The Ricky Gervais Show and Heather Rabbatts: Difference between pages

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'''Heather Rabbatts''' [[Member of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] (born [[6 December]] [[1955]]) is a Jamaican-born British lawyer, businesswoman and broadcaster, who rose to prominence as Chief Executive of the [[London Borough of Lambeth]].
:''This article is about the audio programme, for the tv programme see [[Meet Ricky Gervais]]''
{{Infobox Podcast
| title = The Ricky Gervais Show
| image = <!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:RickyGervaisShowSeason2.jpg|{{deletable image-caption|1=Friday, 11 January 2008}}]] -->
| caption =
| host = [[Ricky Gervais]], [[Stephen Merchant]] & [[Karl Pilkington]]
| url = [http://www.rickygervais.com www.rickygervais.com]
| rss =
| atom =
| status = Inactive
| began = 2001 (radio)<br>2005 (podcast)
| ended =
| genre = Comedy
| ratings =
}}
'''''The Ricky Gervais Show''''' is a comedy [[Sound|audio]] show in the [[United Kingdom|UK]] starring [[Ricky Gervais]], [[Stephen Merchant]], and [[Karl Pilkington]]. The show started in November 2001 on [[Xfm]], and aired in weekly periods for months at a time throughout 2002, 2003, 2004, and mid-2005. In November 2005, ''[[Guardian Unlimited]]'' offered the show as a [[podcast]] series of 12 shows.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4479230.stm BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Gervais radio show to be podcast<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Throughout January and February 2006, the podcast was consistently ranked the number one podcast in the world; it appeared in the 2007 [[Guinness World Record]] for the world's most downloaded podcast, having gained an average of 261,670 downloads per episode during its first month. <ref>{{cite news|url=http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1703591,00.html|title=Gervais podcast in the record books|last=Plunkett|first=John |date=February 6 2006|work=MediaGuardian}}</ref> <ref name=autogenerated1>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4737352.stm BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Gervais charges for podcast show<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> According to the [[BBC]], by September of 2006, the podcasts of the series had been downloaded "nearly 8 million" times. <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5370282.stm BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Gervais puts a stop to podcasts<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>


Rabbatts was born in [[Kingston, Jamaica]] in 1955 and moved to England at the age of three. She was educated at the [[London School of Economics]] and became a [[barrister]] in [[1981]]. From 1987, she worked in [[local government]], becoming Deputy Chief Executive of [[London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham|Hammersmith and Fulham]] in 1989. She became [[Chief Executive]] of [[London Borough of Merton|Merton]] before being appointed to the post of Chief Executive of Lambeth in [[1995]]. Under her charge, Lambeth did not entirely shed its image of a poorly-run [[Local Government in the United Kingdom|council]] but was seen as more forward-thinking, dynamic and youthful. There were significant improvements in housing, education and [[council tax]] collection.
== Broadcast history ==
=== Radio shows ===
==== Early shows ====
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant first worked together in radio on the London-based alternative radio station [[Xfm London]]. Their show was broadcast from January to August 1998 from 4-6pm on Sundays, and only featured Gervais and Merchant (pre-''[[The Office (UK)|The Office]]).'' The show's original format was more interactive, with features, guests, phone-ins, and audience interaction through listeners' letters. During one show, Gervais and Merchant attempted to censor the [[Super Furry Animals]]' "[[The Man Don't Give a Fuck]]" live by pulling down the fader and making a noise in place of each of the fifty-plus mentions of the word "fuck" in the song. However, the pressure became too much for Gervais, who messed up and swore in frustration. In August 1998, Gervais and Merchant took voluntary redundancy after the [[GCap Media|Capital Radio Group]] purchased Xfm to resolve financial issues.


