Gervais and Merchant return to Xfm Saturday slot... fact

by Staff, Brand Republic 13-May-05, 08:30

LONDON - Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the award-winning 'The Office' comedy duo, are set to return to radio to host their popular Saturday afternoon show on new-music station Xfm.

The pair, who took a break from Xfm last year to write their upcoming sitcom 'Extras' will return on Saturday May 28 alongside their producer-turned-sidekick Karl 'The K Man' Pilkington for six weeks.

The return to Xfm comes ahead of the debut of 'Extras' this autumn, which stars Gervais as a would-be actor condemned to the life of an extra. The new show is set to feature a host of big-name Hollywood actors including Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L Jackson and Patrick Stewart.

During their two-year run on Xfm, the three have tackled some of the biggest topics of the day ranging from "why you never see an old man eating a Twix", "debating the point of Y-Fronts", and the latest monkey news, in which Pilkington trawled the internet in search of news about monkeys doing human tasks and then being ridiculed by Merchant and Gervais.

Fans who missed past shows can catch up with Gervais, Merchant and Karl on the Xfm website, which is picking up record amounts of traffic for past Saturday outings.

Andy Ashton, Xfm's programme controller, said: "Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are great friends of the station and we are incredibly grateful that, as busy as they are, they can still find time to return to Xfm and reunite with the K-Man for another run on Saturday afternoons. The archived shows online are one of the most popular items at the website and I know the audience will be as excited as we are about hearing the show back on Xfm while Adam and Joe are away."

The show, which won a bronze Sony award in 2002, returns at 1pm on Saturday and will temporarily replace comedy duo Adam and Joe who are taking a short break.

Xfm broadcasts on 104.9 FM in London, across the UK on Sky Digital 864, NTL 891, Telewest, HomeChoice and on www.xfm.co.uk. Fans with digital radios can also hear Xfm in most major UK cities.

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