When The Guardian began hosting The Ricky Gervais Show back in 2005, no one predicted what a phenomenon the podcast would become. And how could they, the premise – comedy writers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant talk to some guy called Karl Pilkington for 30 minutes – was hardly earth shattering. Yet here we are, after five years and several million downloads, with an HBO animated version being broadcast on both sides of the Atlantic.
But before the animated version, before the spin off books, before Karl’s TV career and before The Guardian podcasts, there was The Ricky Gervais Show on London radio station XFM. Every Saturday Londoners were treated to a show that was, it’s fair to say, an utter shambles. The show exhibited no signs of planning, outright contempt for its listeners and was often downright incomprehensible. And it was glorious.