Upon leaving Lambeth, in March 2000, Rabbatts became Chief Executive of [[iMPOWER]], a [[public sector]] consultancy, which she founded. She subsequently became co-chair of iMPOWER and moved on to be [[Managing Director]] of [[Channel 4]]’s education programmes and business, [[4Learning]].
There was a brief period, circa 1999-2000, when Gervais and Merchant contributed sketches to the [[BBC Radio 1|Radio 1]] show [[The Breezeblock]]. They mention this in an Xfm show, and say they were both eventually fired from the station for saying that fellow DJ [[Simon Mayo]]'s recent record breaking DJ stint wasn't impressive and went on to claim he should give a rentboy a blowjob outside of [[McDonalds]] (however, Gervais later said "we weren't saying he had done it, we were saying we'd like to see him do it"). This is probably spurious, as Mayo has been the subject of many parodies from his Radio 1 colleagues (most notably [[Chris Morris]]), and took all of them in good humour. Also contributing to their dismissal was the pair becoming more busy with their TV work, forcing them to often hand in, what Gervais described as, "shoddier and shoddier work".


Rabbatts was a [[Governor]] of the [[BBC]] from 1999 to 2001, resigning upon her appointment to Channel 4. She is a Governor at the London School of Economics, an Associate of The [[King's Fund]] on the [[Board of directors]] at the [[British Council]] and was awarded the CBE in the 2000 [[New Year Honours]] list.
==== Return to XFM ====
Gervais and Merchant returned to Xfm in September 2001, after the first series of ''The Office'' had been broadcast. Xfm brought in a producer for them: [[Karl Pilkington]]. The show was originally just billed to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and Karl's presence wasn't acknowledged on posters and other advertisements. Gervais and Merchant would speak to Karl about his thoughts on whatever they were talking about. In 2003 Pilkington was officially added to advertisements for the show as over the years Karl's role on the show became more prominent as Ricky and Steve were finding more amusement with his views and personal life. As the producer, Karl had input with features such as Rockbusters, Cheeky Freak of the Week, and Educating Ricky.


On [[3 May]] [[2006]] Rabbatts was appointed as the new Executive Deputy Chair of [[Millwall F.C.]], and on [[27 October]] [[2006]] she was appointed as Executive Chairwoman of Millwall Holdings plc, taking over from [[Peter de Savary]].
The show was broadcast between 1pm and 3pm on Saturdays, and included music from the selection of Ricky or Stephen, who often brought in a bag of CDs of their own to play, although they were obliged to play certain tracks on a set playlist from the station (in one instance, Ricky apologized on the air for having to play [[Muse (band)|Muse]]'s "[[Feeling Good]]"). There were competitions throughout the show, yet the prizes were often poor in the eyes of Gervais and Merchant. An example of this is giving out [[The Silence of the Lambs (film)|Silence of the Lambs]] on VHS, which Karl had watched earlier in the week, and prompted Stephen to wonder whether Karl had even rewound it.


==Sources==
Karl would be replaced by [[Claire Sturgess]] when he was on holiday or not well (except once when [[Ian Camfield]] filled his shoes). When Karl wasn't present, Ricky and Steve said "we sound like real radio" as they often would have more music-oriented discussion (such as the ''worst album titles ever'', which they gave up after a few minutes as it appears all their listeners were "probably at a protest against the war", meaning the [[February 15, 2003 anti-war protest]]).
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article1919078.ece ''The Independent'': "A Jamaican-born tigress of the business world is daring to make her mark in a Lions' Den of football", 22 October 2006.]


{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabbatts, Heather}}
==== Controversy ====
[[Category:BBC Governors]]
On the 17 November 2001 show, Ricky and Steve (despite Karl's protests) filled the show with sexual innuendos, in which they used the term "[[cock (slang)|cock]]" multiple times. During later shows both Ricky and Steve pointed out multiple times that they got into certain trouble with the radio authority for using the word "cock", the pair often joked how it was acceptable to say "cock" referring to the male bird but not say "cock" referring to a penis. Such as on the 2nd August 2003, when Ricky brought in a tin of "Cock Soup" then he and Steve made obvious sexual innuendos about the soup, while maintaining they were referring to "cock as in the bird".
[[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics]]

[[Category:British television executives]]
On the 21st of June 2003, Karl described a holiday to [[Cornwall]], in which he said it was full of "weird and odd people" and "messed up old people". On a New Years Eve show the trio hosted on [[BBC Radio 2]], they discussed how Karl made the papers in Cornwall for the comments he made.
[[Category:Living people]]

