Humour lover Stephen Merchant

Stephen Merchant doesn’t want to make comedy movies.

The Emmy Award winning writer – whose new film ‘Cemetery Junction’ stars long-time collaborator Ricky Gervais – admits he is keen to make movies that contain humour, rather than outright comedy films.

Discussing his latest movie, he said: “We describe it as a feel-good drama, which is something we’d been moving towards for a while.

“Ricky and I, when we phone each other, say: ‘Did you see that on telly?’, it’s not comedy. It’s TV drama, movie drama. We rarely watch comedy.

“We’re not really interested in 3D other-worlds. We’re interested in things that affect people on the periphery of life.”

Merchant and Gervais co-wrote and co-directed the movie, which tells the tale of three young men setting out on their adult life.

Despite their opinions on the kind of movie they want to make being similar, Merchant reveals he and Gervais are quite different personalities.

He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I prefer to come across as more level-headed – because I probably am. I just like an easy life. “Ricky’s quite happy to provoke opinion, to blur the line between his acting and his stand-up persona. He likes to be a little bit provocative.”

He said: “He takes pleasure from that and he’s good at it, and to him it feels challenging. It feels important. That doesn’t concern me.”

‘Cemetery Junction’ is released in the UK on April 14.