Latest news with #RickyGervais
Scotsman
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Scottish civil servants who object to bus travel show just how out of touch they are
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... If Ricky Gervais is looking for inspiration for a new sitcom, he should cast a beady eye over the goings-on at St Andrew's House, home of Scotland's civil servants. Gervais and Stephen Merchant created The Office, one of the UK's all-time great TV comedies, a mockumentary set in a paper company in Slough. It chronicled the absurdities of office life, from petty bureaucracy to poor leadership. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A peak moment came in the first series, when Gervais, who played David Brent – a crass, attention-seeking office manager – livened up a staff training day with an impromptu dance. His cringeworthy dad dancing is an iconic moment in the history of British comedy. The head of Scotland's civil service, Joe Griffin, is no Ricky Gervais. To be fair, he's not even a David Brent. He is too well paid for that role. But his performance at a Holyrood committee earlier this week was as vacuous as any of Brent's inane utterings. Some of today's civil servants in the Scottish Government appear to be just as farcical as The Office's David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais (Picture: Ian West) | PA Lots of action? Asked repeatedly by Michelle Thomson MSP when the Scottish Government was going to implement the recent Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender, Griffin responded with a jumble of excuses. He accepts the court's ruling and is taking action. What action? A range of actions, it seems, including a short-life working group to take stock of the actions required. He couldn't specify any detail of the actions, as the group are still 'preparing the ground' for future actions. There will be actions, but only when the time is right. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Griffin, who was only recently promoted to Scotland's top government job, tried to pass the blame for his inaction to the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), claiming that he could not act until the equality regulator had concluded its review of the statutory guidance. An excuse that turns out to have less credibility than 'Please sir, the dog ate my homework'. Trans guidance for schools and prisons In an exchange of letters between campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) and EHRC, the latter's head, Baroness Falkner, made it clear on June 20 – four days before Griffin gave his evidence – that the Scottish Government has already been told that there is no need to wait for guidance and should 'be seeking to update their policies and practices in the light of the new understanding of the law…' In other words, the Scottish Government can, and should, take action now to rescind two controversial documents: its transgender guidance for schools and the Scottish Prison Service transgender custody policy, neither of which comply with the Equality Act. Perhaps more worrying for the Permanent Secretary is that, at a meeting on June 5, a senior civil servant told For Women Scotland and others, that the EHRC had advised the Scottish Government it must wait for the final code of practice to be published before taking any action – a claim contested by EHRC. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad No doubt the Permanent Secretary has set up a short-life action group to work out how to respond to For Women Scotland's request that the matter is now fully investigated 'in light of the standards expected under the civil service code'. Working from home But first, he will have to find enough people in St Andrew's House to staff it, and there he might struggle. Most of Scotland's 9,000 civil servants work from home, scattered across spare bedrooms and office pods the length and breadth of Scotland. But under Griffin's leadership that is about to change – or is it? He told the committee that, from October, civil servants will be expected to turn up at the office at least two days a week. Cue shrieks of outrage from civil servants who, from the comfort of their sofa – sorry, home office – logged on to Saltire, the government's internal communications system, to express their horror. They raged about a breach of their civil rights, while making unreasonable demands for doing what they are handsomely paid to do, that is, turn up at work. Some asked that taxpayers subsidise their transport costs, others suggested the re-opening of the swimming pool at Victoria Quay, the government's Leith HQ, as the price for their co-operation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Taking the bus My particular favourite, and the one that sums up the current civil service's attitude to the rest of us, was the uncivil servant who expressed his fear of using public transport. 'At least in the safety of my Fiat Tipo I'm not going to be sitting in someone else's urine,' he said. As someone who, for five years, got a 27 bus to and from St Andrew's House at least five days a week, I can safely say I never once sat on a seat soaked in pee, not even at 6.30am. During my time in government, I also worked with some of the cleverest people in Scotland, some of whom remain friends to this day. Of course, there were time-servers, people whose only job was to book travel for their boss or senior managers in charge of 'special' projects, designed to keep them out of sight. But the culture was overwhelmingly rooted in old-fashioned public service. Today's civil service seems a different beast to what it was in 1999 or even 2009, and it is not just because there are far more of them. Since 2019, staff numbers in the Scottish Government core departments have jumped by 38 per cent. Despite its claim to be collaborative and innovative, kind even, its organisational personality is a caricature of a progressive elite, divorced from the realities of everyday life. Historically high waiting times for cancer patients, the affordable housing crisis and an explosion of violence in schools may be the stuff that concerns you and I, but the focus of Scotland's civil servants seems elsewhere – on themselves.