[[Category:1955 births]]
In August 2003, BBC2 aired a documentary about facial disfigurement, ''What Are You Staring At?'', which featured a young woman named Vicky Lucas. The BBC website's [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/ Ouch! section] gave Vicky the right to reply to some of the negative comments she received in the media subsequent to the programme. One of the comments she addressed<sup>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/tvradio/wsa/vicky.shtml]</sup> was made by Karl Pilkington on an XFM show, where he likened her appearance to [[Bo' Selecta!]]. XFM declined to comment, but did announce that it was writing to Lucas.
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]

=== Podcasts ===
{{main|List of The Ricky Gervais Show episodes}}
==== Creation ====
According to [[Emily Bell]], editor-in-chief of [[Guardian Unlimited]], Gervais and Merchant had approached the Guardian with the idea of the show.<ref name=autogenerated2>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4639340.stm BBC NEWS | Technology | Podcasts spread their wings<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Bell believes they switched to a podcast format for greater control over content and access to a larger audience. <ref name=autogenerated2 /> The first 12 episodes were released for free through the Guardian Unlimited website.

==== Season one ====
The first series of Podcasts started on [[5 December]] [[2005]], and a new episode was put out for the next 12 Mondays. The show relies heavily on the wit and bizarre theories of [[Karl Pilkington]]. Karl is now "unemployed", having left his job as [[radio producer]] at Xfm. The podcast focuses more on Karl Pilkington as a primary figure of humour in the show in various ways, including questions directed at Karl that have been emailed in, either by fans of the show or by Ricky or Steve themselves, whereas the XFM show had slightly more input and humour supplied by Ricky and Steve, with Karl's theories and features being a lot less focused on in the Xfm shows.

==== Season two ====
Series two of the podcast started on [[28 February]] [[2006]]. It consisted of 6 episodes with the last one released on [[April 4]], [[2006]]. The series saw the return of Karl's Diary and Rockbusters. A new (though short-lived; it was only presented in the first episode) feature was also introduced in order to replace Karl's "Monkey News", called "Real Monkey News", where Ricky attempts to present facts about chimpanzees which are factual and scientific.

With the start of series two, the formerly free ''Ricky Gervais Show'' shifted to a pay model - and as a result the show is now classified as an "[[audiobook]]".<ref name=autogenerated1 /> It is available through [[audible.com|Audible]] and the [[iTunes Music Store]] with individual episodes going for £0.95 ($1.95 in the USA); Audible also offers the complete season for £3.75 ($6.95 at audible.com). The reason for this addition, according to Ricky on the podcast, is because ''The Guardian'' agreed to pay for the bandwidth for 12 episodes, and any more extra episodes would have to be paid for out of their personal finances (hence the change in company when series 2 started).

==== Season three ====
Series three of the podcasts was released on the [[22 August]] [[2006]]." This season sees the return of Karl's Diary, though all other known features have been abandoned, with the rest of each episode focusing instead on conversation. The season has the same pricing implementation as season two, although the file quality has risen from 32 kbit/s to 56 kbit/s. A new feature that will be recurring is Karl's Poetry.

At the end of the sixth episode, Ricky and Steve agreed to put the show on an indefinite hiatus.

==== Season four: The Podfather ====
Three free podcasts have been announced that coincide with special days. The first was released on [[31 October]] [[2006]], to coincide with [[Halloween]], the next was on [[23 November]], coinciding with [[Thanksgiving]] (prompting Karl to say "I don't know why we're doing this, I don't know anyone who's ever said "are you popping around for Thanksgiving?" - no, when is it? If you're going to celebrate something at least make it something that you know what it is"), and the last was released on [[24 December]] [[2006]] (to coincide with [[Christmas]]).

During an interview at XFM, Ricky did not rule out returning to XFM for a further series, though nothing has been confirmed.

A special podcast was made available as a giveaway to people that went to see Gervais' standup tour Fame. On 12 October 2007 this was made available as a free download to the general public, via the same subscription as the video podcasts. Toward the end of the podcast, Gervais suggested that a fourth series of the podcast would be produced in 2008. On 25 November a special free one hour podcast was released that was previously only available on the audio CD.

This, combined with the bonus episodes given away on the Ricky Gervais Podcast are collectively considered the fourth series.

==== Season five ====
Four more episodes were released on September 15, 2008 through the [[iTunes Music Store]]. This series was released all at once as an [[Audiobook]], almost two hours in length and split into four half-hour episodes.
This series differs because they were recorded at the same time. There are no contests or any interaction from the listeners as the previous series contained.

