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Heroes - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
We're not too sure if you will have heard of these two former stars of Comedy Lab, after all, they're only Golden Globe-, Emmy- and BAFTA award-winning English comedians, writers, directors, and actors.
Nope, this Gervais and Merchant pairing haven't really done much since Golden Years, their debut Comedy Lab back in 1999. Of course, we jest, they've done bloody everything!
Co-written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Golden Years starred Gervais as Clive Meadows who is so obsessed with becoming a David Bowie look-alike that he enters himself in a Stars In Their Eyes-esque competition.
Like all good comedy, there was some truth in the premise of the Golden Years.
As anyone who's ever Googled Seona Dancing will have discovered, Gervais used to fair fancy himself as a pretender to the David Bowie throne and then some.
Stephen Merchant's Comedy Lab involvement didn't end in 1999 though, oh no! He leant his hand to Adam Buxton by directing The Last Chancers in 2002, which chartered a wannabe rock star's desperate bid for fame.
Anyways, after Golden Years, Gervais and Merchant went on to work on a couple of comedy shows that apparently did quite well for themselves – The Office and Extras, anyone?
Soon after, the duo (with the help of Karl Pilkington, the hapless third leg) became pod-fathers of the podcast. Gervais then became arguably the most popular comedian in the world and has since made it in Hollywood.
Ricky (at time of press) is currently filming This Side of the Truth, which is Ricky's first movie as writer and director.
