“What Are We, Farmers?”

Suddenly, I feel a strange affinity with Ricky Gervais:

His office is a modest suite of rooms one floor above shop level, bare but for a desk, a chair and a rash of Post-it notes on the wall outlining episodes for his forthcoming show, Life's Too Short. When I walk in, Gervais is staring at his computer in a way that comes across as a little nervous. He lives around the corner and can be out of bed and at work in no time, which is why, though a workaholic, he gets up at 9.30am and schedules his first meetings for 11. "I'm a toddler. I need 10 hours' sleep. I'm the opposite of Margaret Thatcher." He issues his trademark laugh, that incredulous, high-pitched cackle, exposing sharp incisors in a newly lean face. "Yeah – I'm a workaholic between the hours of 11 and 3." Except when he's filming, when he starts at the impossibly early hour of 8am. "Why? What are we, farmers?" And he cracks up again.