==== Video podcasts ====
On 24 March 2006, an "irregular run of free [[vodcast|video podcasts]]" was launched through the [[iTunes]] podcast directory. The video podcasts do not follow the format of the earlier, audio shows and the content varies greatly from podcast to podcast. The first video was a conversation between Karl and Ricky, with Ricky enthusing on the idea of Karl becoming a human crab or having massive [[reconstructive surgery]]. The second podcast served as an [[advertisement]] for Ricky and Karl's new book, [[The World of Karl Pilkington]] (a series of excerpts from the previous podcasts and various musings and drawings produced by Karl). The third on the series was an audio clip from a previous edition of Monkeynews, synchronised with a [[Macromedia Flash|flash]] animation. The fourth video podcast features a controversial audio advertisement for [[The Prostate Cancer Charity]] and Ricky talking about his [[Aerial Award]]. The fifth is Ricky and Stephen making Karl watch ''[[Brokeback Mountain]]''. The sixth podcast was another conversation over Karl's book [[The World of Karl Pilkington]]. The seventh podcast was about a story Karl told in series one, episode one, about Karl's bizarre journey in an abandoned asylum and rehabilitation clinic. The eighth video shows Ricky showing the viewer around the various sets during the filming of the second series of ''[[Extras (sitcom)|Extras]],'' followed by Karl giving his opinion on Ricky's latest book, ''[[Flanimals of the Deep]].'' The ninth was Karl talking about Ricky's cat; Ollie. The tenth was Ricky, Steve and Karl telling us about the new series of the show on the way on [[22 August]].

== Recurring features and competitions ==
=== Monkey news ===
''Monkey News'' is a popular feature that has been running since the early XFM days where at first it was titled "Chimpanzee That". Monkey News is all about "[a story] where a monkey has been involved". Normally the monkey is a mysterious protagonist until he is revealed, despite the fact that it is obvious that it is a monkey (or, most commonly, a chimp) throughout the story. The stories usually originate from a tale that Karl has made up or extrapolated out of all recognition from a news headline. Monkey News is an easy way to anger Ricky, who often disrupts the show due to being so wound up with disbelief — and even in one XFM show he left the room out of frustration because he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Stephen Merchant normally defends Karl's right to deliver the story in full vigorously (on one occasion actually cutting off Gervais' microphone for his continuing lambasting Karl), but even he has been driven to verbally abuse Karl during the most obviously fictional or extreme of his stories. Despite the fact that the stories are frequently highly unlikely (or even completely impossible), Pilkington appears to genuinely believe what he is saying. These interruptions and confrontations often turn Monkey News into a sort of collaborative [[shaggy dog story]]. During their podcast Ricky and Steve try to disprove his monkey news by "casually" talking of the story being told and how the central character could not possibly be a monkey due to need of opposable thumbs , high intelligence, etc. In this way Ricky can more subtly attack the stories though Karl pays them no heed. According to Karl on the [[20 February]] [[2006]] podcast, Monkey News will no longer form part of future podcasts. However, it came back for a final reprise at the end of the third podcast series. On one XFM show Ricky and Steve found out Karl had stolen this idea from fellow XFM DJ [[Christian O' Connell]]

This feature's introduction usually consists of Ricky shouting, "Ooh, Chimpanzee That! Monkey News!"

=== Knob news ===
''Knob News'' has a format which is an amalgam of Monkey News and Educating Ricky. It features only in the latest 2005 XFM shows. Early versions had Ricky giving the news, though later it involved Karl giving a series of headlines of a male genital nature, from which Ricky and Steve would choose. A one-off show feature, similarly related, was Fanny Facts — where Karl presented news about or related to vaginas.

'Knob' was used as a non-offensive slang term for penis throughout. The sting for it was Ricky shouting 'Ooh! Nearly had me eye out! Knob News!' in a very similar fashion to Monkey News.

