, Deal or No Deal, Million Pound Drop and Britain's Got Talent - but his main hobby is autograph hunting," added the description.
    Pilkington will portray retirement home landlord Dougie, Noakes's employer.
    James Bond legend Sir Sean Connery will reportedly appear in the first episode.
    Derek Noakes first appeared in a short at 2001's Edinburgh Comedy Festival, then a 39-year-old aspiring stand-up comic living with his grandmother.

    :)


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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 8,349 ✭✭✭squonk


    More of the same for Gervaise. Crappy comedy with an A lister (Connery) thrown in so you can watch the thing without feeling completely cheated. The Office was genuinely brilliant but everything else since then has been rubbish. I wish he'd go away at this point.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,348 ✭✭✭✭ricero


    squonk wrote: »
    More of the same for Gervaise. Crappy comedy with an A lister (Connery) thrown in so you can watch the thing without feeling completely cheated. The Office was genuinely brilliant but everything else since then has been rubbish. I wish he'd go away at this point.



  • Registered Users Posts: 15,134 ✭✭✭✭Oat23


    Feck Sean Connery. I'm watching for Karl!


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Rjd2


    squonk wrote: »
    More of the same for Gervaise. Crappy comedy with an A lister (Connery) thrown in so you can watch the thing without feeling completely cheated. The Office was genuinely brilliant but everything else since then has been rubbish. I wish he'd go away at this point.
    I hope celebrities appear in this and send themselves up :pac:

    Show sounds vile, basically Gervais making loads of jokes about the disabled. :rolleyes:

    Go away Ricky please.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭Minstrel27


    How do you know that it is going to be full of disabled jokes?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭Hail 2 Da Thief


    squonk wrote: »
    The Office was genuinely brilliant but everything else since then has been rubbish.

    The podcasts are hilarious too in fairness!


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Rjd2


    Minstrel27 wrote: »
    How do you know that it is going to be full of disabled jokes?
    It’s believed the show revolves around Gervais’s character Derek Noakes, a mentally challenged aspiring comedian who loves animals and still lives with his mum.


    http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2011/11/25/14392/gervais_pilots_old_folks_comedy#ixzz1eiLn0e8E

    Stewart Lee wrote an article about how he was expecting the worst from this and I totally understand his fear. But heh, celebrities sending themselves up! :D

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/13/stewart-lee-comedy-offensive-gervais


  • Posts: 15,814 ✭✭✭✭ Alaia Round Tour


    Just finishing up season 2 of An Idiot Abroad and Karl is the only reason that I'll give this the time of day. Gervais has proven himself over the past few years to be an unfunny, malicious and down right nasty figure who seems to recycle the same tired ideas. The scene in Japan In AIA where Karl is meditating displays just what a nasty figure Gervais is. He's a bully, there's no other word to describe him.

    I get the impression from what I have seen and heard of this that this is nothing more then Gervais truing to be risqué and cutting edge. In the hands of a skilled comedian this could well be a challenging and adult show but in Gervais's I fear that it's going to be juvenile trash that relies on cheap jokes at the expense of the patients and celebrity appearances in order to get people to tune in.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,719 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    The bit I'm having trouble believing is the notion of Gervais playing a "a tender, innocent man whose love for his job and the people he cares for shines through". Doesn't exactly sound like the kind of character Gervais can naturally convey, does it?

    Not sure about the accusations of nastiness, but I do think Gervais has shown himself to be a one-trick pony with a lot of what he has done since The Office. Nothing since has been either original or... well, funny. His most recent work with Warwick Davis was merely Extras series 3, which didn't help deny the idea of being a broken record. Mind you, tbh I always figured Merchant to be talented one of that duo anyway...


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,349 ✭✭✭squonk


    Did anyone see his cameo in the Simpsons? It really had to be one of the worst. I know sometimes they're not great but he just managed to leech any fun out of the episode that was in there to begin with.


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  • Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 34,939 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    Karl Pilkington's first acting role.... not sure I believe that to be honest.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,316 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    pixelburp wrote: »
    Not sure about the accusations of nastiness, but I do think Gervais has shown himself to be a one-trick pony with a lot of what he has done since The Office. Nothing since has been either original or... well, funny. His most recent work with Warwick Davis was merely Extras series 3, which didn't help deny the idea of being a broken record. Mind you, tbh I always figured Merchant to be talented one of that duo anyway...
    Extras was actually funny.
    Karl Pilkington's first acting role.... not sure I believe that to be honest.
    You're right



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,465 ✭✭✭kitakyushu


    Karl Pilkington's first acting role.... not sure I believe that to be honest.

    Possibly so! I wouldn't be surprised if 'Suzanne' doesn't exist either.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,465 ✭✭✭kitakyushu


    pixelburp wrote: »
    The bit I'm having trouble believing is the notion of Gervais playing a "a tender, innocent man whose love for his job and the people he cares for shines through". Doesn't exactly sound like the kind of character Gervais can naturally convey, does it?

