When you make Andy famous,
suddenly, the excruciating, awkward moments that he gets himself into
suddenly seem even more embarrassing because now the world knows who he is.
People put a name to the face.
- Andy! - Andy!
The BAFTA episode probably illustrates that even more, you know,
the idea that he's at this ceremony
and he makes a little confession about an ex-girlfriend
that he dumped for being boring.
I'd just like to say to Andy Millman...
When she declares everything,
in front of all the BAFTA members, all the people in the audience,
and, theoretically, everyone watching at home,
it becomes even more preposterous and even, hopefully, funnier.
I may be boring,
but at least I didn't lose my virginity when I was 28...
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
...to a woman who looks like Ronnie fucking Corbett.
Rick, can I just take a moment to sing the praises
of our art director, Anna Higginson,
and our director of photography, Martin Hawkins,
for the excellent work they did in recreating the BAFTA ceremony for episode four.
That was scary, because my fear was that...
You know when you see like, a sketch or a sitcom
and you have real footage of a football match and it's Man U-Arsenal, this big crowd,
and then it goes into the conversation and there's four people,
like with nice gaps, like silence.
- So clearly not at the same location. - Now and again they go, "Ooh!"
So anyway, they're talking this quietly because they can talk this quietly,
'cause there's 60,000 people cheering.
- We thought, "it mustn't look like that." - It can't look phoney kind of thing.
Because what we had to do, we had real footage of the BAFTAs, of course,
because we can't get a team of a thousand extras.
So we got the tapes of the actual ceremony, as it was filmed for TV.
And then when you come in tight to little scenes at the table,
that's all fake, recreated months later in the studio.
Anything, when you see a character from Extras, is recreated.
Are you having a laugh? Is he having a laugh?
I think it was a real thrill for us when Richard Briers came down,
because he is a, sort of, living comic treasure.
You see, I'm old now and they said, my friends,
they said, "You know, you ought to do something cutting edge."
So they said, "What about Ricky Gervais?" I said, "Well, he's certainly cutting edge."
When he came down, I just felt that it was a real honour.
Do you know what I mean? It was a real honour.
People have been so impressed by me doing this show with Ricky Gervais, I can't tell you.
It's a bit annoying, really,
because they seem to be more interested in him than me.
But it is a challenge and one's got to keep oneself going mentally.
Plus the fact they did tell me there was a built-in repeat fee,
which is always a help, you know, when you're my age.
And so I was happy, grateful, and very moved to be asked.
Are you having a laugh? Is he having a laugh?
(DISTORTED) Is he having a laugh?
I found in The Office and indeed, this series, Extras,
that there were slight undertones of Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles,
who is also an impossible person.
The man who sees himself differently to everyone else,
pomposity, jealousy, it was all in Martin in Ever Decreasing Circles,
and it was just played to perfection.
Tacky shit!
Ricky's embarrassment I think is wonderful, and that's one of the great things of comedy,
is embarrassment and unhappiness and frustration,
and all these lovely things that we have to put up with daily
are, in fact, turned a certain way, they're funny.
Ronnie Corbett was a real thrill for me as well
'cause I was a massive Two Ronnies fan, and he just...
I had trouble just not laughing looking at him.
Even when he just turned around and went, "Hello," and I'd go...
- 'Cause... - He's just a funny man.
- He's a funny man. - He's got funny bones.
Well, I do remember the first conversation I had with Ricky.
I said how thrilled I was to hear that he was interested.
And he said to me, "You haven't heard what I want you to do yet."
Ah! I thought, "Oh, what's this?"
(SNORTING)
- Who's that? - Oh, hi!
How are you doing? All right?
Well, immediately I was game for it.
I'm not sure my wife was. She was going, "I wonder if that's gonna be all right."
And I told my daughters and they were all hysterical, so...
And it's been lovely.
I mean, because it's not been at all nasty, just been a really naughty feeling.
Really naughty boys in this lavatory.
Which is what I've enjoyed being.
At the age of 75, to be a naughty boy again is quite exciting.
Right, let me explain, okay?
I was just in here, and I was leaving, and he put his... That's my agent.
Darren Lamb, nice to meet you.
You shouldn't say your name. Never tell them your name.
Well, don't...
Well, he knows who...
The great thing is that both Ricky and Stephen laugh.
They know what is funny, they know what they're after,
and when they get it and they see it, they enjoy it afresh.
Who's that?
Oh, hello.
What are you... Sorry, are you all right?
(BOTH SNORT)
It's so funny! So funny!