=== Rockbusters ===
''Rockbusters'' was conceived by Pilkington and was played on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's long running XFM radio show in between 2002-2004 and brought back in 2005. It debuted on [[12 October]] [[2002]] as a phone-in, but converted to an e-mail competition the following week. Despite punning in its title, the game has very little in common with [[Blockbusters (game show)|Blockbusters]]. It is played by Karl giving three clues, which he considers "cryptic" but are in reality convoluted [[colloquialism]]s which often depend on the answer being mispronounced. Along with the "clue", Karl includes the initials of the answer. Gervais and Merchant often referred to the clues as 'craptic'.

One such Rockbuster was as follows:

Clue: That [[Jamaica]]n fella don't want nothing. Initials: ND. Artist or band. That [[Jamaican]] fella don't want nothing. What's going on there?

Answer: [[Neil Diamond]] (Nil Demand)

=== Educating Ricky ===
Introduced along with ''Rockbusters'' on [[12 October]] [[2002]] and lasting throughout the autumn, ''Educating Ricky'' was a feature where Karl tried to teach Ricky several facts every week by catching his attention with a made-up headline, usually a pun. At the time, Gervais described ''Educating Ricky'' as being his favorite segment because the puns often left him in hysterics. Some classic stories include a man who was abducted by aliens and they grew him a beard, a man who was beheaded and his body took 32 steps after decapitation and the infamous tale of the hairy Chinese kid.

=== Fan Mail ===
Described mockingly by Merchant as their "biggest fan" although "not afraid to offer some constructive criticism", someone calling himself ''Richard Anderson'' would e-mail the show regularly in the early days of the Xfm show. His first mail was read by Steve in the [[02 November]] [[2002]] episode: ''"Ricky, your show is appalling. Are you actually aware you are on the radio or has someone just secretly stuck a microphone on you?"'' Ricky and Steve from then on referred to him as ''Dickie Anders'', ''Dickers'' and several other nickname variations.

Another listener calling himself ''Paul "The Party Animal" Parker'' would send in various facts and news stories during the early podcasts in late 2005/early 2006. Gervais immediately picked up on his self-proclaimed nickname, and imagined he looked like [[Milhouse Van Houten|Milhouse]] from [[The Simpsons]].

=== Songs of Phrase ===
This competition was introduced when Karl was finding it hard to come up with new Rockbusters clues. A well-known phrase from the show, such as "You never see an old man having a [[Twix]]" was split up into words of different songs. The competition was to guess the songs played. In this instance [[Gerry and the Pacemakers]]' cover of [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s "You'll Never Walk Alone" made up the first two words of the phrase. Problems arose in this case when Karl couldn't find a song with "Twix" in it, and so he substituted the alternative chocolate bar "Mars", using the lyrics to David Bowie's "Life on Mars". Songs of Phrase was a feature present throughout the later series of the XFM shows.

=== White Van Karl ===
At the time [[The Sun (newspaper)|The Sun]] ran a feature called "White Van Man" whereby questions on the stories of that week were put to [[white van man|white van drivers]] across the country, just to gain an insight into their views and opinions. Stephen Merchant posed the same questions to Karl, to find out more about him. The best aspect of this was Karl's bizarre beliefs and theories. Gervais and Merchant also found humour in the very mundane answers the ''White Van Man'' of the week would give (the most famous of these being a comment about [[Sainsbury's]] bringing in square tins: 'That should be interesting for meatballs'). This feature was mainly used as a way to introduce new listeners to the mind of Karl Pilkington and was only used during the earlier days of the XFM shows.

=== Karl's Diary ===
Karl started keeping a record of his thoughts and experiences whilst on holiday in [[Gran Canaria]] with his girlfriend Suzanne. The segment first appeared in episode 8 of the [[Guardian Unlimited]] podcasts ([[23 January]] [[2006]]). Karl compared his literary efforts to those of [[Anne Frank]], claiming that "If she's sat in a, you know, a loft knockin' stuff up, not much goin' on in 'er life at that point, yet she was still writin' it down...I thought well I'm on holiday an' I have got stuff goin' on...start a diary".

