Gervais denied Radio Times front page throughout UK

Radio Times bosses have denied that Ricky Gervais is only on the cover of this week’s magazine in certain parts of the country for fear of causing offence.

Editors took the unusual move of splitting the print run for the new edition, out today.

In London, the magazine has a picture of Gervais and Warwick Davis on the cover to promote the start of their new sitcom Life Is Short. But readers in the rest of the country will see Julie Walters on the front page, as she is about to star in the legal drama The Jury.

Gervais was recently making headlines for using the word ‘mong’ as in insult on Twitter, to the chagrin of mental health issues. But magazine chiefs deny his controversial views had any bearing on their decision not to have Gervais on the cover nationwide.

When asked if that was the case, a Radio Times spokesman said: ‘Not at all. Julie Walters is loved by our readers, and our TV critic Alison Graham says her new drama The Jury is terrific – and it's on every day next week – so we were spoiled for choice.

‘We often run different covers on Radio Times and this week we had two very strong programmes which we wanted to put on the cover, so our editor used our exclusive pictures of Ricky Gervais for London and went with Julie Walters for the rest of the run.’

Gervais's publicist declined to comment on the matter.

In his interview with the Radio Times, Gervais criticised British culture for stifling the ambition of children and returned to a favourite topic, on the banality of wanting fame.

He said: 'Americans are brought up to believe they can be the president of the United States. British kids are told: "'Don't be stupid. It won't happen for you,

'A recent university survey asked a sample of ten-year-olds what they wanted to be when they grew up. They answered “famous”. Just famous.

‘I’ve never really understood why people would put fame above all else,' he divulged. I guess I always wanted to be eminent. That’s the old word for fame, by the way. Being known for something. Being known for being good at something. Maybe even the best at something.’

Published: 1 Nov 2011