Gervais sets British Comedy Award record

Ricky Gervais’s Extras has landed a record five nominations for this year’s British Comedy Awards.

The show is up for best comedy, new comedy, TV comedy actor (for Gervais), comedy actress and comedy newcomer (both for his co-star Ashley Jensen).

Last year, The Office lost out to Little Britain, and Gervais will again go head-to-head with Matt Lucas and David Walliams in the best actor and best comedy categories.

Gervais's shows have now had a record ten nominations over the years, beating the previous nine held by Steve Coogan.

The awards, hosted by Jonathan Ross, will be screened live on ITV1 on December 14.

The nominees are

TV Comedy

• Extras
• Little Britain
• The Catherine Tate Show

Best New TV Comedy

• The Thick Of It
• Help
• Extras

TV Comedy Actor

• Ricky Gervais
• David Walliams and Matt Lucas
• Chris Langham

Best TV Comedy Actress

• Ashley Jensen
• Catherine Tate
• Tamsin Greig

Best Newcomer

• Ashley Jensen
• Chris Addison
• David Mitchell

Best International Show

• Kath & Kim
• The Simpsons
• Curb Your Enthusiasm

Best Entertainment Programme

• Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
• The X Factor
• Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

Best Comedy Drama

• Christmas Lights
• Not Only But Always
• Shameless

Best Comedy Entertainment Personality

• Ant and Dec

• Jonathan Ross
• Paul O’Grady

Best Comedy Film

• Sideways
• Festival
• The Incredibles

Published: 7 Nov 2005