Memorable diary moments include: conceptualizing a wristwatch that counts down the remainder of your life, the large number of cross-eyed people at the hotel on Gran Canaria and the cat licking its testicles outside the pub, also in Gran Canaria the bar called "Tattoos" where the landlord never had Tattoos but Karl never saw the landlord's wife, the time Karl refused to wash his hands after eating lemon cake at Ricky's house leading to a major argument, Karl thinking that both him and Ricky Gervais are bored when they go to meeting as "after twenty minutes he (Ricky) was trying to wrestle me", Karl's idea for a television programme ''Look what we can do with Science'' in which parts of a person's body are gradually removed until just the head remains, the post Karl received that was addressed to Mr K. Dilkington, the time Karl was carrying a lamp and bin when moving house and people thought he was in a marathon, the tongue twister "if you can't treat a cheerful tramp, what sort of tramp can you treat?", that certain tribes of cavemen wave their "tackle" about when they've had enough of visitors, and the 'experimental' mirrored wall in Karl's flat that he has stuck wallpaper over.

The diary itself is a large desk diary and is usually read by Stephen Merchant.

Notable is the fact that the jingle, performed live vocally by [[Ricky Gervais]] each podcast, is often remarkably similar to the theme from "Monkey News" (occasionally even beginning, "Ooh, Chimpanzee that!") but instead saying "Oooh he's only gone and written it down the useless cunt!" or some variant thereof.

=== Karl's poetry ===
In the third series of the podcasts, Karl had decided to write a poem based on his daily experiences and learnings, such as:

If [[moth]]s had eyes, would they be happier, <br />
how do they know they're not dead? <br />
Cavemen hunting for food, <br />
but not before they style the hair on their head <br />
What would last longer in [[dinosaur]] times? <br />
A blind man didn't stand a chance, <br />
not with all them rocks about, <br />
I'd rather be a blind moth.

Bubbled wallpaper, what a mess,<br />
Washer/dryer knackered, what a mess,<br />
[[Siamese twins]] separated, one leg less

For God's sake, bellyache,<br />
The doctor said it was me kidney<br />
He said he had to put a tube up me knob<br />
I said you gotta be kidding me<br />
For God's sake, knobache

It would be spiteful<br />
To put a jellyfish in a trifle.

== Other features ==
=== Music-specific features ===
As music was played on the XFM show, Ricky and Steve often came up with ''features'' for choosing songs to play. Some of the frequent ones include:

'''A Song for the Lovers''' was a feature Ricky ran in the days of the XFM show, where he played a favourite song of his which he dedicated it to couples listening.

'''A Song for the Ladies''' was a feature Steve ran, similar to Ricky's feature, however as he is single himself, he would dedicate a favourite song of his to the ladies listening.

'''Hip Hop Hooray''' was another Steve feature originally entitled "That Hip-Hop Track". He would play a track of the [[hip-hop]] genre to Ricky and Karl. In one show, [[Jonathan Ross (television presenter)|Jonathan Ross]] popped in live on the air to give Ricky some tickets to an Awards Ceremony, and claimed that ''Hip Hop Hooray'' was the "worst feature in the history of radio" featuring "instantly forgetable" songs.

'''That Film Sounds Good''' was a feature run by Ricky, where he picked a song from a film and played that (not to be confused with his film review).

=== Notable short-lived features ===
'''The Education of Karl''': Following the revelation of Karl's [[General Certificate of Education|GCSE]] results, a sole E in History, Ricky decides to give Karl a piece of homework, usually a short biography of an important historic figure, which Karl must report on each week. Subjects included [[Rasputin]], [[Che Guevara]], [[Hitler]], [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Aesop's Fables]]. Karl soon became bored and annoyed with his homework since it reminded him of school, and abandoned the feature. This was one of the first recurring features, along with White Van Karl, which principally revolved around Karl relating his opinions on various topics.

'''Song with a Story''': This feature ran in the final shows of XFM. Karl doesn't particularly enjoy a song unless it has a story to go with it, and in this feature he chose one of his favourite songs with a story and would play them on the show. The songs were often accompanied by commentary from Ricky, Steve and Karl. A classic example of this feature is when Karl believed that [[Eric Clapton]]'s ''[[Wonderful Tonight]]'' was about a disabled man in a wheel chair, while having no strong evidence for this belief.
Perhaps the most notable song included in this feature is [[Rod Stewart]]'s ''[[The Killing of Georgie]]'', which Karl claims to be his favourite song.