    Not sure about the accusations of nastiness, but I do think Gervais has shown himself to be a one-trick pony with a lot of what he has done since The Office. Nothing since has been either original or... well, funny. His most recent work with Warwick Davis was merely Extras series 3, which didn't help deny the idea of being a broken record. Mind you, tbh I always figured Merchant to be talented one of that duo anyway...

    There's something to that alright. I actually like Pilkington and Warwick Davies personalities in themselves but Gervais's brand of humour definitely is a vibe of 'lets take the piss out of the odd fella' and 'laugh at them not with them'. It's almost a universal element of everything he does. I don't see him ever going against this for a series.

    As for the Merchant point I suspect that is true also. On the podcasts I've heard he definitely comes across as more quick-witted and intelligent than Gervais and I was surprised to learn how young he is (born 1974) so he'd probably only have been around 25 when he was trying to get the office made. Clearly he is quite precocious. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if I heard he had been using Gervais as much as a front as for a writing/directing partner.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,378 ✭✭✭✭murpho999


    Funny how Gervais is enormously successful but people here just say he's rubbish since "The Office"!

    How come people here are ignoring 'Extras'? I really thought that was very good.

    Also, sholdn't we wait to pass judgement on the new show till we've actually seen it?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,348 ✭✭✭✭ricero


    gervais you either love him or hate him and i think the mans brilliant.

    cant believe people on here also debating if karl pilkington is playing a character truly a stupid myth being brought back up again


  • Registered Users Posts: 45,535 ✭✭✭✭Mr.Nice Guy


    Hmm, I have the feeling this show could turn people against Karl. He is funniest when he's not working off a script. Having him do the opposite will ruin a lot of his appeal I fear.

    'It is better to walk alone in the right direction than follow the herd walking in the wrong direction.'



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23,316 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    Hmm, I have the feeling this show could turn people against Karl. He is funniest when he's not working off a script. Having him do the opposite will ruin a lot of his appeal I fear.

    Aye, I know a lot of people who seem to think that An Idiot Abroad is purely scripted (I'm sure plenty is) but I know a couple of people like Karl who don't say a lot but when they do it's with a straight face and usually funny.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,818 ✭✭✭Minstrel27


    Rjd2 wrote: »
    It’s believed the show revolves around Gervais’s character Derek Noakes, a mentally challenged aspiring comedian who loves animals and still lives with his mum.

    You are speculating so.


  • Registered Users Posts: 530 ✭✭✭zac8


    A mentally challenged aspiring comedian who lives with his mother and is a fanatic autograph hunter? That could be The King of Comedy.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Rjd2


    Minstrel27 wrote: »
    You are speculating so.

    I am not!:P

    The quote was from the Chortle link which was posted just under the quote:P


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭leggo


    I'm sorry but for me Gervais still has a good track record:

    The Office, Extras, three great stand-up DVDs (haven't seen his latest tbh), An Idiot Abroad and the podcasts.

    Duds: Life's Too Short, his movies (to a degree).

    That's not bad at all, especially when you consider the worldwide success of The Office.

    It just seems to be trendy to hate him since he's broken America. Maybe he's unlikeable...but he says straight up that he doesn't play the media game, which you'd think would be an admirable quality. Obviously there's something still to be said for just smiling to the cameras, keeping your nose out of trouble and putting on your Disney smile.


  • Registered Users Posts: 669 ✭✭✭WindmillWarrior


    leggo wrote: »
    I'm sorry but for me Gervais still has a good track record:

    The Office, Extras, three great stand-up DVDs (haven't seen his latest tbh), An Idiot Abroad and the podcasts.

    Duds: Life's Too Short, his movies (to a degree).

    That's not bad at all, especially when you consider the worldwide success of The Office.

    It just seems to be trendy to hate him since he's broken America. Maybe he's unlikeable...but he says straight up that he doesn't play the media game, which you'd think would be an admirable quality. Obviously there's something still to be said for just smiling to the cameras, keeping your nose out of trouble and putting on your Disney smile.

    Spot on. And I'd add the XFM radio shows to the good as well. They are from way back when they originally began working with Karl. They are very funny.

    I think Lifes too Short being so poor has put a lot of people off. I know it has me. I'd be a little worried about this show now after seeing how terrible Life's Too Short was!


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Rjd2


    leggo wrote: »
    I'm sorry but for me Gervais still has a good track record:

    The Office, Extras, three great stand-up DVDs (haven't seen his latest tbh), An Idiot Abroad and the podcasts.

    Duds: Life's Too Short, his movies (to a degree).

    That's not bad at all, especially when you consider the worldwide success of The Office.

    It just seems to be trendy to hate him since he's broken America. Maybe he's unlikeable...but he says straight up that he doesn't play the media game, which you'd think would be an admirable quality. Obviously there's something still to be said for just smiling to the cameras, keeping your nose out of trouble and putting on your Disney smile.


    No people may not like him because its been diminishing returns since The Office? Coogan has cracked America but their has been no backlash because the quality of his material has not slipped.

