Ricky Gervais took a "punt" when he chose to pursue a career in comedy

Ricky - who has enjoyed huge success with TV shows such as 'The Office', 'Extras', and 'Life's Too Short' - wrote on X: "26 years ago, I was made redundant and given a few grand. I decided that if I was careful, I could live off the money for 6 months trying to become a comedian before I had to get another job. I was 37. Worth a punt. (sic)"

Ricky co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British version of 'The Office'.

The sitcom proved to be a huge success - but Ricky doubts that the show would even be made in 2024.

The comedian told Times Radio: "Now it would suffer because people would take things literally.

"There are these outrage mobs who take things out of context.

"This was a show about everything - it was about difference, it was about sex, race, all the things that people fear to even be discussed or talked about now, in case they say the wrong thing and they are cancelled."

Ricky believes people need to understand the real subject and target of the jokes.

He explained: "The BBC have got more and more careful, people want to keep their jobs, so would worry about some of the subjects and jokes, even though they were clearly ironic and we were laughing at this buffoon being uncomfortable around difference.

"I think if this was put out now, some people have lost their sense of irony and context."