'''Do We Need 'Em?''': A feature from the middle years of the XFM series, which originally was simply called 'Pilkington' where Karl interviewed a woman who claimed to have had a ghostly experience, prompting him to ask "You're not on crack?". This morphed into Do We Need 'Em?, in which Karl would call an animal expert and argue for the [[extinction]] of a certain animal species, which he felt was useless and "getting in the way". Karl became dismayed by the opposition he faced from the experts, believing there was a conspiracy to keep every animal from extinction, and thus ended the feature. At the beginning and end of the feature, the theme tune to [[Michael Parkinson]]'s chat show was played.

'''Cheap as Chimps''': Karl provides information concerning the economy of raising apes. As with several other of his short-lived features, Karl had come up with the title before the actual concept of the feature, and it was discontinued when Karl, upon viewing a most likely illegal animal poaching website, realised that raising chimps wasn't as cheap as he'd originally hoped. After dropping the feature Karl became convinced that [[Donal MacIntyre]] had stolen "Cheap as Chimps" and put it on Channel Five. This, of course is most likely incorrect.

'''Cheeky Freak of the Week''': For this feature, Karl discussed his favourite freak of the week chosen from the tabloids, internet or the [[Fortean Times]]. Cheeky Freak of the Week was a relatively short-lived feature, which only existed during the earlier days of the XFM shows. Karl ended up having to stop this feature as he was worried about people thinking he was "having a go".

'''Karl's Film Quiz''': This feature involved a clip of a film with Karl's voice pre-recorded over one of the main characters lines. He would often change the storyline to match recent events in his life. At the end, Karl would ask a question, in which the listeners got a prize of the film on VHS.

'''Ricky's ''World Famous'' Film Review''': Ricky's Film review was one of the earliest features included in the show. In it Ricky reviewed a film he recently had seen. Often the reviews contained very little opinion and were often just a summary of what had happened in the film. Ricky seemingly always gave films 9/10. He decided to end this feature because he wanted his average film score to stay as 9/10. The last film Ricky reviewed was [[The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (film)|The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring]], which he hadn't even seen at the time claiming "[[Robbie Coltrane]] is probably in it, because he's in that "[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)|other one]]", Ricky still gave the film a 9/10 even though, he said "its about wizards called Gonads with beards."

== See also ==
*[[Ricky Gervais]]
*[[Stephen Merchant]]
*[[Karl Pilkington]]
*[[List of The Ricky Gervais Show episodes]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://www.pilkipedia.co.uk/ Pilkipedia - Ricky, Steve and Karl wiki and forum]
*[http://www.guardian.co.uk/rickygervais The Ricky Gervais Show on Guardian Unlimited]
*[http://rickygervais.com/ The Official Ricky Gervais Website]
*[http://www.audible.co.uk/ricky purchase seasons 1-3 via audible.co.uk]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricky Gervais Show, The}}
[[Category:Audio podcasts]]
[[Category:The Guardian]]

Revision as of 20:34, 12 October 2008

Heather Rabbatts CBE (born 6 December 1955) is a Jamaican-born British lawyer, businesswoman and broadcaster, who rose to prominence as Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lambeth.

Rabbatts was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1955 and moved to England at the age of three. She was educated at the London School of Economics and became a barrister in 1981. From 1987, she worked in local government, becoming Deputy Chief Executive of Hammersmith and Fulham in 1989. She became Chief Executive of Merton before being appointed to the post of Chief Executive of Lambeth in 1995. Under her charge, Lambeth did not entirely shed its image of a poorly-run council but was seen as more forward-thinking, dynamic and youthful. There were significant improvements in housing, education and council tax collection.

Upon leaving Lambeth, in March 2000, Rabbatts became Chief Executive of iMPOWER, a public sector consultancy, which she founded. She subsequently became co-chair of iMPOWER and moved on to be Managing Director of Channel 4’s education programmes and business, 4Learning.

Rabbatts was a Governor of the BBC from 1999 to 2001, resigning upon her appointment to Channel 4. She is a Governor at the London School of Economics, an Associate of The King's Fund on the Board of directors at the British Council and was awarded the CBE in the 2000 New Year Honours list.

On 3 May 2006 Rabbatts was appointed as the new Executive Deputy Chair of Millwall F.C., and on 27 October 2006 she was appointed as Executive Chairwoman of Millwall Holdings plc, taking over from Peter de Savary.

Sources

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