    Oh and Gervais not playing the media game, he plays it just as much as everyone else, nothing wrong with that, but anyone who thinks he does not is deluded.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭leggo


    Rjd2 wrote: »
    No people may not like him because its been diminishing returns since The Office? Coogan has cracked America but their has been no backlash because the quality of his material has not slipped.

    Oh and Gervais not playing the media game, he plays it just as much as everyone else, nothing wrong with that, but anyone who thinks he does not is deluded.

    Yeah but there's an easy counter to that in saying that Coogan hasn't been nearly as successful as Gervais in cracking America, he's barely been on most people's radar, so there's been little opportunity for a backlash. Whereas when you're massively successful like Gervais, it means more limelight and more chances for people to turn on you. Just part and parcel of the fame game, I get it, but you're factually incorrect when you say there's been diminishing returns. I've listed off several of his successes since The Office above and they far outweigh the duds.

    If you're expecting another 'Office' to come along, it's a bit unfair. I mean, what has Steve Coogan produced that's even come close to 'Alan Partridge'. So your own example doesn't even stack up to your expectations.

    He's had one below par TV show in 'Life's Too Short' (which wasn't even terrible, I got a couple of laughs per episode, just not up to his usual standard) and movies that weren't box office smashes (but you wouldn't call them flops either).

    Like I said, it's just the done thing to hate on people when they reach that level of success. If Coogan got more roles than bit parts in average, inoffensive movies...he'd probably feel the same backlash. It doesn't make the criticism particularly reflective of their quality of work.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Rjd2


    leggo wrote: »
    Yeah but there's an easy counter to that in saying that Coogan hasn't been nearly as successful as Gervais in cracking America, he's barely been on most people's radar, so there's been little opportunity for a backlash. Whereas when you're massively successful like Gervais, it means more limelight and more chances for people to turn on you. Just part and parcel of the fame game, I get it, but you're factually incorrect when you say there's been diminishing returns. I've listed off several of his successes since The Office above and they far outweigh the duds.

    If you're expecting another 'Office' to come along, it's a bit unfair. I mean, what has Steve Coogan produced that's even come close to 'Alan Partridge'. So your own example doesn't even stack up to your expectations.

    He's had one below par TV show in 'Life's Too Short' (which wasn't even terrible, I got a couple of laughs per episode, just not up to his usual standard) and movies that weren't box office smashes (but you wouldn't call them flops either).

    Like I said, it's just the done thing to hate on people when they reach that level of success. If Coogan got more roles than bit parts in average, inoffensive movies...he'd probably feel the same backlash. It doesn't make the criticism particularly reflective of their quality of work.

    I and others don't care how successful he is and claiming that those who dislike him are merely jealous is a little patronising.

    You may rate the majority of his work since The Office, that's fine, others don't . Extras in my opinion was very poor, same premise every week, a listers sending themselves up, ho ho ho! The rest of the show wasn't that amusing either and Ashley Jensen was very poor in the lead role. Stand up of his is very mediocre as well. Don't care about his work with Karl, as its basically him just insulting Karl and calling him stupid every episode.

    Coogan has done quite well for himself in the last few years, The Trip was well received in America and the UK. Saxondale was one of the finest and under rated British comedies of the last decade and much better than Extra's.
    Derek may be better but its unlikely when you consider how humorless and cruel Life To Short was and lets not forget this is a 50 year old man who was fighting for his right to use the word mong a few months ago.

    Like Mr Lee I fear the worst.:(


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭leggo


    I'm not saying critics are jealous, to be fair, I'm saying they're by and large following a trend to dislike Gervais and write off his work.

    Comparatively, Coogan's shows have not done as well as Gervais'. Or even nearly so. He still wheels out Alan Partridge to this day, and yet Gervais gets called a one-trick pony! I like Coogan but if you want to measure credibility of argument then surely the proof is in how successful said shows are.

    But people always like to root for an underdog, I get that. You're entitled to your opinion, by all means, it just carries very little weight when you examine it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Rjd2


    leggo wrote: »
    I'm not saying critics are jealous, to be fair, I'm saying they're by and large following a trend to dislike Gervais and write off his work.

    Comparatively, Coogan's shows have not done as well as Gervais'. Or even nearly so. He still wheels out Alan Partridge to this day, and yet Gervais gets called a one-trick pony! I like Coogan but if you want to measure credibility of argument then surely the proof is in how successful said shows are.

    But people always like to root for an underdog, I get that. You're entitled to your opinion, by all means, it just carries very little weight when you examine it.

    Or maybe they simply don't rate his work? Gervais has the same attitude, if you like his stuff you get it, if you don't then you are a biased hater! (yes as a 50 year old man he uses that word!).

    Coogan has brought back Partidge after a long spell in the wilderness because he loves the character and its not as if his work with Rob Brydon hasn't been successful or critically acclaimed.

    Anyways I think we will have to agree to disagree on this one! Arguing about Gervais online isn't good for my blood pressure!:P


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,104 ✭✭✭ryaner777






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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,104 ✭✭✭ryaner777




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