Having put it on paper months ago and they see it come to life,
they laugh and there's no greater encouragement, really, for performing
than to get a laugh in a small film studio.
So it's been really quite uplifting, really.
So, is this it? Or is there more?
Just a bit of whizz, you know, to blow away the cobwebs.
(LAUGHS) I'm so sorry!
Just a bit of whizz, you know, to blow away the cobwebs.
- Hand it over, Corbett. - All right.
Just a little whizz to blow away the cobwebs, you know.
(GERVAIS SNORTS)
- I laughed at "whizz" 'cause he put an "H" in. - Whizz.
I laughed at whizz. Very funny.
Of all the people we've ever worked with,
I remember, I think, looking forward to Chris Martin most
because it was absurd what we were asking him to do.
What's this for today?
It's for people in the Third World who don't have clean drink...
This screen. Are you gonna project anything on there?
Oh, we don't know yet. I'm not quite sure.
Okay. Because we have an album coming out, Greatest Hits.
Maybe just put a picture of the album cover on it.
- Oh, ah... - Just simple.
I think, probably, if we're gonna project anything, we'll show sort of pictures
of people dying because of a lack of clean water.
Could they be holding the album?
What's funny about playing that part of a big rock star is that,
you know, you actually get to be a big rock star for a bit.
'Cause what people don't realise is that most of the time you're just a loser,
no matter how many tickets you sell.
Not a loser, but, you know, you don't get to behave that badly all the time.
People think of him as being quite po-faced,
if they only know him from, you know, the public image of him.
And, actually, in real life he's a very funny man, very warm, very down-to-earth.
Genuinely nice and sweet and caring.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
- Maybe I can help? - I don't believe it.
-It's only Chris Martin from Coldplay. - Hey.
MARTIN: I'm playing the part of Chris Martin, an international soft rock star.
Why did I play it?
Well, because, well...
Otherwise I would have just stayed at home and masturbated.
It would have been a waste of another day.
Okay, let's get on with this.
I've got to do AIDS and Alzheimer's and landmines this afternoon,
and I want to get back for Deal or No Deal, plus Gwyneth's making drumsticks.
(GERVAIS CACKLING)
That got me!
The filming and the acting process, I think, it'll be plain to see, is difficult for me.
I'm promoting our new album... Fuck!
(GERVAIS LAUGHING)
Bollocks!
It's hard, you know.
Just 'cause you can boil a chicken doesn't mean you can skin a rabbit.
- When's that due out? - It's due out...
- It's due out on the 17th. - Okay.
I'll do it again. Just do it from the, "When's that due out?"
It is coming out. It is coming out.
It was difficult, you know. I'm not an actor.
It's funny, I got offered a part in a film the other day,
but I said no 'cause I can't act.
But then Ricky Gervais called me
and it's difficult to say no when someone's that annoying.
You just want to get him off the phone.
- Chris, can I ask you a question? - Yeah.
Has it got such hits as Hardest Part, Fix You, Yellow, Trouble?
- Yes, it's got all those hits and more. - Oh, great.
Has it got Talk?
- It's got Talk. - No, not Talk! Speed of Sound?
- It has got Speed of Sound. - Fucking hell!
It's the greatest greatest hits of all fucking time.
As Oscar Wilde so wonderfully put it,
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
The fact is I'm, like everybody, an unashamed fan of Extras.
I thought it was a brilliant piece of work, the first series,
and the opportunity to do a second one,
and to get away with not actually being completely humiliated...
Though, I suppose like every guest actor on this series,
you imagine there is a parallel script underneath,
in which one is completely trashed, and you're given the one in which
you sort of get away with reasonably being a human being.
Or that when I exit, there's some other mutterings about me
that I will never want to hear again.
I was also, I have to say, very excited to work with Stephen Fry
because I, particularly when I was younger, was a massive Stephen Fry fan. I remain so.
But I can recite whole sketches.
It was weird, as I was talking to him, I did at one point say, "I have to just say to you,
"'Sir is handsomely right to say so.
"'And if two broad-shouldered, long-fingered gentlemen such as ourselves
"'can come independently to the conclusion
"'that the morning we are currently experiencing is one of a goodness,
'"then one of a goodness it most assuredly is."'
Which is some dialogue from one of his sketches...
And Stephen Fry went, "Fuck off, you nerd."
At least I got it out of my head.
- Which I thought was rude of him. - It was a little bit rude.
I just had to get it out of my mind. It was there.
It was just... It was just in my brain.
And it was like, what was I gonna do with it?