UPI
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
Famous birthdays for June 25: Ricky Gervais, Linda Cardellini
1 of 3 | Ricky Gervais kneels during an unveiling ceremony honoring him with the 2,813th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on May 30. The actor turns 64 on June 25. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ricky Gervais gives fans another glimpse inside his £14.5M Hampstead mansion after admitting it's not his 'forever home'
Ricky Gervais offered fans another glimpse of his £14.5million mansion in Hampstead on Monday. The British funnyman, worth an estimated £120million, purchased the mansion in March last year and said a major factor behind the move was his desire for a bigger garden. Posting to his Instagram, Ricky showed off his massive garden with perfectly trimmed lawns and flourishing flowerbeds. It also featured a carport for his luxurious car and a huge tennis court which took centre stage. Alongside the snap he penned: 'Played tennis again today. It was pretty warm. Also, the baby foxes have been eating the net. Little b******s.' Last year, Ricky ripped out the existing basketball court to make way for the tennis court, a move which required planning permission from the local council. He also removed an 'outdated' waterwall, octagonal pagoda and retaining walls as part of a Ground Force-style revamp. Speaking on Sunday night during a vlog on X in August, The Office star admitted the property is unlikely to be his 'forever home' as his long-term partner Jane Fallon, 64, raised concerns about the pair living there in their eighties. Ricky said: 'I thought the last house was the one I was going to die in. 'But I didn't die and I wanted a tennis court so we had to move to a bigger house with a bigger garden just so we could get a tennis court and I just thought this is amazing, this is perfect. It's not even finished yet but I love it. 'But the other day, Jane went 'we can't live here when we're 80'. So that's like a ticking clock. She said 'there's all these stairs'. So I'm going to be moving when I'm 80.' He added: 'But I said let's not move let's just move in a load of doctors, nurses and security. 'I could have a team living inside. A driver, someone who I could play table tennis with, so that would be better 'Moving at 80 with all this s*** again. I don't want to think about it. Jane did most of it anyway.' Ricky and author Jane, who have been together for over 40 years, previously lived in a £10.8m home in Hampstead, North London. They also share a riverside property in Marlow, Bucks, and two New York apartments. Their mega mansion boasts nine bedrooms, including a master bedroom with dressing rooms and his and hers en-suite bathrooms. The property also contains a formal drawing room and dining room, a huge kitchen/diner, a bar and wine cellar, plus a gym with 'double height ceiling'. The luxurious mansion contrasts somewhat with the couple's first property they shared together. Speaking in 2017, Ricky explained: 'Our first flat was a one-room in a place called Kings Cross, which was a really rough area. 'I think it was above some sort of seedy sauna... That's all we could afford. Our little bed was in this room. I could open the fridge from the bed.' Ricky has topped up his fortune in recent years by signing a lucrative exclusive deal with streaming giant Netflix, who aired his latest comedy series After Life. His sold-out standup gigs, his latest called Mortality, are also linked with the streamer. And last year, royalties from hit BBC comedy The Office - which he co-wrote and created with Stephen Merchant - was further boosted due to the release of a new US reboot. Greg Daniels, the showrunner of the original US version starring Steve Carrel as Michael Scott - the equivalent of Ricky's David Brent character - is behind the project, which began shooting in July. Speaking to GQ in 2013, Ricky says The Office and its various incarnations have been immensely profitable. He said: 'Yeah, [The Office US has earned me] more than anything else probably I've ever done.
National Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Post
Amy Hamm: The rabbit rescue that refused to be cancelled for alleged transphobia
It's June: the western world's Holy Month of Pride, and, as such, we must all be on our best behaviour so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of gender activists — you know, the ones that occupy the latter half of the expanding LGBTQ2S+ acronym. Article content Unfortunately, the United Kingdom's Carrot Cottage Rabbit Rescue somehow missed this memo. The registered charity drew the ire of Irish comedian and transgender rights activist Aidan Comerford this week, following an online attack by anonymous activists whose work caught Comerford's attention. Comerford, whose X bio notes that he 'generally tweets about what transphobia looks like,' astutely observed that the charity was committing the cardinal sin of following unapproved social media accounts on X. Article content The accounts in question, noticed Comerford on June 14, were gender critical — the horror! — and allegedly included one 'recent detransitioner in the USA.' But wait, it gets even more dire. The charity also named a rabbit after comedian Ricky Gervais — that terrible funny man who offended millions with his profane jokes, including about transwomen — and then had the audacity to interact with X founder Elon Musk. Article content Article content One can surely sympathize with Comerford, whose valuable work defending the LGBT community from, umm, a rabbit charity, has landed him the unfortunate nickname ' Watership Clown.' Article content 'There's a registered British rabbit rescue charity, of all things, that is currently marketing itself based on the criticism it is getting for following and courting the support of the anti-trans movement. You do have to wonder about humanity,' Comerford posted to X on Tuesday, once he realized that his smear campaign against the animal rescue workers had stunningly backfired. Article content Carrot Cottage Rabbit Rescue, whose X bio notes that it exists 'for the sole purpose of saving rabbits,' has more than tripled its social media following after Comerford's attempt to ignite an online furor. Donations are flowing, and even J.K. Rowling, the most famous gender-critical woman in the world, got involved. Article content 'We should all chip in to get one of the rabbits named Magdalen Berns. (Comerford's) head would burst open like a microwaved egg,' Rowling posted to X on Monday. Berns is the late, fondly remembered, British woman- and lesbian-rights advocate who died of brain cancer in 2019. Article content A day later, Carrot Cottage Rabbit Rescue named two delightfully cute bunnies 'Joanne' and 'Kathleen,' sparking rumours about their namesakes' identities (J.K. Rowling and Kathleen Stock, two more prominent 'transphobic' women's rights advocates in the U.K.). Will this charity ever stop doing evil? Article content For its actions, attempts have been made to punish the rescue. On June 13, it announced: 'We have just received official correspondence from the charity commission stating that they have received a number of complaints 'ALLEGING' that we are engaging in transphobia, following transphobic accounts and that we are posting antisemitism posts on the social media platform X. It's time to take legal advice as these allegations are false and intended to damage the charity, ultimately putting bunnies at risk. What a sad world we live in.'
Daily Mail
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
BBC slaps ANOTHER beloved sitcom with woke trigger warnings as five episodes flagged for 'discriminatory language'
The BBC has slapped another beloved sitcom with trigger warnings as five episodes have been flagged for 'discriminatory language'. The Office, the hit mockumentary sitcom created by comedians Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, famously stars Ricky as paper company boss David Brent. Both series of the noughties programme were already labelled with a G symbol on BBC iPlayer, which flags parental guidance for younger viewers. But nearly half of the BBC series' 14 episodes, following life at Wernham Hogg's Slough office, now also carry the additional content notice. In series one, which aired in 2001, the first and last episodes - Downsize and Judgement - bear the alert. Meanwhile, a whopping half of the second series, released in 2002, has been hit with trigger warnings - episodes one, three and five, named Merger, Party and Charity. The Office, now considered one of the best British sitcoms of all time, took home a whole host of awards when it first hit our screens. It won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy in 2004, making it the first ever British comedy to take home a gong at the ceremony. Ricky also received the Golden Globe for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy in the same year. Its success lead to an American spin-off version in 2005, starring Steve Carell in the equivalent of Ricky's role. The US programme ran to an impressive nine series and just over 200 episodes, ending in 2013. The British version of The Office is just the latest of a run of sitcoms and classic TV shows to be hit with trigger warnings. Only Fools and Horses was hit with various disclaimers around 'racial language', words that 'may offend' and 'dated attitudes and behaviours' earlier this year. Only two of seven series of the eighties hit show - which is available to watch on ITV and often reruns on digital channel U&Gold - did not have any episodes at all slapped with the warnings. Meanwhile, a series of episodes of the third series of Doctor Who, which had previously been declared 'missing from the archives', was also hit with a warning back in April. The lost instalments, called The Savages, which star the first ever Time Lord William Hartnell, first aired back in 1966, with an animated remake released on DVD in March. But it was put out with a string of warnings attached from the British Board of Film Classification, saying it contained 'verbal references to discrimination and the discriminatory social structure of an alien society'. Also, ITV put a notice on some episodes of beloved seventies show George And Mildred in March - saying they contain 'classic British humour from a bygone era'. The show, which ran for five series from 1976 until 1979, follows George and Mildred Roper, played by Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy, a constantly-sparring married couple. And the broadcaster was ridiculed for over-protecting its viewers, with Free Speech Union founder Toby Young saying: 'George And Mildred? Really? What's next? 'The Magic Roundabout on the grounds that viewers with hyperactivity disorder may find the character of Zebedee triggering?'
