C4 to show Gervais cartoon series (From Hampshire Chronicle)

C4 to show Gervais cartoon series

12:12pm Friday 4th December 2009

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Ricky Gervais's new animated series, which puts his buffoonish sidekick Karl Pilkington centre-stage, was has been snapped up by Channel 4.

The 13-part cartoon series will bring to life his much-loved podcasts featuring Gervais and writing partner Stephen Merchant poking fun at Karl for his odd worldview.

Karl has already published best-selling books which collect his rambling thoughts, including The World Of Karl Pilkington.

The series is to air first on US channel HBO from February and will be screened by Channel 4 in the spring.

Gervais's audio versions of their studio chats - which had their roots in a series he fronted for Xfm - have now been downloaded more than 180 million times.

Karl - often pilloried by his co-presenters for "having a head like an orange" - is described by Gervais as "a global village idiot, but the funniest man alive".

Gervais said: "He thinks that a seal is a cross between a fish and a dog. Karl is a bottomless well of stupidity so, unlike my other shows The Office and Extras, which I stopped prematurely through fear of going stale and running out of ideas, I want this to run and run like The Simpsons.

"The world has a new Homer, but this one is real."

Gervais said C4 was a natural choice for the programmes.

He added: "Who'd have thought three blokes chatting in a room would turn out to be so lucrative?"

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