Ricky Gervais has defended his performance at the Diana Memorial concert where he came under attack as he filled in for the delayed appearance of Elton John’s finale.
“It’s gone into myth and legend that the crowd hated it and booed me. But they didn’t.
“Obviously I was kept waiting at the end and had to fill in but these things happen. People were writing afterwards that it was the end of my career, as if those five minutes were the most important thing I’d ever done,” Gervais told heat magazine.
“Unbelievable. It’s coming out on DVD so people can see what really happened – it’s fine. You know, all comedians can have a bad five minutes and it wasn’t like I was actually doing my act.. I was introducing someone and then had to fill when there was a delay.
“I felt I couldn’t just use some of my material because I was in the middle of a tour – I didn’t want people to go ‘Oh, he did that on TV last week’.”
The Extras comic also revealed that he was not aware that his co-writer Stephen Merchant planned to wait in the same way while accepting an award from Elton John at the GQ awards.
“Incredible. I didn’t know he was going to do that and apparently it didn’t go down well either. He was telling me how seriously they all take it. ”
He said, although he did not attend the event, he understood that Elton John didn’t think it was ‘that funny.”
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