List of The Ricky Gervais Show episodes


The following is an episode list for The Ricky Gervais Show, which was at one time credited as the most-downloaded podcast ever, with "nearly 8 million" downloads, according to the BBC. This record was set several years before podcasting had become a mainstream medium, and thus Gervais and his team are often considered trailblazers for the medium. The series stars Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant of The Office and Extras fame, as well as Karl Pilkington. The series began as a free feature on the website of The Guardian, but a cost was added when the series was marketed by Audible for the second and third series.

Podcasts / Audiobooks

Radio 2 Holiday Shows

Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington broadcast two hour-long holiday specials on Radio 2 during the 2005 holiday season, the first airing on Christmas Eve and the second on New Year's Eve.

Fame special

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 to the general public, via the same subscription as the video podcasts.
#DateOverview
Special12 October 2007Karl discusses his boiler and his film pitch, Steve reads extracts from Karl's book 'Happyslapped by a Jellyfish and Other True Stories'. The three also discuss the possibility of bringing the show back for a fourth series in 2008.

Hour Long Bonus Podcast

Originally released as an extra on the audio CD release of series one, it was later made available free through iTunes.
#DateOverview
Special25 November 2007A special free one-hour-long podcast originally available only on audio CD. Ricky and Steve continue to probe Karl with questions from Inside the Actors Studio.

NME Radio Show

Ricky, Steve and Karl recorded a as part of the test transmissions for the new radio station NME Radio. This was recorded on Thursday 5 June in London and premiered on Monday 9 June 2008, 12 pm.

Series 5

Four episodes of season five were released on 15 September 2008 through the iTunes Store.
#DateOverview
50115 September 2008Karl philosophizes about minimalism and relates picking out songs for his iPod to Ricky’s usage of 'dead owls' to fill empty living space. The trio revisits a previously discussed topic of useless inventions. Finally they discuss gay marriage; Karl is asked to make a difficult choice about marrying a gay man.
50215 September 2008Ricky revisits Karl’s slighted and heartbroken hypothetical gay husband. Ricky, Steve, and Karl play Room 102; slugs and breast milk pushers are banished, Karl also bemoans the lost potential of peoples' brains and his restless leg syndrome. Finally Karl is given the opportunity to pick which scientific research is allowed to continue.
50315 September 2008The trio discusses the obesity epidemic and possible remedies. Ricky reminisces about his earlier days as a fit, energetic youth, and his fashion escapades with home-made clothing. Karl discusses exotic fruit consumption by children and the general availability of food.
50415 September 2008Ricky talks about a spider-infested village in Indonesia; Karl discusses his mother’s pet spider with "Tipp-Ex on its back". Steve discusses living under the Nazi regime. Karl is asked to consider whether he would harbour Anne Frank. Finally, Karl muses on learning new vocabulary on a desert island.

''The Ricky Gervais Guide to...''

The latest series starring Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington is called ''The Ricky Gervais Guide to...''

A Day in the Life of Karl

A special one-off podcast where Ricky, Steve and Karl discuss a day in the life of Karl.
#DateOverview
Special28 October 2010A special one-off podcast. Karl describes a day in his life.

Video podcasts

#DateOverview
1Ricky asks Karl to choose between letting Ricky tie his head to his knees and be locked in a cage until he was permanently deformed into that shape, or, to allow Ricky to perform facial surgery to sew up his mouth, nose and eyes and remove his ears.
2Ricky Gervais uses the video podcast to advertise his and Karl's forthcoming book Ricky Gervais presents The World of Karl Pilkington. While Ricky talks to the camera and behaves with charmless superiority, Karl quietly sits beside him, answers questions, and sketches out some drawings for the book.
3This video podcast was an animation of Monkey News from the seventh episode of Podcast Series 1.
4A short acceptance film where Steve presents Ricky with the Aerial award and discusses Ricky's charity contributions.
5Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington settle down on the sofa to watch Brokeback Mountain, but Karl has trouble understanding how gay relationships work.
6Ricky Gervais presents The World of Karl Pilkington, showing the viewers some snippets of what would be going into the book, including visual representations of the famous big headed kids, and the pillow man, one of Karl's favourite freaks.
7Beginning with an audio clip from the very first podcast, where Karl tells Ricky and Steve about a run-down stately home, that doubled-up as a mental institution. In this house Karl discovered 3000 flies and a condom, which Ricky and Steve found hilarious and incredulous. In this video, Karl visits the house and shows the world proof that his story wasn't a lie.
8Direct from the set of the second series of Extras, Ricky and Steve give an update of how filming is going, while back at Ricky's house, Karl is hoovering when he discovers some illustrations for a new Flanimals book, Flanimals of the Deep, providing some of his challenging opinions of animal and flanimal life.
9Karl spends four minutes complaining about how spoilt Ricky's cat Ollie is. The podcast includes clips of when Jonathan Ross gave Ricky the cat on his chat show.
10Ricky, Steve and Karl catch up after their summer apart and spend a little time daydreaming.
11A short trailer advertising Extras series 2.
12A second short trailer advertising Extras series 2.
13The video begins with an audio clip from Podcast Series 1, Episode 6 where Karl talks about how there is too much choice in restaurants now and people are now taking risks with what they eat. Afterwards a clip is shown of Karl cooking breakfast and elaborating on the conversation played previously.
14A short trailer advertising the book, The World of Karl Pilkington.

Specials

Several special video podcasts have been released, most of which to promote Ricky's Fame tour.
#DateOverview
Fame 129 June 2007This is an advert starring Ricky, wearing the same attire as he did for his shorts promoting Live 8, using the same white background.
Fame 229 June 2007Ricky gets Robin some sportswear in preparation for his new training regime, and then laughs at him in it, on the treadmill, and running up a hill.
Fame 311 July 2007Ricky takes Robin to the beach for his birthday, and gets someone to dig him a 'swimming pool' to sit in whilst the tide rises. Ricky constantly reminds Robin how lucky he is to have his own swimming pool and be at the beach, in February.
Fame 413 July 2007Ricky and Steve bring news of the Extras Special, which turns into a talk about how the viewers aren't to be respected. Profanities abound.
Fame 518 July 2007Karl gets bothered by builders whilst working on his book, Ricky kindly offers his house as a refuge. One part of this podcast memorably has Ricky trying to vacuum Karl's face.
Fame 618 July 2007Ricky back to annoying Robin again, finishing with Ricky repeatedly running around the house, singing the Tufty Lovely Song.
Fame 730 July 2007Robin surprises Ricky during his live standup by walking onto the stage and presenting him with a children's book award for Flanimals, and giving him a live feed to the awards show whilst his own audience watches on.
Special6 December 2007A special podcast entitled "The real extras." It shows Karl on the set of Extras.

Television series

The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts and audiobooks have been developed into The Ricky Gervais Show animated television series, produced for and broadcast by American channel HBO. The TV series consists of audio from past podcasts and audiobooks, with animation drawn in a style similar to classic era Hanna-Barbera cartoons, presenting jokes and situations in a literal context.
The animated Ricky Gervais Show has aired three 13-episode series since it premiered in the United States on 19 February 2010. The third series started on 20 April 2012. On 16 June 2012, Ricky Gervais announced he has decided not to do a fourth season. All three series have been released on DVD, and the entire series has been made available in HD from streaming services, including Amazon Prime.